Like with everyone else, 2020 didn't go as planned. In all aspects of my life, this year has been a heavy mixture of banes and blessings.
The obvious thing that happened this year was the distribution of life due to COVID-19. Thankfully, my day job allowed me to work remotely, which I found fantastic once I adjusted and built a routine.
Sharing with you and the world my book A Single Girl's Guide to Wedding Survival: A Novel (ASGGWS) was hands down the best part about 2020. Strangely, I didn't work on the book much this year in comparison to years past. The relief and excitement when I pressed publish was indescribable. Holding the physical copy of my story and seeing all the years of cursing and laughing at it and myself to finish it was equally intense.
I spent my summer brainstorming book one for a young adult fantasy series. Then spent the fall writing and replotting the new story and preparing to publish ASGGWS. I had my big November plans of going to the 20Booksto50K conference canceled in October. While I was disappointed, I decided to take part in the NaNoWriMo challenge in November.
Sadly, preparing for my book release and more 2020 plot twists meant that I didn't complete the NaNoWriMo goal of writing 50,000 words in a month. While I didn't get too many words down on the page, I reviewed what I wrote and decided to go back and rework my story plot during November. I also penciled in two one-week writing business trips for 2021. Here's to hoping COVID doesn't destroy those plans too.
I'm grateful to all my author friends who responded to panicky emails and messages as I navigated the self-publish processes. Yet I made it through. I know I have so much more to learn about both the writing and business side of being an author.
Cheers to the end of 2020 and looking forward to 2021.
Melissa Borg
What about you what one good thing came out of 2020 for you?