Quarter One is Over…

Let’s talk about everything I read and my fiction writing goals and accomplishments for the first quarter of the year.

Quarter one wasn’t the most productive writing quarter (though probably more productive than any since being in school!) I clearly set my goals a little too high for my current energy levels, time availability, and balance with other life priorities. It didn’t help that I ended up ill for most of February!

January was okay by my new standards, but didn’t feel great at the time because I hit only my weekend writing slots (and none of my weekday slots); now my only true fiction writing priority is Saturday mornings for about an hour.

February was a bit rough due to the aforementioned illness: a head cold, book-ended by migraine attacks, followed by a chest infection requiring antibiotics. The fact that I wrote at all was amazing to me!

March was finally my month. I had an attainable goal and routine set out, a single project of focus, and I went and wrote in a cafe on the final Saturday. I say I should write in cafes more often, but then I don’t do it, and when I finally find myself there again I write way more and feel way better about the whole thing, but the cycle continues: I say “This felt great!” and then don’t do it again until I must leave the house on another errand that happens to be near a cafe and I think, “I should bring my laptop and buy myself a treat.”

Final “stats” of the quarter:

This only includes those dedicated fiction writing sessions, not blogs, scripts, or client work.

Words written: 10376

Time spent overall: 627 minutes (10.5 hours)

Time spent…

• Planning: 147 minutes (2.5 hours)

• Writing: 480 minutes (8 hours)

• Editing: 0 minutes

I finished writing one short story it’s working title is the acronym TBEH; I will not be answering any questions at this time!

And since, I’ve been planning and fleshing out one of the prompts I wrote for Inktober. It began as a rom-com and has morphed into something much more serious (because I cannot help myself apparently!) It was also, of course, going to be a short story, but it is becoming a bit too long? We’ll see by the end if it makes more sense to cut or add to keep it a short story or expand to a novel(la). This one I will talk about more if you ask nicely!

Of course, you can check out my reading recap videos over on the ‘tubes, but a little written recap of the quarter overall couldn’t hurt!

I read five novels and two novellas from a collection. The quarter’s overall theme was romance though not every read fell into this category; I need a little novelty in my reading! Though, I can make an argument to say everything included aspects of romance whether because a couple existed in the story or because there was a slight air of romanticization of the writer’s life.

A Writer’s House in Wales by Jan Morris

A memoir from a travel writer about Welshness, her home, her writing, and how all of those things intersect. I loved the conversational tone and it’s made me want to seek out some travel reads that use the same style of really walking through a place and experiencing it as if alongside a friend.

Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence & Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Two classic romances, each with a different vibe. The first was a long, convoluted look at love and marriage and friendship, the differences in women and men, and had some very dramatic characters. The second, a satire, which was a bit more lighthearted. It follows a young girl on her first time out in society, away from her family, and how she navigates the interests of men and her own interests in men. Both of these novels had aspects I quite enjoyed and others I didn’t love so much.

Women in Love’s characters were hard to understand. I found them to be passionate in an unrealistic or perhaps just unrelatable way. I also found there to be a lot of time spent philosophizing, which, don’t get me wrong, I do love to read from time to time. It just wasn’t what I was expecting going in. However, the through line following the fundamental necessity for a good male friend as well as a female partner was something I quite enjoyed.

Northanger Abbey was an “easier” read. There is one part that feels a bit out of place but at the same time is perfectly in line with the story? It feels as though the genre changes just for a moment and jumps inside the genre of the books the characters enjoy. I suppose it speaks to the flightiness of our main character. I feel for her naivete and her lack of agency as a young woman at the time.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

I finally tried romantasy, and of course I went with what I deemed the most well known on BookTok. I have pretty mixed feelings about this book, and I can’t wait to really dive into them in the upcoming review which will be the first in my new series Okay. Fine. I’ll read…. I think I will likely write some sort of long form post on romantasy in general, but I’d like to read a few more novels in the genre before I do that. I think it’s unfair to have an opinion of a whole genre off a single work. However, I’m in luck since a friend of a friend is apparently quite the connoisseur of what the mutual friend calls “fairy porn.”

I did enjoy this novel as far as pure entertainment goes, but I do think the writing was lacking. It came off as very YA despite technically hitting on some very adult scenes (though I wouldn’t really say themes…). Now, do I think this is bad? No. I just don’t know if it’s for me. I actually think it’s probably good! ACOTAR is likely to be a bridging book for younger readers stepping into Adult books and maybe it will give them the push to jump into something deeper. I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with adults reading YA books! There’s a pretty famous one on my Q2 TBR!

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico

The final novel length (though just barely!) work to discuss was my first 5-star read of the year. A short, contemporary fiction which follows a couple who entered the freelancing world “at the right time” and watch as younger people try to follow the same dream while also starting to feel the financial crunch as time goes on. It explores themes of relationships, social status and image, and greatly focuses on social media and online presence and how that affects those things. There are some interesting structural choices made that really put it over the top.

Last pages…

Two of these novels had banger final pages but neither stands on its own without the story in front of it. Perfection and Women in Love both culminate in the perfect last thought. It saved Women in Love for me and was the perfect cherry on top for Perfection.

Christmas Revels by May Jo Putney

Finally, we must discuss the novella collection. I read one in December and decided to continue it through this quarter as my collection/anthology “required” read. Though I haven’t read every novella I am retiring the collection to my shelf and perhaps into the donation box… I think I accidentally read the best story first and it was already a bit of a meh story for me, so reading two more novellas and them not getting better? I don’t need to continue trying.

After the second historical romance (The Christmas Cuckoo) didn’t really do it for me (the timeline felt rushed and unrealistic) I decided to check out the single contemporary romance (Holiday Fling) in the collection. I found this to be too formulaic. I realize romance tends to be pretty formulaic, and I had gone into this collection thinking it would be like reading Hallmark movies (also, famously formulaic) but… I think I don’t like it in my reading as much as I like it in my watching… I simply learned something new about my preferences. That being said, I do think the writing was still a little weak in many parts and the stories felt compressed, perhaps to fit into a novella, so maybe I just need something fantastically written but still Hallmark-y.

Jerrica Black is an editor, writer, and content creator with a variety of passions including but not limited to literature, cooking, crafting, hiking, and gaming. She graduated in May 2025 from Professional Writing at Algonquin, is the author of “Flames to Remember” in Shattered Reflections and creates educational and conversational blog posts and videos about reading, writing, and editing while encouraging (and editing for) aspiring writers and assisting small businesses with copy & content.