2019 Recap and 2020 Look Ahead

Welcome to the first post of 2020. Writing that's going to take some getting used to. It feels awkward to write a two instead of a one after the zero. Prepare yourselves for several posts wrapping up 2019 and looking forward to 2020, starting with this one. I'll be talking about what the year was like for me, how I did on my goals, and share my goals for this year.

2019

In My Life

2019 was a kind of meh year for me. It had its ups and downs, but didn't veer very far towards good or bad. The biggest thing that happened this year is probably getting my own car. Marvel has been a big blessing to me and my family. There was plenty to enjoy this year, and plenty that wasn't fun.

Goals

Personal-

• Word of the Year: Courage

I think I lived out this one. I pushed myself to try new things that I wouldn't have tried before. I still had more fear than I wanted, but conquering fear is an every day battle sometimes.

• Improve at art through intentional practice. ✅

I took more time this year to practice various techniques and teach myself new ones. I don't know if I improved a lot, but I did make progress forward.

• Stretch more. ✅

I didn't always stretch every day, but I did do a lot more than I have. Even if it was just a few minutes. I'm now almost flat in my right splits, which makes me happy.

• Do some traveling. ✅

This year I went to my first con (which wasn't far away, but still felt like a trip), and my sister and I went down to North Carolina by ourselves. Both were fun, if mildly terrifying.

Writing-

• Edit two novels ✅❌

I did start editing on two projects, which is why there's check mark, but I'm not done with one, so I didn't fully do it. But I didn't totally expect to get two fully done. That's a lot of work.

• Begin querying. ❌

I didn't accomplish this one. Partially because my novel isn't ready to query yet, so I'd prefer to wait and send something better. Also because I didn't make it as much as a priority as I should have.

Reading-

• Read 100 books. ✅

I finished my Goodreads challenge with 108 books and 37,010 pages. My longest book was (real shocker) Inheritance. My average length was almost 400 pages and my rating was 4.1 stars.

Blog-

• Reach 120+ followers on Instagram. ✅

In fact, I reached 180 followers right before the end of the year. It's been slow growing, but I guess I'd prefer a smaller and more dedicated fan base than a large and uninterested one.

• Guest post more (mine+others) ❌

I had two guests posts on my blog (both from my sister), but I wanted to do a bit more than that. And I didn't do any personal guest posting this year, which is a pity.

Overall, I'd say I did pretty good on my goals. Sure, I didn't do some of them, but that's okay.

2020

Personal-

• Word the the year: Strong.

This year I want to become stronger. In my mind, in my body, and most importantly, in my walk with God. I feel like I've become too weak in my faith and I want to change that.

• Grow in my relationship with God.

This goes with the above. I still don't know how I'm going to do this, but I plan on praying about it.

• Do splits on both sides and handstand.

I want to be flat in both splits by the end of this year. My left ones aren't as good, but a little challenge wouldn't hurt. I also want to finally learn to do a handstand, something I've wanted to do for years, but scares me so much I'm afraid to try. Maybe by making it a goal, I can accomplish it.

• Travel more. 

I enjoyed going to North Carolina last  year and I hope to do more traveling this year. Traveling also scares me, but I don't want to let that stop me. We're going to NC again this summer and have some other ideas in mind as well.

• Take a dance class.

I know this is a kind of weird goal, but I'd love to try a dance class some time. I might not enjoy it, but I want to try.

Writing-

• Begin querying.

I think I'm more ready for this in 2020 and I really want to start finding an agent so I can start on the road to publishing.

• Editing New Magic/Missing Magic.

New Magic is almost done, which is why I want to start on the next book this year. I have a lot of ideas on how to make it less of a hot mess (which it currently is).

• Editing a second novel.

I don't know exactly which one or if I'll have time, but I'd love to work on editing another novel as well this year.

• Draft 1 novel.

For NaNoWriMo probably. Who knows what idea it will be or anything, but I want to make sure I write at least one thing.

• Practice writing more.

I want to take more time to practice different techniques and improving ones I already know this year. Hopefully this will make me a better writer.

Reading-

• Read 100 books.

Same goal as last year. I find it's a pretty manageable one for me.

• Read 5 non-fiction and 10 classics. 

Just because I want to make sure I get more roundness and depth to my reading this year.

Blog-

• Reach 250 Instagram followers.

Depending on how this goes this year, I may have to up this number, but I wanted to start with something manageable. (Ideally, I want to hit 300 this year.)

• Start a newsletter.

A lot of people say this is really important with blogging and becoming an author, so I would love to start my own this year. Fingers crossed.

• 50 Twitter followers.

I just started Twitter last year and would love to reach fifty or more followers this year. I suppose it would help if I could actually remember to post daily.

What are some of your goals for 2020? What's one thing you're proud of from 2019? Tell me in the comments.

Suggested Posts:

2018 Review and 2019 Look Ahead

A Year in My Bullet Journal