Somehow when I look back on a year I always manage to downplay all that I’ve done into the clever catchall of ‘not much’. So, in true cliché fashion, I thought I’d take a peek at what I actually did, to give me a little perspective.
I’m a huge fan of the to-done list. To-do’s are great, but sometimes we need to look at all the things we’ve already done when our to-do gets a little overwhelming and we want to beat ourselves up for failing to achieve a self-imposed benchmark.
So, here I go.
In 2018 I:
- wrote two novels. Two. One to a clean and what I could consider final draft, and the other all but fully first-drafted.
I look at that and realise I could probably stop there and feel pretty accomplished, even if my brain is telling me otherwise. I wrote two novels (and had a lot of support in doing so)!
- took two short stories which had been thoroughly rejected and revisited them after a couple of years of giving up. They’ve been largely re-written to the point that they are really not the same stories anymore, and I’ve put them back into circulation, hoping to find a home.
- put a previously published story back out for a reprint.
- have one brand new story in first draft, waiting for revision.
- wrote one pretty outstanding fanfic as a gift.
- have kept up with and maintained this blog.
There are a lot of other things I could put on here (our RP site had some growing pains, and with my moderation team we’ve come out with something better than we started IMO, for example), but you get the point. More importantly: so do I.
In 2019 I hope to:
- put The Hole in the World out for publication.
- revise Blood of the True Believer and get it ready to do the same.
- keep 2-3 short stories in circulation at all times.
- first-draft 1 new short a month (I will be happy if I do half of this, but why not aim high?) to keep three out.
- write more fic, because it’s nice to get back to your roots.
- submit one of my plays somewhere for production.
Oh, and,
- finish my bachelor’s degree.
All of that feels very doable right now. Hopefully this list will help me keep that optimism.
What are your To-Dones of 2018 and your To-Dos of 2019?