2022: A Year in Review

Original Photo by Valerie Blanchett on Unsplash

I made a post like this for 2021 and I thought it would be nice to do the same this year too. I have a hard time remembering and/or focusing on the positives rather than the negatives, and an overview is usually pretty uplifting. So let's get into it!

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✧.* January

• made several writing related intentions
• wrote 18k of CofM; in this draft a prophecy took more precedent, there was a Nameless Queen, magical books, and Halah becoming the granddaughter of a Keeper of the Great Library. Halah was also able to hear a mysterious, unknown being (a hatif) that had a vested interest in the safety of Qusaiy and was the driving force behind her involvement in his rescue
• brainstormed some more about a Muslim writers network, but eventually shelved the idea
• started writing a second draft of Rivener, where Wren is more of an anti-hero, has a redemption arc, and had a history with Kai and Cormac (the villain). It was my first time working on revamping a completed draft!
• began an A to Z glossary of creatures, places, and notable people for the world of CofM
• decided the world of CofM would have two moons
  

✧.* February

• completed the aforementioned glossary
• wrote a book review for Frederica by Georgette Heyer
• experimented with writing a mute Wren and verbal Kai, a reverse of the original draft

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✧.* March

• contemplated removing the existence of two character in CofM that I didn't feel needed to be there, as their absence had no impact on the plot; I just liked them
• wrote out the entire plot of CofM on flashcards, which helped iron out some kinks and give me a better view of it all
• took a hiatus from writing

✧.* April

• on hiatus from writing
• learned about discovery/gardener writers (term via Brandon Sanderson) and felt it resonated with me!

✧.* May

• travelled, and on my way home was struck by an idea that completely and totally restructured the entirety of CofM, which led to it being rebranded into Legends of Mourra to reflect this change!

✧.* June

• further reflected on the types of stories I like to actually write vs. just imagine
• went forward with Legends of Mourra with a lot of brainstorming and chatting about it and finding new joy in what had become a very tired story over the past decade
• shifted my Alice in Wonderland retelling into my Oracle wip
• decided to put rewriting Rivener and writing Glitch on hold for now
• released a re-introduction to Legends of Mourra
• released an intoduction to Oracle

✧.* July

• started a mini blog series for work called 'Type Talk', the first installment was on non-linear narratives
• began writing Oracle from Ro's pov
• tried writing Oracle from Sage's pov, giving him a more fractured mindset

✧.* August

• second installment of 'Type Talk' published, about gameified reads
• continued the draft for Oracle that was in Ro's pov, with added snarky footnotes from the omniscient 3rd person narrator

✧.* September

• started learning Korean, for fun!
• started another draft for Oracle, this time experimenting with writing Sage's pov using 2nd person
• wrote the start of a prompt fill that eventually became my first fictober entry

✧.* October

• revived my writing tumblr account
• started Fictober 22 using prompts from the wonderful deepwaterwritingprompts, wrote for fourteen days
• wrote a fragment of a poem
• wrote another poem titled 'hamartia'
• wrote my final entry for the 'Type Talk' series, on fanfiction

✧.* November

• decided to do my own version of NaNoWriMo, only I would aim to write content for LofM for 20 mins a day
• wrote for 19/30 days (so I only missed 11 days total!)

✧.* December

• picked up a fragment of a Lord of the Rings fanfiction that I'd started last year, and expanded upon it
• started to learn crochet
• wrote 10k of LofM
• wrote a review for The Last Battle, the final book of the Narnia series, which I haven't read since I was a child
• read (or listened to) 20 books, when my initial goal was 15!
• wrote this post!

Wow. I'm genuinely flabbergasted that I did all this! I worried I'd have so many empty months, or barely anything to say for this year's creative endeavours but—look! I'm so glad I made this post, I feel a lot better about how I handled this year. I encourage you to do a similar recap of your year if you're also a writer or creative (or even if you're not!). You may surprise yourself too.

Here's to 2023! Happy reading and writing!