2021 Wrap-Up

 

And here we are, at the end of another year and I'm feeling retrospective again. So, let's take a look back over the past year and see all that was accomplished.

First let's take a look at what I wanted to get done, then we can compare that to what I actually did.

Here is the post where I stated my 2021 goals.

I did not have many. After the year that was 2020, I was absolutely terrified to get my hopes up for anything. However, this year, I realized that things weren't getting any better (actually, I'm pretty sure that it was worse, but I don't like dwelling on bad things so we won't get into all THAT) and I decided to stop allowing my circumstances to control how I lived my life. Who cares if it was a horrible terrible no good very bad year? I'm still going to do what I enjoy doing and try to work toward my dreams regardless.

Hobbies:

I did NOT read much, currently I'm working to finish my third book of the year, lol.

I played a lot of video games, got Skyrim on my Switch which was a huge mistake. I have no regrets though. I also started playing Dragon Age which *ahem* is a cold, ruthless game and its developers should really feel bad about what they did to me. Still, needless to say that I am thoroughly addicted and will love One (1) Allistair Therin till my dying days.

(image via Pinterest)

And I will defend One (1) Anders till my last breath I literally don't care what he did

(image via Pinterest)

The songs that have been on repeat:

Arcade (Ft. Fletcher)

Hello

Lost My Mind

Kingdom Fall

Where Do We Go

Enchanted

And all three of the Dragon Age credit songs (even though I never actually finished Origins because of Reasons or ever played Inquisition): This is War, I'm Not Calling You a Liar, and Into the Darkness

I drew a lot, most of what I did were sketches, I didn't really do a lot of big projects, but I did draw every day for almost two months at the beginning of the year until bad health and a new job got me thrown off course. Still, it was really fun and I think I grew a lot in my art in that time, maybe I'll try that again at the beginning of 2022. I think I'm really starting to see my style come out which is something I have struggled with since I started drawing. I also got into drawing short comics and discovered that was SUPER fun.

Two pieces I did earlier in the year

Two of my latest pieces

Obviously, there is still a ton more room for improvement, but I'm so proud of how far I have come.

Life:

I have figured out the secret to stressing less. It's called shell-shock. Okay, okay, I'm kidding, but only slightly. So many bad things happened this year, it was like everything that happened in 2020 only xs2, and BOY WAS I NOT PREPARED. But you know what I realized? You're never going to be prepared for that kind of stuff.

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew 6:34, ESV)

It took a whole heck of a lot of pain for me to come to that realization when it is literally written out plain as day in the Bible, but what can I say? I'm a stubborn person. But you know what I realized? Everything I have faced, I had the strength to make it through. Every. Single. Time. No matter how terrible it was, I made it through. Now, I'm not saying I made it through on my own. What I have realized is that the reason that you stress over whether you can do something or not is because it isn't time for that yet, you're stressing over a future event and God isn't going to give you the grace to get through that trial until you actually need it.

Everything that I have been through this past year has also made me grow quite confident in what I am capable of and due to that fact the anxiety that has been my constant companion since I became an adult has become surprisingly absent.

My word of 2021 was REGROW and I think I did that beautifully, I mean yeah, I got pruned a whole heck of a lot of times, but I feel stronger and healthier for it.

Writing:

This is honestly one of the things I am most proud of about this year. I mean, I'm proud of all my accomplishments, but considering I had very little in the way of writing plans I far exceeded what I expected.

I wrote so much.

I wrote the first draft of three novels and one novella, edited three novels and a novella and have edited the first halves of two other projects. Here are my specific word counts broken down—and this isn't even counting each draft separately...

26,006 words in Between Gods and Demigods

158,168 words in A Winter Dark and Deadly

93,154 words in Of Stars and Shadows

115,097 words in A Tale of Gods and Glory

In Rage Like the Gods I have written around 200,000 words (this one I'm a little dodgy with the numbers on, but I said I had reached 100,000 in it at the end of last year and it ended up being around 300k words long so we'll go with 200k for this year)

7,800 words in Harbinger of the End

8,700 words in some unannounced side projects

Which adds up to over 600,000 words, beating my record from 2018 of 500,000 words written in a year.

I've also edited almost 50,000 words in A Matter of Curiosity and 75,000 in A Season of Subterfuge, Courtiers, and War Councils

I published three books.

Which is the most books I have ever published in one year. For the most part I was lucky to publish/republish a book a year, with the exception of 2018 in which I managed to do two. So, three books in one year is a pretty big deal for me. And now I'm drunk on my success and hoping to publish five books next year, but shhh...that's spoiling next week's post.

of the three books I published there were:

Between Gods and Demigods, which is only a novella (you can get it for free by subscribing to my newsletter, just follow the tab above), but the cool thing about that is that I started it literally that January and published it in May. That was only four and a half months to go from the first draft to final with edits, revisions, and illustrations all needing to be done.

A Winter Dark and Deadly, honestly this one was huge because I was beginning to think that this book was NEVER going to get done. But it did and here we are and I'm so, so happy with how that story turned out.

Of Stars and Shadows, which I also wrote almost entirely this year, I had about 20k in it starting in June and I went from first draft to publishing it in only six months which I think shows that I'm getting faster at both writing and editing, but more importantly I'm getting better at writing first drafts which makes them easier to edit.

As well as publishing three works, I also been working on releasing my books in different formats. All of my works are now available in hardback. And two of my books are now audiobooks as well.

Also... I'm starting out 2022 with an absolute bang, with a cover reveal for Harbinger of the End. It isn't too late to sign up to be a part of the cover reveal.

Just Follow This Link.

I hope you had an extraordinarily Merry Christmas, and I wish you all a very Happy New Year! See you all in 2022.