November Progress Update — Mia Leigh Renna

Hello, everyone! I have not been as productive as I want to be on this website due to my schedule getting more and more filled with work. However, this is a quick blog post providing updates on my memoir thus far!

1) I am roughly halfway through my first draft.

This sounds very impressive, but I promise you this will be the first draft of many. Most writers I see usually complete there first draft and their second draft consists of only re-wording their first draft and essentially becoming their final draft: mine will not be quite so pretty. I created an outline prior to beginning my writing, and as I continue to write and refine my themes, I have drifted away from that original outline: and by drift I mean Wilson drifting away from Tom Hanks in Castaway, no one is seeing Wilson again. I am doing this, however, for the best. I will not publish a book until it is perfect. But, I am still thinking I can be complete by the end of 2020.

Blurred image so I don’t give away any “spoilers”, or more realistically, any writing that will not look remotely similar in the final draft. Also, a banana is placed here to remind myself to eat something other than leftover Halloween candy.

2) This site is getting a new format.

I am so excited to be teaming up with Ryan Lynn Creative to give my website a much-needed makeover. I know there have been some issues with the formatting and sizes of pictures, as well as, difficulty reading the text on mobile; but we are working on it! We are still in the middle of “renovations” so if something seems wrong, please let us know so we can work on it! Also, please keep tuned into the website so you can keep up with all of the changes being made!

(Also, I can’t recommend Ryan Cook enough. Please reach out to her for any graphic design freelance work you may need because she is fantastic! Email: Ryan@RyanLynnCreative.com)

3) I am deep diving into more sexual assault statistics based on US demographics.

This is the main reason why I have also not been updating this page. All my time that I was previously spending creating new blog post content, is now being dedicated towards this project of mine. There are many different sexual assault studies out there that complete their research based on a specific demographic category, i.e. race, gender, sexuality, income, etc. But there are barely any studies that combine these statistics to crossover between different demographics. Such as, 44% of all sexual assault victims have an annual income below $25,000 and 55% of all sexual assault cases occur in Urban neighborhoods, so how what is the percentage of sexual assault for someone who both has an annual income below $25,000 and live in an Urban neighborhood? What is the percentage of people who has an annual income below $25,000, lives in an Urban neighborhood, and is a POC? The commonly heard statistic of 1 in 5 women experiencing sexual assault in their lifetime is important, but doesn’t say which groups of people that 1 in 5 mainly consists of. Information of which groups are most at risk for sexual assault will help sexual assault prevention assets to be targeted towards those who need it the most. Additionally, prevention tools are not going to be the same for all demographics and locations, so identifying these groups can help diversify tactics.

I will be working on this project for a while, so bear with me for the results in the upcoming future.

4) Chad and Louie are the best writing partners anyone could ask for.

No explanation needed.

Chad and Louie clearly helping me with my memoir. Not pictured: my laptop that had to compete for room on my lap with these giant lap dogs.