A New Year! 2022 Retrospective & Look Forward into 2023

Another year has come and gone, and with it, just like every year, I feel no different. So it's 2023, and I've cracked open a cute, new bullet journal and started trying to organize my life (again).

I'll be totally real, I achieved none of my goals for 2022. It's crushing because I remember how great I felt initially and how much I wanted to accomplish things, but I just didn't. This doesn't mean 2022 was a waste, though. On the contrary, I learned a lot over the year in general: I learned about the world around me. I read 87 books, from fantasy to non-fiction to poetry to horror manga.

Most importantly, I learned about myself. I threw myself into working on my mental health, which caused its own "aha" moment when my doctor told me I'd been misdiagnosed over 8 years ago. But, of course, that's its own blog post down the line, so all I'll say right now is that in the last bit of 2022, I started therapy again and was put on new meds. The effect has been mind-blowing. It's no exaggeration to say that at this moment, I've never been better.

Unfortunately, getting better now doesn't change a year of bad mental health and regrets. So it was that I looked at my 2022 goals and realized that my 2023 goals are very much the same. I'm being more gentle to myself this year. Knowing now what's been going on in my brain has me reevaluating how I interact with creative pursuits. On that note, here are 2023's goals:

1. Publish my first novel, Knowledge & Necromancy

1. Currently have a revamped outline and ~60,000 words finished

2. Finish the 1st draft of book 2, Power & Pyromancy

1. Simple outline done

3. Publish my first short story collection, Tales From Saebetia

1. 3 stories left to write and 10 left to add on to, approximately ~46,000 words so far

4. Write and present my paper for Tales After Tolkien at the Medieval Congress in May

1. Research plan completed

I have some stretch goals and side projects, but these 4 things are my focus this year. And really, it is two things that I'm focusing on. My academic paper for Tales After Tolkien and my fantasy creative writing. Anything else I get done will be a bonus. I hope to post more on this blog, but I'm trying to hold myself to only a few strict deadlines and goals.

So that's it. Not a whole lot more to say. 2022 flew by, and I did my best; my best just wasn't where I wanted or needed it to be.

Thank you for reading and still being here with me.

Let's try for 2023.