2021: The Year of Kindness

I can’t believe 2021 is already over. I remember how I was so excited for 2020 to be over last year (two years?), cause, let’s be honest: it sucked. 🤣

But 2021… huh. I didn’t expect it to be done already, if that even makes sense? But at the same time, looking back at this year, so much happened, that it seems like it has lasted a really long time. 🤔

I did an overview post in 2019, and 2020, and decided that I really should just make this annual thing by this point. 😆 So let’s take a look at this past year.

School

First off: I graduated!!

I officially survived high school! (Can I have that on a t-shirt, please? 😆) I ended with good grades, a graduation ceremony on Zoom with technical difficulties, and a cancelled celebration trip. *flashes a thumbs up*

Seriously, though, I am glad. I stuck the way it ended behind me and stepped into the future.

I had plans to go to a certain school and take a certain course after taking a gap year, but those plans have already gotten thrown out the window thanks to covid. There are just so many restrictions on everything, that I feel like I won’t get the right education and experience at a trades school. 😅😂 So, I’ve been looking into some different options instead.

…whiiiiiiiiich is why I’ve taken so long to get this post up. Usually, my year recap comes out the first day of the new year, but I ended up waiting this time. I wanted to take the time to plan things before I worked on editing this post. I was figuring out exactly what I wanted to do moving forward, and part of that ended up coming in the form of a new program. I don’t want to say too much about it, because I haven’t been officially accepted into it or anything, but that’s definitely a post that would happen sometime this year. 😉

Blog

Things certainly got interesting this year, the biggest being how I went all-in with series, which took up a long time. I spent so much time on psycho-analyzing writers and writing in-depth posts on what I found that I got really burnt out from my series, though 😂

In other news, I started a YouTube channel this year. And an Instagram. But I haven’t really posted too much on either; I actually took a break from social media for a couple months, starting in early September, so that’s why I abandoned them so quickly. 🤣 Hopefully I’ll do some things on there this coming year, but my main focus will, as always, stay on the blog. 😉

Series I did this year:

Every Writer is Different | I did a deep dive on the subject this year of the idea that every writer is different: in how they work, in how they think, in their journeys, and in how they will continue to grow in both writing and life. This was a doozy to try and work on, seeing as, you know, every writer is different. 🤣 But, after doing 10 posts, I think I covered all my bases. 😝 (The link is to the last post in the series, since it includes recap links to the rest of the posts at the top.)
Why I’m Not Doing NaNoWriMo this Year \ NaNoWriMo 2021 | This first post isn’t really part of a series, but I did explain in it what I was going to do for NaNoWriMo this year in it, so I’m throwing it in here. 😝 As for the actual series I do every year for NaNoWriMo where I talk about how I’m doing each day, show my word count, and share snippets, I’m linking to the last post, since it has links to the rest at the bottom. 😉

Collaborations I did this year:

I… actually didn’t do any this year? 😅 I meant to. But I guess I never got around to actually DOING it. 😂

Tags/Awards I did this year:

12 Days of Christmas Book Tag: 2021 Edition

Motivational posts I did this year:

Writing posts I did this year:

It doesn’t look like that much, but, trust me: the links to those series hide a lot of posts behind them. 😂

There’s also 2 other posts floating around from this year: one for my blogiversary, and another where I simply state that I’m not posting that week. 🙃

Writing

This year… I actually didn’t do much writing? 😂 I was honestly much more focused on revisions.

I started off the year strong by finishing The Coffee Shop Book on January 3!
And then I took a break from writing to research how to revise. 😂
I tried to start working on brainstorming/planning The Starlight Book, but that didn’t go anywhere – besides frustration, of course.
By the time the end of February hit, I couldn’t help myself anymore, and I began working on The Coffee Shop Book again: I printed it out (which was thickkkkk, let me tell you 😂), read it, and then worked on revising it.
I finished the 2nd Draft this summer, and then left it again. And again tried to work on The Starlight Book. And again failed. 😂
By the end of August, I had uploaded The Coffee Shop Book on a Kobo and was reading it again. (Which I actually filmed a video about!)
I planned out revisions, and about a week before NaNoWriMo officially started, I had begun working on Draft 3.
And I’m still working on that! 😁

It was both nice and weird to be so solely focused on a project? I didn’t do as much writing as I did revising and planning. Which is highly unusual for me. 🤣 Usually I’m all over the place with projects – mainly in the brainstorming and first draft stages.

Personal Life

A lot of stuff happened this year. I know I mentioned that I got covid (on my birthday, which was nice) and I started working (which has made me post a day late a couple times already). But usually what I focus on in this section is my word for the year.

The idea with this is that you can fill in the blank. 2021: The Year of ___.

It can literally be anything you want. Publishing, health, productiveness, the first draft, humility, courage… literally anything you want to focus on.

This past year, mine was The Year of Kindness.

It turned out a to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. Kindness sometimes means forcing yourself to do something you don’t want to, because it’s good for you. Sometimes, it means letting yourself not do something to take care of yourself. In terms of writing, it’s a balancing act.

It’s also something I really want to write more posts on this coming year. 😉

But, for this post, just know that I’ve had to start coming to terms with the fact that I’m not a bottomless well of energy, inspiration, and creativity, even if I want to be. I have to refill all of those things, and also make myself use them at some point if I want to make any progress. It’s a process of trying to find a healthy balance, and I definitely will be telling you what I discover through trial and error (a lot of error) in 2022. 😉

Let’s make 2022 the best year ever – and I don’t mean that flippantly, or in an inspirational-pep-talk way. I mean let’s actually do our best this year in all that we do. If we just try every single moment, then what more can we ask? 😊