This year has felt, in a word... long. The last two months in particular have spanned about half a year for me. I've just recently moved about 300 miles from a place that's been my hometown for more than twenty years. It definitely made for a big change. A lot of them positive! And some... not so much. And that's just been the last couple of months...
But 2021 has come to an end, meaning it's good to take inventory of what's happened and look ahead to what's next! So, without further ado, this past year's goals:
Actually finish the TDoE rewrite so it's ready for betas
I know I did this, but it was so long ago that it doesn't feel like this year. But the second draft definitely had a lot of changes and improvements from the first!
Write the first draft of something new. Current candidates include OFA, THQ, RoA, or maybe RoI. None of which are even on this site because they're so new.
Hard to really consider this completed because I haven't actually finished a first draft of anything this year. But I am about halfway through the first draft of TRoA, so that certainly does count for something.
Get at least three of my works in progress onto the next step they need. Likely including the other two books I read in 2019 and didn't get around to in 2020 (SiO and HA)
I feel I maybe got two solidly into the next stage, but not quite three. Maybe still worth italicizing this one, but I'm not sure. Regardless, any progress is good progress, especially in a tricky year like this one.
Seriously do need to post more consistently here. I've always struggled with this kind of thing. Blogs, journals, social media, consistent communication in general. Something to work on.
Yeah, I definitely still suck at this, that's for sure! This goal will continue.
I feel like a lot of writing this year ended up being more for fun personal projects rather than things that were particularly productive, but that's okay. A lot of it became more inspiring than I would have thought, and they were enjoyable projects I wanted to tackle anyway.
As for the less writing related goals, I did better on them:
Get vaccinated once the rollout reaches me and my (thankfully low) level of risk. Really do miss my friends. Haven't seen a lot of them since the wedding from last year's goal, and one I haven't seen since last January.
Definitely got this taken care of as soon as I could! Both doses in the spring and a recent booster as well. That's made it a lot easier to be comfortable spending time with people I love, which has been fantastic.
Continue the unending goal to organize and declutter. Maybe figure out how to actually sell some things I don't need.
Though I haven't really sold anything, a lot of progress was made on clutter and going through things. Moving can do that. Especially when it's a big move. It can be easier to get rid of some things when you can't justify taking them 300 miles to a new home.
Start and maintain at least one positive habit that doesn't have to do with writing--health, home, social, doesn't matter!
Maybe I can't pin this down to a specific habit, but I do feel like I've gotten a lot better in maintaining my home to a good level of comfortable organization and cleanliness, which is always nice for the struggling mental health.
Learn and practice a new instrument I'm expecting to get in the mail today.
I need to get back to this. It's been a while. It doesn't help that I've been breaking quite a few nails lately which are very helpful in this specific instrument in question, the kalimba.
Practice a mantra from my favorite live action Disney movie remake I just saw for the first time this year: Have courage, and be kind.
I know it's taken an insane amount of courage to tackle everything that has happened this year, so this might have been the clearest one to cross off, and I'll take it.
Now for what comes next. My goals for 2022, which hardly sounds like a real year.
Find a way to streamline my beta system. A lot of my books are in a stage where they need outside eyes and opinions, which can be pretty difficult to come by sometimes.
Finish the first draft of TRoA. And start (hopefully finish?) the first draft of a new project.
Format and proof BH.
Read AOWG and breakdown changes for draft 2.
Come up with a better title for HA
Get SiO to its next draft.
Beta read and edit at least two manuscripts for others in my writer circle.
As for non-writing related goals:
Digitize my family's extensive collection of physical photographs for safekeeping.
Pursue some kind of therapy since everything happening near the end of 2021 has been exhausting on my mental health.
Find a way to do something about what's been particularly rough on the mental health.
Do something I've been meaning to do for years--get a tattoo or a piercing.
My 30th birthday is this year, which is wild. I want to do something significant involving that--be it a few more things I've wanted to try or accomplish or just some kind of celebration. We'll see!
Because of how intense 2021 became as far as big life changes went, I felt like I struggled with writing specific goals. So I want to put a lot of focus into those for 2022. Hopefully by this time a year from now, I'll have a lot of these crossed off.