Welcome to Resolutions Recap: February. Let’s see how I’ve continued to fail at keeping my resolutions this year!

Resolution 1: Write a little bit every day
Result: 9/10

As per the *established* tradition, I made a calendar to mark my progress:

According to the records, I wrote 27 days out of 29, which is about 93%.

Now that I am slowly getting into the habit of writing a little bit everyday, I want to go one step further and write something useful everyday. In January, a lot of the stuff I wrote was just for the sake of it, which was okay to get me into the habit of writing anything at all. Now that I’m more used to that, I want to write just a little bit more than a nonsensical sentence if I can. I’m not attempting anything as crazy as one story a day again (*shudder*), but even one sentence that can later develop into something will do.

Resolution 2: Participate in writing competitions/send writing off to be published
Result: 2/10

Oh man. Not much better than last time. I did participate in one competition (didn’t win) and was all set to send something off to another, but I missed the deadline because of something really stupid. That fateful day is marked by a frowny face on my calendar above.

I didn’t send anything to any journals or magazines, so I don’t get many points for this resolution.

Resolution 3: Read writing-related books, articles and guides I’ve got saved
Result: 1/10

Still failing at this one. I need to set aside time for doing this, but I misuse so much of my time that the remainder is usually spent doing the absolute essentials like sleeping, eating and coursework. I am starting to read more things on the spot, though, instead of putting them away for later. So even though I haven’t made a dent in my list, I have read a few useful resources last month. That is why I get a 1.

Resolution 4: A Year in Books/Read more outside my course/BBC’s The Big Read
Result: 4/10

Not as good as last month, but I have read some books, including: Yerma (Federico Lorca), The Threepenny Opera (Bertolt Brecht), most of Nervous Conditions (Tsitsi Dangarembga) and most of The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde).

(Side note: Can someone tell me why ‘threepenny’ is pronounced threpenny?)

I also finally finished The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. It’s not like it’s a super difficult book to get through; I just wasn’t reading as much as I used to. But in the month of February/March I buckled down and put my phone away in favour of the written word.

The Interpreter of Maladies (by Jhumpa Lahiri) is still sitting on my desk, having been renewed about five times from the library… Meanwhile, I’ve started on The Son of Neptune because I had to know what was going on with Percy!

Resolution 5: Keep my Goodreads account up-to-date
Result: 3/10

February started off with an onslaught of deadlines, so I lost track of what I was reading, and when. I’ve added some of the books I read when I was younger, as I’m trying to compile a list of all the books I’ve read, ever. But apart from that I’ve fallen behind on adding my most recent reads. Oops.

Resolution 6: Establish a posting routine/post more about my writing progress
Result: 6/10

Getting a bit better here. Although I didn’t establish a faultless routine, I mostly posted once a week. For writing related stuff, I posted some Friday Fictioneers pieces and wrote about my experience with naming characters.

Resolution 7: Have at least one short story finished per month
Result: 5/10 

Unfortunately I didn’t complete a short story, but at least I started one and made progress in another. So I won’t be too harsh and give myself a 5 for this.

*

And that’s it for Resolutions Recap February. Let me know: are you keeping any resolutions? How are they going (better than mine surely)? Thank you for reading, and until next time!