I’ve hesitated to write and post this, because 2019 was not a great writing year.
I wrote 51,173 words, which is the lowest for nearly a decade. This may also explain, at least in some part, why I’ve gone from consistent weekly posts here to sporadic barely-coherent updates.
But I’m still alive, and I plan to return with writing updates in 2020. Let’s reflect.
Reflecting on 2019:
i. Read 12 books: 8/12. And 4 of those were read in December. We’ll come back to that.
ii. Complete an edited draft of The Felled Gods: Nope. I did not do anything ‘substantial’ to this manuscript. It is however, part of my goals for 2020 to re-outline it and hopefully get it ready for submission.
iii. Record and edit videos for my Youtube channel: 25% – I began this in December 2018, and I kept it up for a few months: managing about 25 videos overall. I have a video to edit and upload this January, an update on the first video I did with my friend Aiyana.
I did also revisit this for my NaNoWriMo vlogs, which you can see here. Long-term, i’m still not sure what role Youtube will play.
iv. Level-up my Wellness Routines: Hahahaha. Heh. Hmm. Yeah. No. By December, I was meditating daily, focusing on daily movement, and burnt out. As you do.
v. Connection Evolution: Okay. Socialising shifted, but I did, in general, keep up with this at least 80%. There were some months I did better than others, but did get the overall “stay connected” feeling across the year.
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This Year’s TA-DA List – I:
– Celebrated 12 years with O.H.
– Celebrated our 3-year wedding anniversary.
– Went on a holiday with my husband: 3.5 years after our last one!
– Rebranded my life coaching business.
– Learned to be a Blacksmith for a day.
– Joined a Business Mastermind.
– Dealt with fun health ups and downs (Jan, Mar, Aug, Nov)
– Read and reviewed the ARC copy of Everything is Figureoutable.
– Continued to support our local cat cafe.
– Completed NaNoWriMo for the 10th time. And won it. For the 10th time.
– Moved dayjob teams, slightly shifting my role.
– Began chatting to people on podcasts about wellbeing, education, identity crises & self-development. [Link]
– Completed a second interview with Aiyana about how we both approach self-development from very different places.
Publications This Year:
- K. R. Green (Jan 2019) “The Winged Fox.” The Jackal Who Came in From the Cold, Adele Wearing (ed), Fox Spirit Books. p192 – p205. Winner of the 2015 British Fantasy Society Best Independent Press Award.
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Welcoming 2020:
*and exhale*
I find it so interesting that for the Jan 2019 post I said “So I survived 2018.”
And I kind of feel the same for 2019. I did learn a few things about pacing, about my mental and physical capacity, and I ended up signed off by my doctor for a couple weeks.
I wrote a bit about my year of UNFURLING over here, so if you want more details on how I wanted to be a butterfly but instead spent the year as soup… click here.
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Plans for 2020:
So let’s look ahead, shall we?
i. Read 12 books: – Yes, this goal again. BUT. I finished one book in the first week of January, and have carved out specific time to build up a habit of getting back to reading more.
ii. Edit The Felled Gods: By the first week of January, I’ve read through it, and begun to identify edits needed.
iii. Track my wordcount: No aim this year, and I may not do NaNoWriMo; but tracking my wordcount is still super useful.
iv. Wellbeing Comes First: I’ve got a pretty clear action plan on this one, and reading more is part of it. Also, daily meditation.
v. Weekly Connection: Blog article, newsletter, direct outreach & answering questions…. Along with personal skype calls and social events to refill my well each month.
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Publications:
- Dr Orlena’s Wellness Summit – How to Redefine your Negative Thoughts as Helpful
- Medium – Harness your History: Broken Glass
- Live Your Life On Purpose – How To Keep Progressing When Nothing Feels Easy [update on 2018 article]
- Crafty Ass Female – Podcast Ep #102 [Nov 2019]
- Evidence Of – Why Its Okay To Be A Walking Identity Paradox
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So not the most busy year, but one of being a soup and coming out of it the other wide, ready to grow my roots.