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2021 - I feel like I accomplished pretty much nothing in 2021. However, I ended up writing a good number of stories due to swaps. Someone was running several different swaps - Short Story, Flash, and Micro Fiction. I decided that I love micro fiction. I was also reminded that I procrastinate way too much. I didn't win NaNo this year but I did make some progress in editing my past work. I definitely didn't make much of a dent but I got more comfortable with what I was doing.

2022 - This year I think I am going to concentrate on finishing things. By that, I mean that for every story written, I am going to submit one. "Write One, Sub One" is a Ray Bradbury thing. I'm going to try to write and submit at least twelve short stories this year. I am also either going to finish editing or abandon my Aine series.

I started reading "Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear" by Elizabeth Gilbert. She brings up a point that I like regarding creative ideas. Gilbert theorizes that the Muse will bring you an idea because it needs to get out into the world. If you don't pay enough attention to it, if you don't finish your creation, the Muse may take the idea to someone else. It's kind of the "hey, I had that idea last year but never did anything with it" moments she is talking about. You see a brand new book with a similar theme that you've been thinking about. The Muse got tired of your crap and took the idea off to someone who would get it done.

Gilbert also said that she had left one idea for so long that when she went back to it, it felt hollow. There was nothing there anymore and she didn't feel any spark to work on it. I think I am there with my Aine series. As much as I love the characters, I think I may have to gracefully retire the novels. But we will see. I still love a few ideas regarding it.

Hopefully 2022 will be the last year I have to ponder the future of Aine. She will either leave me or will be fully realized.

I'm also "taking" an online group/class/thingie called "Your Most Creative Year" by Jessie Kwak, the author of "From Chaos to Creativity: Building a Productivity System for Artists and Writers." Kwak had a new book on Kickstarter that I backed, "From Big Idea to Book: Create a Writing Practice You Enjoy."

I think a secondary goal for this year is to actually read and follow through with all these books.

Hi there! Of course, I waited until the last day to post although I had my thoughts in place in December.

2021 Writing Recap:

Well, if missing deadlines is a thing, I excelled at it. Missed the short story contest deadlines for Sisters in Crime Dallas and for Bouchercon 2022. Seems like there was a third one in there, but, oh well.

In September/October, I was super pumped about NaNo in November. I should have started writing when I was jazzed about the project. I ended NaNo with 5,682 words logged, a good half of them were not words for the novel project.

Three optimistically rescheduled in person writer conferences from 2021 were Covid-Delta canceled.

There were positives in 2021: I "went" to the Bloody Scotland Mystery Writers' conference and heard Jo Nesbo, one of my favorite writers; "went" to great author Q&As with Daniel Silva, David Baldacci; participated in a lot of workshops (all Zoom or GoToMeeting or other platforms) from the local and national chapters of Sisters in Crime; and a novel editing workshop "Revolutionary Editing Hacks" led by Jess Lourey.

Other learning included a native plant class via the Houston arborteum and I joined a weight loss support group that meets every Wednesday via Zoom. (Tonight's session was great!)

I got vaccinated and boosted in 2021.

I started co-facilitating a romance writing class.

Thought I'd better post before I accidentally deleted or closed the file.

My word for 2021 (taped to the laptop monitor as a daily reminder) was conquer. Not at all sure what I conquered, if anything. The general idea was conquer piles of stuff, conquer the writing, conquer procrastination. Yeah, well.

I did, however do A LOT of reading via audiobook and A TON of crafting at home (something I had to learn how to do because of Covid). I actually found myself overwhelmed by scrapbooking/crafty events both in person and online.

I had a short story published in a mystery anthology. That was cool.

The Thought on 2022

First of all, no traditional "resolutions," but I do have goals based on two major ideas: I joined Victoria Calvin's Project DONE, a yearlong course on getting creative projects done and giving yourself permission to abandon/reject the things that no longer fit in your life (rather than feeling guilty about not getting to them--Hmm, the Mercy series may fall under this category). And I signed up for Victoria's Rock Your Stash scrapbook crops. The idea being to use crafting supplies already owned rather than buying anything new for the year.

Because I like the name and it fits other things: 2022 is the **Rock Your Stash" year for me: read the books I already own, sort the crafting and art supplies I already own, finally get my craft room set up, etc.

I kicked off the writing year last night (Jan. 4) with a Zoom discussion on "Planning Your Writing Year." One of my biggest takeaways from the speaker was that writers don't build into their schedules the actual time it takes to do things. Examples she gave: if you know it takes four hours to write three pages, don't pretend like you can or will write 10 pages in a day; and build into your plan time for meltdowns, a cold/flu or illness, family obligations, etc.

The one thing I started during NaNo 2021 was writing longhand again. I did all of my early writing that way. Transcribing to the computer was essentially the second draft as I revised and added to what was done longhand. Something about "returning to the roots" is appealing. So, I've appropriated the fat notebook I got for NaNo (and filled one page) for 2022.

I'd like to claim that Covid robbed me of my most productive writing hours because I'm a cafe writer. I definitely wasn't going to any cafes or coffee houses to write in the last two years (can you believe we're coming up on two FULL years lost to the pandemic). In truth though, Texas itself has thrown me off my writing game. Hence, the focus on telling stories via scrapbooking and other paper crafting.

That wraps up my looking back and looking forward thoughts.