Brushes off the dust. It's been another year, somehow. One hell of a year, to be completely honest. I didn't meet most of my goals, but given that I spent most of 2023 working two jobs, renovating, and living in a temporary apartment without a proper kitchen, I'll cut myself some slack! Without further ado, then, here's my wrap-up of things I've found worth celebrating in 2023 ✨
This past year, I:
❖ Participated in the 2023 Open Novella Contest with two books. Only one of those (Deepwater Blue) remained a novella... but I finished it!
❖ Started and have mostly finished The Book of Miranda, that second "novella" (definitely a 90k-word novel)
❖ Finished City of Coral and promptly realized my Kels series was not, in fact, going to be four books long, either... started the fourth book and punted the fifth down the road again 😂
❖ WON A WATTY! With Red Rover, my spontaneous chaos book, no less!
❖ Broke most of my writing records to date, all in November:
❖ New monthly record (200k)
❖ New weekly record (62k)
❖ New daily record (20k)
❖ Wrote just shy of 470k over the full year—less than hoped, but still impressive given my life circumstances, I say
❖ Prepped for and successfully sprinted three-quarters of Desert Epic book two (The Palace of Blood) for NaNoWriMo (see new writing records above)
❖ Wrote an additional 185k of planning, worldbuilding, and zero-drafts, especially on Desert Epic
❖ Completed all my requirements for the Wattpad Creators Program
❖ Launched a Patreon and quietly scheduled two years worth of content in preparation for a formal launch
Those were the practical highlights of my writing year, but I also need to thank all my readers, and all the communities I've been a member, mod, and organizer of, for being highlights of their own kind. Whether in person or online, and especially online during lockdowns, you guys have made—and continue to make—my writing life a social, productive, and rewarding one.
Here's to another year!
What will that one contain?
Well, that merits its own chapter in this book, now, doesn't it?
Next chapter: Jan 1, 2024: Coming Up Next
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