Looking Back on 2020: This Year in Writing

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Looking Back on 2020: This Year in Writing

At times it's wonderful to remind yourself to look back on the year and take note of what you've done and what you've accomplished. This is especially crucial when you start to think that you haven't been productive enough, or that you've let yourself go. 

It happens to everyone; we all think we're out of the game for longer than we actually are. Reminding yourself of everything you've done - not just in your trade of choice, but in all aspects of your life - is a vital part of keeping yourself motivated and making sure you don't distort the amount of effort and the number of accomplishments you've truly been able to put in and achieve. 

 

As is the tradition, the end of the year marks a time of self-reflection and critical thinking. For some, the end of each month serves the same purpose. While I personally celebrate the Islamic new year & holidays, the end of the Gregorian calendar year is important, as most of the world runs on that calendar.

Today, I want to go through that I've gotten done this past year. 2020 has been hard for everyone, and between coronavirus concerns and losing my job, it hit me pretty hard, too. But, I've decided to take a moment to go through my archives and blogs and find out just how productive I was with my writing projects. 

I went ahead and created a list of everything, highlighting the items I think were the biggest milestones - and I really do mean everything to do with my author career: writing, graphics, videos, podcast episodes, website setup, etc. In other words, the following list does not include everything I accomplished in my full-time job or in my personal life.

So, what have I accomplished in 2020, writing-wise?

(Most of these items were first shared on my social media,and I've shared a few on my blog since then. Anything not linked on the list will be shared on this blog soon!)

 

JANUARY

🦗🦗🦗


FEBRUARY

  • Feb 13 - "Locational" poster of the SPLITE worldbuilding series for writers.
  • Feb 21 - Set of Apartment bookmarks for readers.
  • Feb 23 - This snippet, featuring an unreliable narrator, online.
  • Feb 27 - Excerpt from The Qarran Tales called "The Star-Pickers".

 

MARCH

  • March - Some poetry and snippets.
  • Mar 3 - WIP introduction for my sci-fi project, Neon Vape: A Vaporwave Odyssey, with graphics.
  • Mar 5 - OC intro for Ramona Marx from Neon Vape: A Vaporwave Odyssey, with graphics.
  • Mar 6 - "Game Start?" animation & About the Game post for Neon Vape.
  • Mar 7 - OC intro for Angela from Apartment.
  • Mar 9 - Excerpt from The Qarran Tales called "Through the  Forest".
  • Mar 13 - First shared a faux animated advertisement for Neon Vape.
  • Mar 17 - First shared an excerpt from Apartment called "A Storm Is Coming".
  • Mar 28 - Launched my author website on Google Sites.
  • Mar 30 - Completed the final manuscript for Apartment. 🎊

 

APRIL

 

MAY

  • May - Launched my author Twitter account. 🎊
  • May 17 - Second draft of Brittle Teeth.
  • May 18 - Blog post on Romance and Romantic Relationships in fiction.
  • May 23 - Blog post on Podcasting Your Story. 
  • May 24 - Setting Intro for Dragonine City, a setting from Neon Vape: A Vaporwave Odyssey.
  • May 29 - Designed & shared subscriber-exclusive Apartment excerpts.

 

JUNE

  • June - Some poetry and snippets.
  • June 1 - Summer Changes post for organizing my writing projects and focus.
  • June 12 - Blog post On Imperialism and Mental Health.

 

JULY

 

AUGUST

 

SEPTEMBER

 

 OCTOBER

 

NOVEMBER

 

DECEMBER

 

Phew! That's a lot of writing, social media, graphics design, podcasting, and more! Looking at this list, I feel quite content and proud of myself for what I've been able to complete this year, despite the difficulties that the pandemic and virtual work brought with it. 

In addition to the above, I'm always working on my books in the background. I created a cover for Apartment and designed its ebook, I managed my social media throughout, I read about 11 books, I wrote a few other blog posts for other projects I'm working on, I wrote three songs and a heck of a lot of poetry, and I reached some great milestones this year as well! Just a few examples: 

  • I finished my first book! This is Apartment, my eerie suspense novella coming out January 5, 2021.
  •  surpassed 80,000 words in my manuscript for The Pirates of Sissa (which is my first time writing that much for one project).
  • I wrote over 20,000 words for my first ever romance project (now on hold).
  • I reached just over 40,000 words in my current draft of my manuscript for The Fall of the Black Masks.
  • I started the fourth book in my fantasy series, currently titled The Order of Chaos.

I'm happy knowing that I was able to keep myself productive throughout the year (although I'm not too sure what happened in January!).

💪💪💪

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