Taking stock
And looking to 2024
I can’t believe we’re already in November.
I feel very reflective these days as the year winds down. I thought I would take stock of my writing progress this year.
On the plus side:
I have continued my morning writing (every weekday) and that is going well. That writing will 99% never see the light of the day but who knows, maybe when I’m super old and/or retired from my corporate career I can make something of all that morning writing.
I have continued writing this Substack. I would say that this is also going well insofar as I am still writing it and putting it out there even if no one cares about what I’ve written. The point is doing it and continuing with it and putting it out there so that I can hold myself accountable to the practice of writing.
I have taken Torts to 95% completion. I have sent out the 95% completion to Prof. Thomas Kadri at Georgia Law. This was a way to say both thank you to him and to try to give myself a break. I have these next two months to take the edits to 99%. This last half mile has hung over me for like a year. I need to just get it to 99%, post about it and consider this a success that I can attribute to 2023.
On the minus side:
I have not made any significant progress on Book People since early spring of this year. The last time I spoke to my writing coach was on March 31. I realized this when I finally spoke to her again this week. WTF! Considering how this book is now going to take me like 20 years, I suppose all those months of non-progress are a bit of a drop in the bucket. But still! This is inappropriate! (I use that line a lot on my toddler too.)
Because I have been stuck on Torts, no progress on any other picture books have been made.
I’ve not really read creative pieces that much this year. A lot of Instagram scrolling. A lot of badly written short news pieces or gossip pieces. Some pointless YouTube videos. A couple of self-help books. But wayyyyyyy too few well written books.
I’ve lost touch with my writing group. Life always gets in the way.
Given these reflections, here are some things I want to work on for 2024:
Continue with my morning writing and writing this Substack.
Establish a more formal relationship with my writing coach. I need to meet with her way more regularly and in a set cadence so that I am forced to work on Book People. I need to be held accountable and I need someone to read my writing and give me feedback. I need to establish a habit/pattern/routine for Book People.
Tackle Tax Law (Canadian) Picture Book. Give myself a year to finish writing/drawing, editing and publishing it.
Scroll less, read more. Ask my writing coach to recommend pieces for me to read that are well written so that I don’t waste my time reading so much garbage.
I am tempted to set out even more goals for myself but looking at this list, I already think it’s super ambitious. Doable if I push myself but definitely already very ambitious. Gotta aim high right? Wish me luck! Or maybe not luck…because it’s not about luck. Wish me consistency.
I wish for more consistency in 2024.