Reflections on 2021

In January 2021 I gave myself 5 goals. If you can remember way back in January 2021, in the UK we found ourselves back in Lockdown but were hopeful that with the vaccines being dolled out, things were looking a bit brighter for 2021 and that covid would be on its way out. However, this was not to be as the pesky little blighter sneakily mutated into various new strains and caused more havoc.

This has been a crappy year for a lot of people for a lot of crappy reasons, but I'm not going to dwell on that here. Instead, I will do a quick(ish) recap of those goals I did achieve and of course those I did not.

Achievements & Not-Quite-There-Yets

Goal 1: Publish my book

Big fat tick for this one! Ok, I had planned to launch by my birthday in April, and then by the end of May Bank Holiday. June or July would have been good times to launch my ‘summer read'. August and September would also have been opportune to catch the last-minute holiday travellers and I'm not altogether sure what happened in October.

Instead, I decided to publish my summer RomCom, Getting Away, on the biggest sale weekend in November 2021, right in the middle of trying to complete Nanowrimo. But hey, I still did it before the midnight bongs on 31st December!

At this point, I feel miles further along the publishing track than this time last year. I have not only learned how to self-edit, find Beta Readers, find a professional editor and get a cover designer but also write a blurb, use technical programs (Scrivener, Pro-Writing Aid etc) and master formating.

All this as well as uploading to Amazon, finding out about Key Words, Categories, author copies and how to sell. My writing learning curve this year has had a massive upwards swoop and it's all things I don't need to learn again for books 2 and 3 etc. I now need to expand my knowledge in these areas and research the marketing and selling processes. 

Goal 2: Start book Two

Another tick, 2 out of 2, so far so good. Not only have I started notes on several novellas, but I also managed to write 20,000 words for one of them during Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) so feel I am making progress. There will be more about this in my Goals for 2022 blog post coming shortly.

Goal 3: Be More Creative

This one is a bit more no than yes. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to doing my abstract painting course, so I still have a big blank boring wall in my living room. The reason for this is mainly because I need to set up outside and we didn't get such a fabulous run of good weather as we did in the first lockdown. Here's hoping for some sunshine in 2022. I did however make a fabulous Christmas wreath so I guess you could call that kind of being creative.

Goal 4: Stay Healthy

I was a little overzealous with my new heavier hand weights and managed to get ‘Golfer’s Elbow’ quite early on in the year which meant working out with weights was pretty much a no go for quite a while. I had a few fits and starts with various other workout plans throughout the year but generally, I felt like I'd lost my mojo. I generally love exercise so I'm determined to get back into it, starting 1 January!! No excuses!! 

Goal 5: Do things I didn’t do in 2020

Hmm, tricky one. Although some people risked a trip abroad, we decided to play it safe (and avoid all the ever-changing, testing and quarantine rules) and stay home. We did however manage to get a few weekends away, exploring our own country including an Aistream in Cornwall, a Glamping Pod in Iron Bridge, a hot weekend in York with my parents and a cosy cottage stay in Hay-on-Wye. No, we didn't get the Mediterranean sunshine but we did have some fabulous trips to places we otherwise may not have gone to, and get to go to the pub, so maybe half a tick.

Bring on 2022!!

If any of you did actually succeed in achieving all your goals in the topsy-turvy year of 2021, well done you! Medals will be handed out in due course. For now, I will not worry about what I didn't accomplish and pat myself on the back for those things that I did.  Time to turn that new diary page and start planning for 2022! 

In my next blog post, I will outline some goals and wishes for this coming year. I'll see you there!

AS xx

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