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Looking Back on 2022: This Year in Writing

Looking Back on 2022: This Year in Writing

Not to be a total downer, but here's the thing: This year has been difficult, frustrating, disappointing, and very unproductive. But despite all of that, there is one thing that I find undeniable, and that's that I have been constantly trying regardless. Trying to write, trying to get back to my creative projects, trying to handle a new full-time job and suddenly feeling a whole lot more time-poor, and struggling to stay physically and mentally healthy on top of it all. 

To be fair, I'm not really doing all that well on any of these fronts, but with a few days left in the year as I write this, I'm wondering what I can do to turn things around for myself.

I admit that I am not satisfied with what I got done this year, simply because it was meant to be a year where a lot more got done. I had rewrites planned, a slew of short stories I wanted to finish and collections I wanted to launch, the first issue of Scrittorio that I wanted to prepare and get out there, and about 12 chapters of The Fall of the Black Masks that I wanted to complete. (Out of that entire list, the only thing I was able to do was publish the first issue of Scrittorio.)

But I remind myself that I also didn't plan to be so burnt out that I spent the entire year just trying to get a few sentences on paper. Life throws us curve balls sometimes. So, overall, I'm still happy that I got some things done, despite the struggle.


          Note: Projects that are mentioned throughout the year include:

                    👉 A Cure for Happiness [Read on RR]

                    👉 The Beast of Ildenwood [Read on RR] [Read on Blog]

                    👉 Murder in Heliopolis [Read on RR] [Read on Tapas] [Read on Inkitt]

                    👉 Marie/Elise

                    👉 The Qarran Tales

                    👉 An Entity In Your Midst


Here's what I was able to accomplish this year. (No word counts included - I'll count it up another time and put that in another post.)


JANUARY


FEBRUARY

  • Made the [in]Sanity prologue (my first time creating a full webcomic episode!) 🎨 ðŸŽŠ
  • Feb 4: Planning for a sci-fi audio drama
  • Feb 8: Hiatus announced (This is when I first felt that strong sense of burnout - I think in part this was due to a very productive January)
  • Feb 28: Wrote for The Qarran Tales as well as a family drama novel I've yet to introduce


MARCH

  • Mar 1: Created a 10-year plan to help realign my goals and desires
  • Murder in Heliopolis, Chapters 26-29 (...the whole thing needs a rewrite. I'll get there.)
  • Launched Murder in Heliopolis on Inkitt ðŸŽŠ
  • Mar 15: A Cure for Happiness, Chapters 1-2
  • The Falcon's Claw, Chapter 4
  • Mar 18: The Beast of Ildenwood, Chapter 22: Claws and Swords
  • Mar 21: Officially returned from hiatus. (I thought I had rested enough and could just push forward and get over the burnout...)
  • Mar 23: Illustration of Lahab for The Beast of Ildenwood ðŸŽ¨
  • Mar 25: Illustration of the Mussena for The Beast of Ildenwood ðŸŽ¨
  • Mar 25: The Beast of Ildenwood, Chapter 23: Allies in the Trees
  • Mar 25: The Beast of Ildenwood - Worldbuilding: The Mussena

APRIL
  • Apr 2-3: Wrote snippets for A Cure for Happiness as I prepared for the story
  • Apr 12: Worldbuilding and character development plan for Brieuc in A Cure for Happiness
  • Apr 13: WIP intro for A Cure for Happiness, my Camp Nano / RR Writathon WIP
  • Apr 13: Worldbuilding: A Cure for Happiness - Iridescent Sheep
  • Apr 14: Worldbuilding: A Cure for Happiness - Smoldering Tortoises
  • Apr 15: Worldbuilding: A Cure for Happiness - Mirror Spirits
  • Apr 16: Worldbuilding: A Cure for Happiness - Trees with Eyes!
  • Apr 17: Worldbuilding: A Cure for Happiness - Cleansing Fire
  • Apr 17: Murder in Heliopolis bonus content writing: Cassia's POV
  • Apr 18-19: Studying the plot embryo & how to apply it to An Entity In Your Midst
  • Pulled out of Camp Nano / RR Writathon (ah, burnout returns... but I am stubborn, and ergo...); started working on An Entity In Your Midst for the rest of the month
  • Apr 30: Wrote for An Entity In Your Midst - specifically focused on Agafiya's journal

MAY

  • May 3-5: Writing course creation & planning
  • Got new recording equipment for my podcast! 🎤 (But after a bunch of trial and error and recording about 20 episodes in total, I decided I prefer my old setup and subsequently scrapped all of those episodes 😅 Lesson learned!)
  • May 5-6: Studied gothic horror - elements, themes, symbolism, archetypes, plot structure, etc.
  • May 6-16: Started working on a historical gothic horror novel (also used this for StoryADay May).
  • Wrote 4 songs related to two of my WIPs. 


JUNE

  • Jun 7: Wrote for Return of the Exiled
  • Jun 12-25: Brainstormed for Scrittorio Magazine - issue themes, segments, etc.
  • Jun 13: Brainstormed new story ideas for fun, did some journaling, and wrote a tiny snippet for the historical gothic horror novel
  • Jun 15: Worldbuilding entries for The Qarran Tales: "Rukh Birds" and "Log Snakes"
  • Jun 26-30: Steampunk royal mystery interactive fiction/choice-based game design


JULY

  • Jul 3: More steampunk royal mystery interactive fiction/choice-based game design
  • Jul 3/4: Wrote for The Qarran Tales 
  • Jul 5: Put together a list of vocabulary prompts
  • Jul 8: Wrote for The Qarran Tales 
  • Jul 17-19: Started writing psychological thriller currently titled Housemate 
  • Jul 19: Murder in Heliopolis re-plotting brainstorming session
  • Jul 20: Marie/Elise re-plotting brainstorming session
  • Jul 20: Brainstormed more short story ideas because why not
  • Jul 20: Research on home protection and defense for the short story Housemate
  • Jul 25: Wrote 4 short snippets: "The Wrong Heart", "Hot, Sweaty, Vengeful Sickness" (...idk), "He Sees You" and "Snakes in the Garden." Also wrote more for Housemate
  • Jul 25: New illustrated cover for Brittle Teeth (which I never shared, somehow?!) 🎨
  • Jul 26: Another brainstorming and planning session for Scrittorio Magazine
  • Jul 27: Wrote for The Pirates of Sissa. Also wrote for other projects in The Qarran Tales.
  • Jul 31: Set up list of writing goals for the rest of 2022. (Catastrophic results, really. I completed 5% of the list, and that's rounding up. 😂)


AUGUST

  • Aug 1: Planned out a Venom Sweet video game to help me solve a plot problem and shared a snippet entitled "Should've Listened"
  • Aug 24: Wrote for The Fall of the Black Masks
  • Aug 25-26: Wrote for The Qarran Tales and for Marie/Elise
  • Aug 29: Studied and took notes on storytelling: short stories and plot structure
  • Launched website and social media accounts (Tumblr, Twitter) for Scrittorio Magazine 🎊


SEPTEMBER

  • Recorded Season 3 Episode 0 for my podcast - never released
  • Sept 16: Started the StoryADay September Fun-Size Challenge
  • Sept 17: Brainstormed new story ideas and began writing an untitled short story about thieves
  • Sept 21: Started writing a series of dark fantasy snippets
  • Sept 26: Took notes on writing fiction based on tips from Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and more
  • Sept 28: Studied creative writing techniques and short story styles
  • Sept 28: Wrote for Marie/Elise
  • Sept 29: Wrote a snippet dealing with capitalism
  • Sept 30: Brainstormed possible new plot for The Fall of the Black Masks but decided against it.

OCTOBER

  • Oct 2: Plotting with Spreadsheets
  • Oct 16: S03EP01 Ripping Off the Bandaid + transcript
  • Oct 24: Wrote for Return of the Exiled 
  • Oct 26: Researched printing presses
  • Oct 27: Wrote for Marie/Elise 
  • Oct 31: Released inaugural issue for Scrittorio 🎊


NOVEMBER

An empty chapter.


DECEMBER

  • Dec 11-27: Worked on a murder mystery currently titled The Cursed Dagger. (Generic, but functional. A good placeholder title for now.) Fun fact: this one won't be a book or a story - it's going to be in another format completely! Did a lot of brainstorming for that as well.
  • Dec 12: Wrote for The Qarran Tales


Entire months passed where I didn't do much of anything, or, if I did do something, it felt rather aimless and unsatisfying. I didn't feel like I had the energy, mentally, to delve into any of my creative projects. Honestly, I still don't. That's also why I haven't been posting anything online, and why I haven't been active on social media all that much. 

I had hoped, with my winter break, that I might be able to wrangle up some energy and get back into a writing habit of sorts - or even just work on a few creative projects. I did do that with The Cursed Dagger, but not for very long. 

There are so many projects I'm working on, and so many things I want to complete - and maybe that's part of the problem, too. With dozens of WIPs, maybe it's making it harder for me to pick something and focus on it. 

I'm trying to figure out a new way of approaching my creative projects. I don't know what that will be just yet - maybe it'll just be a case of sucking it up and pushing through, and maybe it'll be a prolonged break from all of my usual passions and hobbies - but whatever it is, I feel I have to make that decision sooner rather than later, because after months and months of struggling with burnout and feeling mentally drained, something's gotta give.

Not the usual, uplifting year-in-writing post that I usually make, right? 

I think it's okay to say that you've been struggling if you have. So, yeah. This year kind of sucked, creatively speaking. It kind of sucked big time. But it's cool. Looking back on the full year, it really isn't as catastrophic as I had thought going into this post. 

You live and you learn, and I'm hoping that this new year will give me more time to myself, and more time to dedicate to my WIPs. I hesitate to put anything in writing, because that's a sure-fire way to make sure it doesn't happen, but I'm really hoping to get some projects completed.

How has this year been for you? What have you accomplished? What are your hopes for 2023?

Happy new year, and here's to many great years to come.

~⭐~

Check out my psychological thriller Apartment. Add it to your TBR on Goodreads!

Looking for a writing prompt workbook? Check out 101 Writing Prompts.


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