Well, here we are. The end of another year of 12 x 12. Many of you will be official winners of the challenge – having written 12 or more drafts. I look forward to celebrating you all on this year’s Winner’s Wall! Give yourselves a round of applause, please.
For those of you who didn’t make it to 12 drafts (myself included) know that just by being here, showing up, month after month after month, and doing the work you CAN do makes you all winners. You are doing more than 99% of the people who say they “want to write a book for kids” someday. Almost all of you will have written more as a result of being here than you would have going it alone, so I thank you for being part of the “greatest writing community on earth.”
Now to the nitty gritty. I only wrote 3 new drafts this year, but I’ve made my peace with the fact that I was heavily focused on revision. In fact, I worked on revisions 10 out of the 12 months this year. That’s a new record for me. So there was a lot of writing going on even if it wasn’t new drafting.
And because tomorrow is a new year, I get to start fresh again in the morning, and that’s exciting!
Registration begins in just a few days for 2019, and I hope to see and write alongside you in the coming year. Much love to the 12 x 12 family!
Now, how about you?
Tell us your progress. Did you complete a draft and/or revision in December? Let us know in the Rafflecopter and in the comments. Our December Featured Author Karla Valenti is giving away one spot in her Master Course on Picture Book Writing.
What a great prize! Thank you, Karla!
Here is what you need to do to check in for a chance to win:
- See the Rafflecopter widget at the end of this post that says “Master Course from Karla Valenti“ at the top.
- Click on the “Comment on Karla’s post” button. Commenting on Karla’s post is mandatory for this giveaway and you can enter the Rafflecopter even if you didn’t write a draft this month. You can comment on the post here. Click ENTER.
- Click on the “Wrote a PB Draft” button. This will ask if you completed a PB draft in December. If you did, click ENTER, if not, move on to the next step.
- Click on the last “Revised a PB Draft” button. This will ask if you revised a PB in December. If you did, click ENTER. If not, move on to the next step.
- That’s it! Rafflecopter will track your points.
You have until midnight Eastern on January 3rd to enter your results. Rafflecopter will draw a winner and it will be announced on the blog on January 4th.
If you completed 12 drafts this year (not necessarily one per month), send your total and your photo to Kelli at kelli@juliehedlund.com for our Winners Wall.
Remember, monthly draft and revision badges are awarded separately from your Rafflecopter entry. After you register for 12 x 12 2019 and are upgraded to your 2019 membership level, you can request your December badges if you didn’t request them before the forum closed.
Happy New Year!
27 Responses
I wrote a draft for December and revised. 2018 was a good year. I found the confidence to submit several times, take a drawing course, and attend several SCBWI workshops. Wishing everyone a happy, inspiring 2019!
I also didn’t write as many drafts this year but did work on revisions every month. I just did my December revision yesterday.
Also, I met with my monthly in-person SCBWI critique group for almost every meeting (I missed one when I had to fly home for a funeral and once when I was sick).
And I stayed in contact with my online critique gorup as often as possible.
I jotted down several new story ideas that I hope to draft in the coming year.
WIth so much going on in my personal life, 2018 wasn’t the best year for my writing but I hung in there the best I could and I vow to do better in 2019.
I did write a new draft in December… then discovered someone had already written a book with the same title. But I think it still has potential with a different title.
I DiD! write a draft this month. And revised it after my critique group friends offered a couple of suggestions!!
December was actually a great writing month for me! My December draft has been revised but definitely will be going to a few critique groups before it goes anywhere. More importantly, I revised my November and October drafts several times and they are pretty shiny!
I focused more on revising and didn’t get the 12 drafts done this year. I got lots of other things done, some writing related, some not. Overall 2018 was good for me. Happy New Year and best wishes for a great 2019.
I’m looking forward to a new year of 12 x 12. I really lost my momentum in writing and revising drafts in the last quarter of 2018. But I plan to make 2019 my best writing year to date!
Looking forward to a great 2018 with submissions on the horizon and Storystorm and
new critique partners. Hope this year I find new challenges and successes along the line.
Good luck to all of the wonderful participants on 12 x 12 and writers out there doing their
best.
December was my least productive month, but the rest of the year was far better than any previous year has been for me.
Looking forward to another great year with 12×12 — love the community of other writers and their commitment to craft and willingness to share their knowledge and wisdom.
Happy to be a part of it all!
Thanks to Susanna Hill’s contest, I did write a new draft for December…and the biggest surprise was that I placed 7th! I’ll definitely be expanding this into a full blown picture book. I was able to squeak out 12 drafts…and 7 of them went from scratch to polished submission ready story that will be in the big HMH compilation book in 2020…so THANK YOU, Julie and 12×12. The foundation you gave me that started in 2012 has stood me in good stead as I’ve moved forward in my writing life.
I have written several drafts of my first book and have started on my second and third. All need revising, tightening, critiquing and more revising. This group is such an inspiration. The tools provided by 12×12 and incredibly valuable. Thank you! Looking forward to good things in 2019.
It’s been an amazing first year in 12×12, with twelve drafts completed, many more revisions, and even more new friends! Happy New Year, all, congratulations for another kidlit year in the books!
2018 was my year of revisions mostly but a couple new ‘stories’ or ‘ideas’ did surface, so I am thankful to having been part of this wonderful community and for all of the amazing webinars, critique ideas, and mostly the supportive writers who are also here.
God Bless,
Happy New Year,
Mary
December was all about revision for me!
12×12 has been such a great motivator for me. I drafted at least 12 stories and through all the 12×12 interviews and inspirations I learned which ones will work and which ones won’t. Thank you, Julie!
I wrote one draft this year and revised two.
2018 was a productive year! I didn’t quite finish a new draft every month but I feel I made progress in my writing life. Thank you, Julie and Kelli. 12 x 12 has been such a wonderful source of inspiration, information and connection within the kidlit community. Looking forward to 12 x 12 in 2019!
I wrote 14 manuscripts this year and revised them. Three are polished and the rest are getting shinier!
Yep I was up to date with everything this month. Even a new story which I adapted for Vivian’s #50 precious words. but not sure if I’ll use that one. Listen to me… actually getting something down that’s new is amazing.
Sorry to be late with this but the past 3 months have been anything but fun… the latter part of October saw me dealing with an emergency surgery and 2 hospital stays, however I did manage to add another rough draft from my list of Storystorm ideas, and also revised another picture book that I wrote for this year’s NaPiBoWriWee.
November saw another hospital stay as I fell and laid on the floor for over 6 hours before someone found me, thank god for Barbara, the Meals on Wheels woman who called 911, even so I did manage to add another rough draft, and also revise another picture book
First of all, thank you for another amazing year, Julie! 12 x 12 is the best!
I am slowly gaining my strength back thanks to PT twice a week and a home-health aid that now comes in a 6:00 AM. I managed to add another rough draft to my list, and also revised another picture book.
Total for October through December … 3 rough drafts and 3 revisions
2019 has been a very busy year. Marriage cause for a change of name. Still working on this matter and seems I will be for a while. New business cards. new book marks, email accounts, blog post, facebook page, to name a few. Still got 14 new MSs down on paper, revised even more MSs and am vowing to send more MSs out weekly in 2019. Looks like 2019 will be a busy and hoping for a fruitful publishing year!
I did not write 12 picture books this year, but I did write a new draft in December. Lots of revisions this year, instead. But I did write a handful of new stories. Cheers!
Well, I didn’t get to write or revise in December due to family health issues, but I did do some critiques for my wonderful CPs, I got a new story submitted (and accepted) to Chicken Soup, and I made it through to 2019 in one piece. I will celebrate that, and cannot WAIT to make this my best PB year EVER!!!!
I didn’t complete a new draft this month, but I did a major revision on a story. I feel satisfied that that story is now just right. It’s finished. Yay. And I sent it to someone.
Two December drafts to round out the year and just squeaking in for 12 for the year!
No revisions in December but lots, and lots of drafts!
I wrote a draft and revised it in December. I also wrote and revised seven drafts throughout the year and revised many older drafts I had in my files which are now in my ready for submission file. I’ve found the webinars to be inspiring and a great motivator. In 2019 I’m going to aim harder for those twelve drafts.