2020 Wrap Up & Changes Ahead
Good Morning Readers,
It’s finally that time, time to turn the page and move on to a new year.
Naturally, I wanted to take this chance to not only thank you for continuing to read on with me, but to sum up the year and go over some changes to occur in 2021.
I’m going to keep this as brief as possible, simply because I’m a bit low on time these days.
2020 Wrap Up
With a pandemic still in full swing, it would be easy for me to be negative, but I’m gonna take the high road. I got a lot of stuff done this year, more than I’ve ever done before. Working from home has been something of a godsend for me and has allowed me to fully embrace my introvert self (despite its flaws) and focus on reading and writing. So what are my results for this year? Keep on scrolling!
Reading
I stopped paying attention to my books read count after hitting the 100 mark. Yes, I read over 100 works of fiction this year! I have never read that much in a single year before, and I’m so proud of myself!
If you’d like to look over my book reviews, simply click here and check out what I’ve been reading this year.
I don’t plan on trying to beat my number next year. There’s honestly no way to beat it, and with things returning to some degree of normal and maybe more complicated next year I’m not gonna stress myself out over it. But I’m glad I found something productive to do in this pandemic to distract me from reality.
How many books did you read this year?
Writing
This year was great for writing! I started out working on Reaper: Aftermath, my sequel to Reaper: A Horror Novella. I got the idea for the sequel about a week after publishing the first book and couldn’t ignore a chance to continue Gregory’s story.
Unfortunately, I burnt out around summertime, but decided to be proactive and used that time to rewrite and publish a former short story of mine called Conscience.
As much as I hated to take a brief departure from Reaper: Aftermath, writing this short story was something of a revelation to me. As an author, I have a preconceived notion of how my projects are going to go and how long they’ll take, but life doesn’t always work out that way. This detour was something I needed, and in switching things up I found new inspiration to continue on with Reaper: Aftermath.
Speaking of which, I’m on my last go through of the Reaper sequel! That means you’ll be able to read it soon! I’m currently a bit over 50% through my last read of it.
I plan on releasing it at the beginning of February, but I can’t yet give a definite date since everything is still up in the air. I hope to finish my last go through of the book in the next week, and then I’ll move on to the manuscript and cover art before a slew of other things to follow after.
Wish me luck!
Changes Ahead
Naturally, a new year comes with changes, and this year is no exception. This was my second year of blogging, and yet again I feel like I’m overextending myself on the blogging front. With grad school looming next fall (I’m going to be a librarian!), I need to cut things down to a manageable level. Therefore, changes! I’ll try to keep things short and sweet.
Book Reviews
Technically nothing will change in this segment of my blog. I’ll continue to read books and review them as well as do my WWW Wednesday and Buddy Read posts, but I’m going to devote more of my time to writing, which means I’ll most likely read less books next year.
I simply have to focus more on my writing, which is why I blog in the first place. I’m thinking a goal of maybe 50 books read next year seems adequate, but don’t quote me on it. It could be more, it could be less. Buddy reads may need to occur only once a month, but I’ll gauge the situation as the year progresses.
Meet the Author/Blogger
Not much is changing with this segment either, but I will be doing this less frequently, just once a month. Supporting indie authors/bloggers like myself is a huge deal for me, but I have to look out for myself first and ensure I’m not overextending myself. Looking forward to meeting new people next year!
Movie/Series Reviews
Unfortunately, this segment is the bulk of the changes I’ll be making. While movie and series reviews have been a great way to get more traffic to my site, I feel that it takes too much time away from reading and writing to continue doing. This segment will be going away effective immediately, but I may give some shout outs in my monthly recaps.
Writing
More, more, more! I’ll be devoting more time to work on my craft and new ideas. Going forward I plan on having multiple projects at my disposal so that if I burnt out I can just switch to something else for a brief while.
Also, all stories I write going forward will be sent to publishers, not self published unless absolutely necessary. Self publishing can be great, but at this point I could use the help to get my name out there without doing all of the work myself. Sure, I’ll still have to market myself pretty frequently, but I feel that this direction is the best way for me right now and it can be a great source of revenue to keep this site going.
That’s a Wrap!
All right folks, that wraps up my year of 2020. What have you been up to this year? Anything you’d like to share? Feel free to comment, and have a great New Year’s!
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It sounds like you are making smart and positive changes. I wish you the best of luck in going the traditional publishing route. Have an awesome 2021 with interesting grad school studies and enjoyable reads and fun blogging and productive writing!
Thanks friend! Change is hard, but I’m happy with my decision and hope it leads to a less stressed, happier me. 🙂 Hope you have a great new year too!
Glad to see nothing too drastic is changing. I’ve been amazed at how many books you manage to read….the only way I hit over a hundred this year is because of all the audiobooks I plow through (thank you, library!!!). Here’s to a productive 2021!!
Yeah, it’s more a tidying up of some things. 🙂 Haha, nice! I still havent managed to give audiobooks a chance, but maybe I will take a bite this year.
Happy new year, and same to you!
Happy New Year, friend! Glad to see you’ll be focusing on your writing this year, I wish you the best!
Thanks! Best of luck on your journeys as well!