Annie's July Update - Annie Likes Words

Hello, friends! Today I’m going to share a little bit about my month in terms of what I read, what I wrote, and what I did with my life other than obsessing over literature. Let’s do this.

This month I was a good little reader. I finally caught up to my Goodreads challenge and am feeling pretty stellar about it. I went on a road trip with my church this month, which allowed for some fabulous uninterrupted reading time to knock several of these books out. I read or finished reading:

Rosemarked by Livia Blackburne (review)
Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard (review)
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han (review)
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (review)
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (review)
All Fall Down by Ally Carter
A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach

My reviews for the last few books are on the way, so sit tight and they’ll be up in a few days! If you want to know what books I purchased and received this month, you can check out my July Book Haul here.

In addition to reading like a champ, I also wrote like a champ. Taking that church trip also gave me the opportunity to write off the grid for a week and my brain went wild with ideas. According to my last update, my novel was at 45,000 words as of the first of July–it’s now 55,000 words. Writing 10,000 words in a month is unheard of for me, so I’m pretty damn proud of myself for dedicating the time to my craft and continuing to work on my novel.

Just for some perspective on my word count capabilities, I wrote 25,000 words during my first semester and 10,000 words during my second semester (you can read about my independent study in Novel Writing, which allowed me to write all of these words, here). It took me five months to write 10,000 words, but I managed to write 20,000 between graduation and now. Like I said: unheard of.

In other news, I cut my hair this month! It used to be thick, curly, and almost down to my belly button. Well, the thick and curly thing is still a thing, but I cut it right above my shoulders for a kind of Rapunzel-after-Flynn-cuts-her-hair vibe when I wear it naturally wavy. I’m still getting used to the feeling of the ends of my hair on my neck.

I don’t have any pictures of my hair (sorry!) BUT believe me when I say it looks good. At least I think it looks good.

I’m also planning a giveaway once I reach 500 followers! The giveaway will be held over on my Twitter, so head on over and follow Annie Likes Words on Twitter so you’ll have the inside scoop about how to win some stellar reads and book-related stuff.

That’s it for this short and sweet monthly update! I’ll conclude with some links to my favorite posts from this month:

Annie’s Actual TBR Pile, in which I share the books that are sitting in a pile in my room and have yet to read.
What Annie Read: Me Before You Book Review, in which I review a fabulous book.
Annie Talks Dialogue Tags, in which I discuss why “said” is not dead.

How was your month in reading and writing? What should I read next?

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