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Post by Kandybar on Jan 2, 2024 21:04:18 GMT -5
Hello, everyone! I'm Kit or Kandy, back again for another year. Like most people, I had a crap year last year. We had two natural disasters within about a month mid-year. First, we got our yearly rainfall over the course of three days in May, and in an environment that's more or less a desert, we had massive flooding as everything failed. (Our sump pump failed overnight, and I woke up to four inches of water in the basement, which destroyed a ton of stuff, including some unfortunately irreplaceable sentimental things, as the basement tends to be a repository for whatever we're not actively using.) And clean-up was impossible too--since everywhere flooded, the water restoration companies were overloaded, and you couldn't find a pump or water cleanup machine anywhere within 100 miles. There was mold. It was great. About a month later, a tornado touched down in our town, for the first time in over forty years, and it went right through our neighborhood. And, because of the ground being oversaturated from the rain in May, all the trees went down. We're talking 40-year-old, 50 foot plus, trees. Luckily our house wasn't hit too bad (we lost a few pieces of gutter, and our patio chairs ended up in several yards, and the trees took out the fence) but we did lose seven trees, which nicely isolated us from our neighbors and provided shade for the house (we didn't have air conditioning). (Our neighbor's house had the entire front knocked in, so we were definitely lucky. And despite losing all my poor trees, none of them fell on the house, which was a problem for several neighbors. One of those trees, I had always been anxious that it would fall on the house, so that's my one silver lining. I don't have to worry about it anymore, cuz when it fell it went straight back into the yard and not into my daughter's room.) In September our furnace failed, adding to our very very expensive year, as we had to get a new one, and an air conditioner as well since we no longer have the sun protection from the trees. Good times. Very fun. I didn't set goals last year because I wanted to finish my edit on the first book of a high fantasy trilogy I've been working on since I was sixteen. I did some soul searching in autumn of...2022, I want to say, and realized I'd been avoiding finishing this project because there's so much emotional baggage tied to it, but if I had to pick one thing to finish before I die, it would be that. So I cut all other projects last year and focused on that, and I actually made pretty good progress--but it felt a little lacking, like I couldn't look back at my year and feel accomplished. So this year I'm going back to more goals, but with some variations. On the writing front, the projects are in order, so one needs to be finished before we go on to the next one. There may be some smaller goals added in (like going back to RaTs) but they are in addition to, not instead of, the main writing project. I'm also adding in non-writing goals again. So. Let's get to it. WRITING Main Project: Boughs of FateStatus: Revision Genre: High fantasy Next: Rings Among the Stars (scifi horror), Not So Bloody Murder (paranormal cozy) Side Projects: - RaTs (once per quarter)
- Short Story Challenge month (spring?)
- SkillShare classes (repost old class, new class late summer)
- Publish Deep and Blue (scifi)
- New novella project (November probably)
READING Main goal: 50 books a year Qualifiers: 4(ish) books a month, 1 off TBR list, 1 from books I own ART Main goal: One art project per week Secondary goal: Work through one art book every other month VIDEO GAMES Main goal: 20 hours of video games per month, focusing on Steam games All right, this is long enough, so on to the monthly goals!
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Post by Kandybar on Jan 2, 2024 21:10:27 GMT -5
Traditionally I've made a big goal sheet to use on my own, which I then forget about and realize September-ish that it exists and I've completely disregarded this, so I overhauled it this year so I should go in and set specific month goals. Anyway, here's January! Writing: Book 1 edit (plus critique marathon) Figure out D&B cover Repost old SkillShare class
Reading: 4 books (Christmas book, DNA book, 2 more)
Art: One piece per week (0/4)
Video Games: Beasts, Paperbark, Some Assembly Necessary
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I can. Therefore, I will.
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Post by AuthorAsh on Jan 2, 2024 21:39:03 GMT -5
Welcome Back Kandy! This sounds like a reall¥ good goal list - and I feel you on the forgetting part of it until like fall of the year. I wish you all the best words!
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Post by galactic-pirates on Jan 3, 2024 3:10:11 GMT -5
Oh my that sounds like a horrific year *hugs* I’m really sorry about the losing of stuff to the flood but I’m glad that you are safe, and have pulled through the trouble. I hope 2024 is much kinder to you! Good luck with your goals. I am here, ready and waiting to cheer you on, *waves pom-poms*
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Post by Tracey on Jan 3, 2024 7:11:49 GMT -5
Wow, you really did have a rough year. I hope this year is much better for you. Good luck with all of your goals and projects!
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Post by Kandybar on Jan 7, 2024 23:59:07 GMT -5
You may place bets for how long the weekly goal tracking keeps up. Writing: Book 1 edit (plus critique marathon) I met with my in-person critique group this morning, plus I paper edited Chapter Nineteen and started on the actual revision portion. Figure out D&B cover Repost old SkillShare class Started
Reading: 4 books (Christmas book, DNA book, 2 more) - 1/4
Art: One piece per week (1/4) Currently working on finally finishing my sketch journal from our Scotland trip...in June of 2022
Video Games: Beasts, Paperbark, Some Assembly Necessary The game is actually called Assemble With Care, ha. Anyway, I did get about 5 hours in this past week, and hope to finish at least one of these games this upcoming week. So far so good! I feel like I'm making decent progress on all my goals, but we'll have to see if the revision falls behind over time because of the added tasks. My critique marathon starts tomorrow, so hopefully that will keep me nice and focused.
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Post by galactic-pirates on Jan 8, 2024 2:13:57 GMT -5
Finishing a sketchbook is a huge accomplishment. June 2022 doesn’t seem that long ago. Decent progress sometimes feels like not a lot if you can’t cross things off, but I think you are doing great. It’s only been a week and there’s updates on every section. *waves pom-poms* hope next week is just as productive for you!
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Post by Kandybar on Jan 15, 2024 12:12:01 GMT -5
It's so cold omg Writing: Book 1 edit (plus critique marathon) Not a huge amount of progress, alas. Bit of a problem I've had with the critique marathons in general, where I tend to use my writing time doing my critiques for other people. Some progress on Chapter 19.
Figure out D&B cover Done! I've run it by some writing groups too and made edits, so it's good to go! Repost old SkillShare class I submitted it but SkillShare pulled it because they didn't like the project (but it was fine the first time? Sigh) so I do need to spend more time on it
Reading: 4 books (Christmas book, DNA book, 2 more) - 3/4
Art: One piece per week (2/4) I finished the line art for the Scotland portion, did line art and watercolor for the next trip, and line art for the last trip that fit in the book. Also drew some trees to test out some brush pens my son got me for Christmas.
Video Games:
Beasts, Paperbark, Assemble With Care I beat all three of these games, and then I didn't know what to do with myself, so I went back to two of the games I've had the longest and determined that I didn't really want to play them, and moved them into my "Tried but meh" category (I've purchased a lot of game bundles over the years, so I do occasionally end up with games that just aren't my cup of tea, and instead of forcing myself to play them I'm just categorizing and moving on), and then I tried a tower defense game which was a bit addictive and wasted some writing time, so I categorized that one for now too. Not sure whether to call the goal done for the month or move on to another game to keep momentum up. I'll stick the cover and the tree drawing on as attachments in case people are curious. Attachments:
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Post by galactic-pirates on Jan 15, 2024 14:00:00 GMT -5
Ooooh thats an interesting cover. Deep and Blue. Awwww you don’t have a projects section. Any hint as to what it is about? Good luck next week! *cheers*
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Post by Kandybar on Jan 16, 2024 21:16:02 GMT -5
Ooooh thats an interesting cover. Deep and Blue. Awwww you don’t have a projects section. Any hint as to what it is about? Good luck next week! *cheers* Next on the D&B project: Writing a book description lol It's a scifi novella that takes place in an undersea lab/city (because the surface is no longer livable).
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Post by redwooddryad on Jan 22, 2024 8:24:47 GMT -5
That cover alone makes me want to read it - very well designed. Looking forward to seeing that one published!
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Post by Kandybar on Jan 22, 2024 14:43:43 GMT -5
I think my beginning of the year productivity is dying off, oh no! But also I've been out of town for four days so nothing got done. Writing: Book 1 edit (plus critique marathon) I finished Chapter 19 and have started doing the actual revision on Chapter 20, and have printed out Cpts 21 and 22 for paper edits. Chapter 15 goes up on the critique marathon today.
Figure out D&B cover Repost old SkillShare class I, in theory, fixed the issue SkillShare had with the class, but it's showing as closed and no one is responding to my emails. ::kicks them::
Reading: 4 books (Christmas book, DNA book, 2 more) - 3/4
Art: One piece per week (3/4) I finished the final page and started the watercolor for the Scotland potion.
Video Games:
Beasts, Paperbark, Assemble With Care No more games since last week, whoops.
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Post by galactic-pirates on Jan 23, 2024 4:01:21 GMT -5
Sounds like a frustrating time. I hope skillshare behaves itself soon. Good luck with your revision! How many more chapters to go? In the twenties sounds like you must be pretty far in?
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Post by Kandybar on Jan 23, 2024 23:52:22 GMT -5
Sounds like a frustrating time. I hope skillshare behaves itself soon. Good luck with your revision! How many more chapters to go? In the twenties sounds like you must be pretty far in? There's currently 30 chapters total (it's high fantasy and runs about 120K) but I think I need to add in another chapter around 26-ish, so that may change. Or I might rearrange stuff so it fits in the existing chapter structure. That's a problem for future!me. ::kicks SkillShare some more::
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Post by Kandybar on Jan 31, 2024 18:29:24 GMT -5
Does January feel like it was super long, or is that just me? Writing: Book 1 edit (plus critique marathon) Chapter 20 is done, and I did the paper edit for 21 and 22 (both short). Chapters 16 and 17 are up at the marathon this week, and I hope to revisit 15 before I send to my in-person group.
Figure out D&B cover Repost old SkillShare class I opened another ticket with SkillShare support and got a notification that they'd received it on Monday, and have heard nothing since. *sigh*
Reading:
4 books (Christmas book, DNA book, 2 more) - 4/4
Art:
One piece per week (4/4) I drew some mushrooms and stuff.
Video Games:
Beasts, Paperbark, Assemble With Care I started a new game called A Garden Story which seems to be a fantasy RPG but the characters are fruit.
Overall, January was pretty successful! SkillShare continues to suck, which makes me wonder why I bother. But reading, art, and video game goals all got done, and the rest of the writing's not too shabby either.
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