I'm starting to branch out with sourdough, as I accomplished sourdough pancakes this month. I'm looking forward to tackling bagels next.

My book reading seems to be on track. I'm finishing up the last arc in my reread of the 39 clues series and have started rereading the Maze Runner series.

• 3 books read
• 2 movies and 2 seasons of Supernatural watched
• 2 flashfictionfridayofficial  prompts filled (you can read them on fourohfourrealitynotfound ), 1 fic drafted
  • I spent a total of 8 hours 47 minutes drafting 10,255 words (19 wpm). This is a decrease in amount and time spent written, but a higher wpm than last month.
• 1 craft completed (a tatted band to go around a pill bottle, to be cast as a mold for a glass class I'm taking)
  
  • I spent 12 hours 57 minutes on crochet
  • I spent 1 hour and 4 minutes on tatting
• I made 3 baked goods! (Sourdough pancakes, a box cake mix with white chocolate buttercream, and my favorite chocolate craving cake)

I've decided to do monthly check-ins on my 2024 goals to help me say on track! This will also include a bit more stats about hobby work I've done over the past month

Goal updates

Honestly, I haven't had much time to work towards a lot of goals, because of some extracurricular stuff I'm wrapped up in through the end of February.

I have managed to do a bit of writing for "damn, baby, you've got me good", revive my sourdough starter, and read 6 books towards my goal of 75! Pretty good for a very stressful month.

January Stats

• 6 books read
• 2 movies, 1 musical, and 2 seasons of Supernatural watched
• 3 flashfictionfridayofficial prompts filled (you can read them on fourohfourrealitynotfound), 2 fics drafted, and 1 fic edited
  • I spent a total of 18 hours 1 minute spent drafting 16,298 words (15 wpm)!!!
• 2 crafts completed (my crochet hook holder and a couple crochet dumbo octopi)
  • I spent 6 hours 40 minutes on Tunisian crochet
  • I spent 11 hours 42 minutes on crochet
• I made 3 baked goods! (A self-rising flour cake, a sourdough loaf, and some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins

Admittedly I had a bit more time in the first couple weeks because of school break, but I've survived the first week of classes while still getting a bit of writing done. I've been motivated to try to make more time for myself to write and inspired by a lot of fic ideas.

The downside is that this is creating a lot for me to edit. But that's a problem for this weekend!
 

snowflake_challenge

1. "The Lost Hero," from Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan. I reread the original PJO series last year, but I remember liking the second series a bit better so I'm looking forward to reading it again. It's on my holds list right now and available soon!!
2. "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo. People have been recommending this to me for like five years, so I'm anxious to see what the hype is about. After the disappointment of the Mortal Instruments this past year, I'm hoping that this book lives up to its reputation. This one is also in my holds list, 16 weeks away.
3. "Secret of the Old Clock" by Carolyn Keene. I used to love the Nancy Drew books as a kid and I got inspired to try to read as many in order as I can when I read "The Colorado Kid" this winter (the writing style and mystery just reminded me of the old Nancy Drew books a lot). This one is also in my holds list, but we've reached the holds list length where Libby gives up and says "several months"
4. "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" by Suzanne Collins. I reread the original trilogy while working on some binding projects last year and fell in love with the way Collins wove in the social commentary to a captivating book. I'm a little nervous for this prequel because I hate when people tack on something to a piece that was perfect as is and then fail to capture what made the original good. But some people have said it retains that social commentary and good quality writing from the original three, so I'm taking a leap of faith here.
5. "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull. I LOVE this series and have wanted to reread it for years, but my library doesn't have the audiobooks (if there are any). So I'm waiting until summer when I've got more time on my hands and can read them again.

snowflake_challenge

• Lower your standards. I'm a perfectionist and my inner critic prevented me from writing for literal years. Abandon your standards and just get through the damn draft, with placeholders and notes to yourself when you don't want to forget to change things. You can always fix it when you edit.
• Ignore the piece for a while before editing. Seriously, don't look at the piece for a week after you write it. This gives you a chance to cool off after writing it and lets you get fresh eyes for editing.
• You can also ignore your piece to get through writer's block. You know when you sit down to write and it's agonizing and you just don't want to do it? Don't do it. Take a step away. If you've got problems for where to go next, your subconscious can work on it if you occasionally return to it in your thoughts, and that can help you stumble on a solutions. If you are just burn out, this gives you time to recover. Come back occasionally and only write when you feel like it. Life's too short to force yourself through it.
• Use a designated writing location to get yourself in the right mindset. I use cafes for this mostly. It's the same psychology as studying where you take the test or only sleeping in your bed: your brain will have a better time writing when its like "hey I'm in the writing place!"
• Use music to get in the mood. I think a lot of us already do this, based on the number of fics with songs in the title haha. But seriously, even if the fic isn't based on a song, you can use music to help get in touch with the emotions you want to write. Having a bad day but need to write fluff? A cheesy love song can help you get there. This is also literally why people make character / fandom playlists, I've realized.
• Can't get started? Writing sprint! There's something about a 10 to 15 minute timer that can really jumpstart the brain. I like pomofocus.io for helping to time multiple smaller sprints. If you look up "Writing Sprints" you can find multiple tools to help you do a sprint or guides for doing sprints with a series of write and rest times.
• Need a lower stakes goal? Try Camp Nano. This is great if you're intimidated by Nanowrimo but still want to try the goal thing. I really like their goal tracking chart and the way it projects how much more you need to do per day to make your goal in time. I've halfway recreated it in Sheets for my Supernatural watchthrough (that Sheet deserves its own post), and I'm tempted to make an Excel template for others to use. Thinking about it more, you could also just make your own monthly goal for word count or amount written and track it to motivate yourself.
• Looking for a writing platform that works on your phone AND computer? Try OneNote. Okay OneNote is kind of a piece of shit. I have issues with it showing duplicate notebooks when I try to rename them. But you can get the basic version in the browser for free, it's all backed up automatically, and it's got a good system of Notebook > Section > Page that's great if you like having many files to separate things. Generally, for my longer works, the Notebook is the work, the Sections separates meta stuff (outline and ideas) from the fic and the author's notes, and the Pages are each a chapter (or a chapter's author notes in that Section). If that makes sense. I also use this for writing down my ideas, since it's easy to keep organized while still being quick to open to jot something down. I've got a notebook for ideas divided by type (original work vs fanfic vs poem, etc) with a page for each idea.
• Wanna count your words but using a platform like OneNote that doesn't let you count words? Use WordCounter.net. That's it that's the tip. You past it in the text box, it counts it. The cookies also save what you last pasted which can be useful if you forgot the number and closed the tab
• Read. Seriously, go read other fics, go read actual books! Reading tells you what you like and don't like as techniques and can help you improve your technique
• Look at "literary" writing resources / classes. While I am generally not a fan of literature-only snobs, taking a more formal writing class or reading a more formal writing resource is a great way to improve your craft. "Writing craft techniques" is probably a decent search term for finding this kind of resource. I'm minoring in creative writing and it's helped me with things like trusting my reader instead of over explaining, accepting feedback, balancing "show" and "tell," balancing "scene" and "summary," improving my details to make scenes seem more "real," and getting over the fear of writing. One resource from my classes I can share off the top of my head is "Wonderbook" by Jeff Vandermeer, a good writing resource for worldbuilding.
• Can the critics. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got from my classes was about handling internal critics and perfectionism. It comes from "Shitty First Drafts" by Anne Lamott. Here's the best part (last two paragraphs) quoted for you, a bit about getting rid of the critical voices in your head when you write:

"Close your eyes and get quiet for a minute, until the chatter starts up. Then isolate one of the voices and imagine the person speaking as a mouse. Pick it up by the tail and drop it into a mason jar. Then isolate another voice, pick it up by the tail, drop it in the jar And so on. Drip in any high-maintenance parental units, drop in any contractors, lawyers, colleagues, children, anyone who is whining in your head. Then put the lid on, and watch all those mouse people clawing at the glass, jabbering away, trying to make you feel like shit because you won't do what they want.-- won't give them more money, won't be more successful, won't see them more often. Then imagine that there is a volume-control button on the bottle. Turn it all the way up for a minute, and listen to the stream of angry, neglected, guilt-mongering voices. Then turn it all the way down and watch the frantic mice lunge at the glass, trying to get to you. Leave it down, and get back to your shitty first draft.

A writer friend of mine suggests opening the jar and shooting them all in the head. But I think he's a little angry, and I'm sure nothing like this would ever occur to you."

This is the only version of the full article I can find. As backup links, here's one without the last five paragraphs and here's one that is only the last five paragraphs. No clue why so many versions cut out the last five paragraphs, when those last two are the best damn part.