Welcome to 2021!
Happy New Year!
I think it’s safe to say 2020 didn’t turn out like anyone anticipated. It certainly threw all my expectations right out the window.
2020 was intended to be My Year. My personal life had finally gotten in order. Huge strides had been made in my overall health. I’d joined a great writers group and a local weekly meet-up community. My writing buddy and I had a weekly lunch date trying different eateries around town and I really seemed to be making progress on my writing routine. I was finally getting my shit together like a Real Adult™.
And then PANDEMIC.
Needless to say, I failed to achieve anything I’d planned. I could have used the quarantine time to make headway on my novel, but my brain decided time was better spent in a frantic anxiety loop imagining all the ways my family would be royally screwed if any one of us required medical care. Or how we’d shelter ourselves if a source of income disappeared. Add on top the rollercoaster of grief as friends and admired celebrities passed in disturbingly high numbers, including a close family friend I went to high school with and met my husband through.
But it hasn’t been all bad. Mixed in with the lows were some pretty decent highs. The online community really pulled together to provide entertainment and solace in the form of video conventions, special presentations, group-video parties, and sharing all the wonderful art they’d created. The forced downtime gave many a chance to really look at their lives and make positive changes, and fueled tech innovation. It’s amazing what we can accomplish when we pull together.
On a personal note, here’s a list of all the positives 2020 brought into my life:
Embraced a more intentional way of living.
Submitted a short story to an anthology.
Finished my in-depth world bible for my AU setting.
Reorganized my entire writing process and office space, making them both much more functional.
Pulled off a pretty decent Beetlejuice Halloween costume.
Moved into a much nicer apartment (which has done wonders for stress relief.)
Attended quite a few supportive and helpful online writer socials and meets.
Bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ to maximize my productivity even more (thoughts on that later).
Short story accepted for publication!!!!!! Squee!!!! (Updates will be coming as the publication date nears.)
Congratulations on surviving 2020, and I hope you have positives to look back on, too. For all the projects you meant to do in 2020 that didn’t quite pan out - give it another go. The things you’re really passionate about might not happen when you want them to, but keep reaching anyway. I know I will. Until next time,
Keep writing!