Onward and Upward [2022 Recap//2023 Goals]

 

Well, we made it to 2023! After all the chaos and stress of 2020 and all the New Stuff in 2021, it's been nice to have a pretty straightforward, albeit busy, year in 2022. While I did have some awesome new adventures and a few more stressful challenges, there was nothing as big or scary as in some past years, and most of my year was pleasantly predictable (which is something I never thought I'd say, but HERE WE ARE).

Of course, with the start of the new year comes a time to look back at what I've accomplished and how I did on my goals for the past year and to set some new ones for the coming year. So, let's get to it! Before I do that, though, I just want to remind y'all that this year's New Year's Eve short story was posted, y'know, on New Year's Eve. And if you're eagerly watching for my 2022 reading recaps, those will go up next Friday, assuming I get them written in time.

2022 Recap // 2023 Goals

2022 Recap

Year of Onward and Upward

• In case you've forgotten (entirely justified), for the last couple years, I've been combining my usual goal-setting with CGP Grey's "Year of . . ." theme method. My theme for 2022 was "Onward and Upward," which is to say that I wanted to keep doing the things I was doing well and to improve or expand upon those things when I could.
• Overall, I think I've largely succeeded at this theme. I'll get into specifics in particular sections, but I've certainly managed onward, and I think I've also gone upward in some key areas. Not all the areas I intended, but . . . I did my best.
• As far as the themes go, I think I'm going to continue using this method to some degree. Even if I forget the theme by partway through the year, it helps me think about what kind of goals I want to set, and it gets me going in the right direction.

Writing

• My overall goal for the year was to set and actively work towards monthly or multi-monthly writing goals in at least ten of the twelve months of 2022. I can certainly say that I did that, although they were pretty much all "Get this much book done this month" rather than actual wordcount goals. Did I meet all those monthly goals? Ehhhhh . . . not so much. But I met enough of them.
• I did still keep track of wordcounts, though! My combined writing and editing total for the year was 333,144 words, which is about twice as high as it was last year. That's spread over several different projects, including three novels, two short stories, and one D&D campaign.
• It's actually kind of astonishing to compare this year's writing to last year's — I've been so frustrated lately with not being where I want to be with BDPI #4 that I forgot just how much I actually did this year. But the last time I got this much done was 2020 — you know, when I spent most of the year stuck inside, jobless, with nothing to do besides write.
• Regarding specific project goals:
  • I wrote, edited, and published two books. Mask of Scarlet released back in April — I wrote most of this book back in 2021, but finished it in 2022. The third book in a series is always going to be less accessible than the first book or a standalone, but it still was well-received by fans of the series, and at least one person has said it's their favorite BDPI book. Then, Through a Shattered Glass (formerly known as the Super Secret Mystery Project) released in December, just a few weeks ago, with the second-fastest turnaround of any of my books — The Midnight Show was the only book so far that's had less time between start-of-draft and publication. Nonetheless, everything I've seen so far suggests that people are enjoying it quite a lot!
  • I drafted about 60–70% of Bastian Dennel, PI #4, roughly 22 chapters (plus eight or nine that I scrapped). I genuinely hoped it would be done by now, since I started it back in June (JUNE!) and these books usually don't take that long to write. Of course, having to redo the first version of the first eight chapters did set things back a bit.
  • I actually came up with two different ideas for the 2023 Arista Challenge. One of them is actually pretty well planned (via extensive brainstorming conversations with a friend); the other is a bit more nebulous but seems like it would be fun. Neither one is written yet, but . . . that's not a new problem, honestly.
  • My Defenders of Serys D&D campaign is still going strong. The party has been hopping from one world to another and derailing The Lord of the Rings, and it's been an exciting time. We have had a lot more scheduling interruptions than we used to, but on the upside, that makes it easier to keep up with prep.
• Blogging and author socials have stayed fairly consistent. I only took one blogging hiatus all year, and that wasn't even a full hiatus, just a partial one. I didn't really end up prewriting blog posts as much as I intended, but I still managed to get stuff up on time. The fact that I hopped on a bunch of blog tours and street teams definitely helped. I also didn't do as much take-batches-of-pictures-for-IG as I intended, though I definitely did some, and I didn't miss too many weeks.

Reading

• As usual, this'll be covered in my Best of/End-of-Year Book Celebration posts, so I don't want to get into detail here.
• That said, if you want to get an early look at my stats, you can click here.
• The brief summary: I surpassed or did acceptably at my total reading goal and most of my specific book goals, and I failed miserably at one particular specific book goal.
• I also borrowed Kendra E. Ardnek's method of using a Google Form to do detailed tracking of what I read, and that worked pretty well. I'll most likely continue doing that next year, though I'll make some adjustments to the questions on said form.

Life

• My job continues to go well. I'm a few days off from having worked here for two years, which is great. In last year's post, I said that I wasn't sure what an upward might look like for my job goals, but God seemed to have had one in mind, as this year has been full of new types of projects: large-scale banners, signage, and more. I've also learned quite a bit about working with outside companies for things like having signage made, which was interesting. Thankfully, it's all turned out well, and I've enjoyed working with my new supervisor, who took over around February/March.
• I've kept up with my German. Scripture and poetry memorization? Not so much. I ended up upgrading to the paid version of Duolingo, and I think that was a good investment — no ads and being able to do however much or little I want at a time are both very helpful. On the other hand, I kind of dropped off of my Scripture and poetry memorization midway through the year. I think the problem was that I was too focused on only memorizing full chapters or passages, plus I was picking a lot of selections because I felt like I should learn those particular things, not because I wanted to. That probably could've been fixed, but at the time, I didn't want to take the time to rework my entire plan for the rest of the year, so I just . . . dropped it.
• I did not find a consistent exercise method. We did buy a treadmill towards the start of the year, which helped for a while . . . until I ran up against the problem that if I don't have time to watch a show, saying I can walk at the same time does not mean I'm going to suddenly make more time. I also tried learning some line dances off of YouTube videos in preparation for a friend's wedding, but once her wedding was over, my motivation for that went way down.
• I attended Realm Makers for the first time this year! It was kind of stressful at times, but still an amazing experience. I learned so much from the various speakers, and getting to meet my writer friends in person and spend a weekend around my people? So good. I also got to meet up with one of those friends at a local Ren Faire, which was super fun, and earlier in the year, my sister and I attended a Viking Fest (which is rather like a very specific small Ren Faire).
• I had a bit of a scare just after the conference when my car abruptly stopped working properly. Thankfully, I was able to find a good mechanic to take a look at it, and it turned out to just be an issue with a spark plugs. It was still a very stressful few days, though. On the upside, now I know what to do if and when I have car trouble again!
• I upgraded my computer setup! I've been thinking of switching my primary device from a laptop to a desktop with a secondary external monitor for a while, especially since my laptop had essentially been functioning as a desktop for quite a while. This year, I finally took the leap and ordered a desktop computer tower and accessories, and let me tell you, that was a stellar decision. Not only am I not stressed about storage space for the first time since 2019, I can actually use my laptop as a laptop again! It's glorious.
• Last year, I said that I wanted to do some combination of expanding existing skills, revisiting old skills, or trying to learn a new skill in three different areas. I definitely expanded my baking skills in 2022 into baking cakes as well as bread. Not all of the cakes turned out perfectly, but most of them were quite tasty, especially the coconut cake I made at Easter. I also learned embroidery over the summer for a cosplay, which I hope to keep doing in 2023 in between knitting and crochet projects. And finally, I maintained a small potted herb garden this year, which I think counts even though I didn't put a ton of effort into it.

So, there we have my Year of Onward and Upward. Overall, I'd say it was pretty much a success. I'm hopeful for more of the same in 2023, which brings me to my 2023 theme and goals. Even though I may not remember all of what I write down here in a few months, I still find it beneficial to lay it all out. It helps me get things straight in my mind, and it also gives me a little bit of motivation and momentum. I am a great believer in momentum!

2023 Goals

Year of  . . .

• I spent way too much time debating if I could just reuse last year's theme because, to be honest, it fit very well with what I was thinking this year's goals would look like. And then I decided (after getting a second opinion) that it is, in fact, my life, and if I decide to extend my theme for another year because it set me in a direction that I want to maintain, I can do that.
• That said, I don't want to use the same wording, and there is a more accurate way to say what I want to do, so my 2023 theme (in keeping with my 2022 foray into plant-keeping) is water and grow. Watering refers to maintaining what I've achieved so far, and that maintenance allows my skills and me to grow in various ways.

Writing Goals

• My writing has been going pretty well the last few years, and most of my goals in this area are more about maintaining than growing, except in the sense of increasing the number of things I've written and published. While I want to continue to improve in my craft, I don't have concrete areas that I plan to work on, and I know that I'll continue to learn if I keep on with my current course.
• To that point, as in the last couple years, I want to be actively and regularly working towards specific writing goals in at least ten of the twelve months of 2023. I'm phrasing this a little differently than I have in the past because most of my goals for the last year or two haven't been based on wordcount or on days written in a week (except for when I do the 100-4-100 challenge). They're based on "I need to get [book] drafted/edited/formatted by X date." Ideally, I'll be actively working on writing every month, but this past year, I did end up taking a bit of a break from in April, and I want to leave space for rest when I need it.
• So, what are the specific project goals I hope to accomplish this year?
  • I need to finish, edit, and publish BDPI#4. As already mentioned, I'm currently on Chapter 22, and I think I'm probably close to 70% done, so I should be able to have a draft done by the end of February — maybe the end of January, but I have other projects coming up this month as well.
  • I need to write and submit my project for the Stolen Songs Arista Challenge. My original plan for this Arista Challenge is getting delayed because it's in the BDPI series and there's no way I can get all the preceding books finished in time. That said, I've come up with another idea that will hopefully be shorter and faster to write, assuming it works out. It'll be another standalone, though I may try to fit in an established storyworld if I can.
  • I want to write something for the Magical Dogs Fellowship of Fantasy anthology. I have an idea that I was originally going to use for a different writing challenge and hope to repurpose for this instead. It's a little unconventional, so I'm not sure if it'll get in or not, but I also think it'll be fun.
  • I need to decide what I'm doing for the 2024 Arista Challenge (if I'm doing something). Kendra just announced that the next fairy tale after Little Mermaid will be The Goose Girl. While I do have a version of this fairy tale planned for the Bastian Dennel series, again, I'm not sure how well timing will work. There's a chance it will be fine, but no guarantees. I do have an alternative idea that I could do, though — another combination fairy tale — and so I may decide to do that. It'll depend how much time other projects take. Speaking of which . . .
  • I want to draft BDPI #5. This will probably be very short, unless it proves to have much more to it than I expect, so I have high hopes of being able to actually get it done in 2023. Ideally, I'll also manage to edit it so I can publish it in early 2024, but we'll see what happens.
  • I need to keep up with writing my Defenders of Serys D&D campaign. As with last year, this is an essential project simply because D&D nights are an opportunity to hang out with some of my closest friends and I don't want to lose that. I suspect that we'll be in Middle Earth for a large swath of the year, so that'll help keep this from becoming overwhelming when combined with my other projects.
• Finally, as with last year, I want to keep up with my blogging and author socials, posting once a week on blogs and one or two times a week on socials three weeks out of every month. Giving myself leeway to miss a week here and there is pretty helpful for keeping my stress level down and making sure I don't run out of ideas, so I'm going to continue doing that. But I do want to stay as consistent as possible.

Reading Goals

• My reading goal for this year is 101 books. That's only two books more than last year, so I'm confident that I'll have no trouble reaching it — it's just a number I like slightly better, and I didn't want to use the same number as last year.
• I'm sticking with my goal for reading older books, aiming for 12 books published (or written) before 1975, but I'm also adding the restriction that only three of these books can be children's books. A lot of the older books I read tend to be rereads of childrens' classics, which is fine, but also feels a bit like cheating. I'm also going to say right now — I'm currently reading Moby Dick via email subscription. I will not finish it this year. It still counts as a classic book that I have read this year because it is storming long.
• As for genre goals, I'm sticking with last year's goal of reading 15 non-speculative fiction books in 2023. This feels like a good number: high enough to ensure some variety, but not so high as to mess with my ability to enjoy mood reads and keep up with books I need to read for street teams and tours.
• Another goal I added this year, which will overlap with the non-spec-fic goal: a few days ago, I asked people on social media (specifically Facebook and Instagram) to recommend me some books to read in 2023. My goal is to read at least 90% of these recommended books this year. I'm leaving the number at 90% because someone suggested a duology, and if I don't enjoy the first book, I don't want to force myself to read the second as well. For those curious, I've collected all the recommendations into a Goodreads list, which you can check out here.
• I want to keep tracking my reads in detail and improve how I track them. The Google form method worked well last year, but I do want to change some questions — remove some that aren't terribly helpful (like the start/finish dates, which aren't even accurate for all the books), add some that will allow me to check goal progress more easily, and adjust the format of some so the results are easier to read. I also want to track rereads versus new-to-me reads because I feel like that statistic will be interesting. But despite my initial misgivings, tracking my reading beyond just what I can do in Goodreads has been helpful, and I want to keep it up!
• On a related note — this doesn't precisely fit in this category, but I'm not sure where else to put it: I want to more carefully track what I watch as well. I haven't precisely decided what information I'm going to record or how I'm going to record it, but I think it would be useful. I'll probably end up using a Google form like I do for reading, since neither of the websites I thought might work are really ideal, but we'll see.

Life Goals

• Job-wise, I want to maintain what I'm doing well. That should go without saying, but sometimes it's useful to write out even the obvious. I actually have a growing goal for career stuff too . . . but I'm not listing it because sometimes I like keeping things secret until after I'm in the middle of them. I'm weird. Suffice it to say that I'm planning to try something that I've been thinking about and people have been encouraging me to pursue for a while, and we'll see how it goes.
• As with last year, I want to keep practicing German. I'm not adding a second language; one is plenty. But I've been doing very well this past year, and I don't want to slack off in 2023.
• I'm also taking another shot at one of my failed goals from last year: I want to figure out a method for exercising regularly that I'll enjoy enough to stick with. Low as this bar is, I have a lot of trouble clearing it. I know part of my issue is just that the problems that come from not exercising appear a lot more subtly and seem a lot less immediately pressing than the problems that are solved by not excising (those mostly being "I am tired, and exercise takes time that I could be using to write"). And the problems that are somewhat more pressing are ones that will take a longer time to solve and, to be frank, tend to send me into spirals of fatalistic grumpiness, so I try not to dwell on them. I have a couple of ideas of how I could possibly mitigate some of the obstacles that keep me from getting in more movement,
• This is less a goal and more a hope or a dream, but I really want to go back to Realm Makers. It will be a little more difficult this year, since it's back out in St. Louis, which means plane tickets and extra expenses. But last year was such a good experience, and I want to have it again. But if it doesn't work out, I'd still like to figure out a way to go see other friends at some point.
• This is a really short list of life goals, but my unspoken thing is a big one, and I also have a lot going on in the writing area, so I'm going to leave this as-is. It's enough to give me a good start to the year, and that's what matters.

What were your 2022 highlights? What goals, themes, or resolutions do you have for 2023? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!