Category: Personal

Personal

New School Quarter!

Tiffany Renee Harmon

This week, I am starting a new quarter of my MFA program at Lindenwood University. I’ve really enjoyed my experience at the school so far, and I’m excited to start another quarter. It’s hard to believe that after this quarter, I’ll be half finished with the program!

I definitely feel like I’ve already grown a lot as a writer, and I’ve had so many great ideas for large products emerge from my work in the MFA courses. Sometimes, I worry that I have too many ideas! I just need to sit down and write something. I have been writing every day and things are coming along slowly but surely. I have fully outlined four large projects and I’ve started writing two of them. My biggest pitfall when writing is that I want to stop and edit each sentence after I’ve written it, and that leads to me getting frustrated and going nowhere. I want to just write the full drafts this time and the edit afterwards, but what if I spend months writing crap?

I wonder if accomplished writers have these same anxieties and hurdles to overcome or if they just create formulas and patterns that work for them. I hope I find out someday.

Personal

New Year, New Opportunities!

Tiffany Renee Harmon

It is 2017! I think that this past year felt like it went by so much faster than previous years. It seemed like 2016 was the year of reflection for me. I spent so much time thinking about what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be. I want 2017 to be a year of action instead!

I’m hoping that 2017 can be my most productive year yet. I have a few goals that I want to share with you (so I can feel somewhat accountable):

  1. I am going to write every single day! To be a successful writer, there are no shortcuts. It takes persistence and practice.
  2. I am going to continue blogging 6 times a week (3 times here and 3 times on my lifestyle blog Cincy Couture).
  3. I am going to complete a novel manuscript and have it ready for an agent or a publisher by the end of the year. I feel like I spend so much time planning and outlining future projects – but this year, I want to actually complete something.
  4. I am going to read at least 200 books. I want to make sure that I’m reviewing and sharing great works with you, and to do that, I need to continue reading a lot. I’m going to try to also read a better variety of things in 2017, since I feel like I read predominantly cozy mysteries in 2016.

I know that these are pretty big goals, but I also think they are attainable with enough hard work. I’ll try to check in throughout the year to mark any progress I’m making on these goals.

So, what about you? What are your goals for 2017? Feel free to leave them in the comments section, even if they’re not related to reading or writing.

And to anyone who’s reading this, I hope you have a really wonderful 2017!