End of the Year Wrap-Up and Writing Accomplishments.

A Day in the Life of an Author Story ideas I hope to tackle in the f...

End of the Year Wrap-Up and Writing Accomplishments.

Can you believe it is already December!? This year has gone by so incredibly fast. It seems like the days have just flown by and sometimes it is hard to see what we have gotten done until we take the time to sit down and look at our accomplishments. The end of the year is one of the best times to do that. It helps us see what we still have to work on and what we are going to move forward into the new year.

My end of the year wrap-up is a bit different this year as I worked mostly in Notion but then moved back into a paper planner for this last quarter. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Notion set up, but I miss the pen and paper planning. There are a few steps to doing my end of the year wrap up.

I review all my monthly and quarterly reviews. (I don’t go over my weekly reviews because I use those when I do my monthly reviews.) I write down all the projects that I finished over the course of the year, no matter how big or small. I also make notes on unfinished projects, why they are not complete, how much is left to complete, is this a project that is still viable. This helps me to gain clarity when it is time to set my 2023 Goals. I review social media stats to see overall growth.

Where do I keep my reviews? Well, that is a question isn’t it? I have been keeping them all in Notion. It is a straightforward way to keep them and reduce paper clutter, but again I miss the pen and paper aspect of writing my accomplishments, my failures and the things that made an impact on my life this year.

My Notion review template is a mixture of templates I found online and the HB90 reviews. I write them out and then put them into Notion. Yea it is double the work, but I enjoy having them in both places.

How do you review your year? Do you write out a review in your planner or notebook? Do you use an online app? What do you like to include? There is no right or wrong way to do a review if it works for you.

My writing accomplishments for this year are not as complete as I had hoped, but I have learned a lot from looking back at what I did and did not get done.

Draft 0 Falling in Love Again - Deadline NaNoWriMo 2022 Wrote 20,000 words out of 50,000. I am more than ok with this because I wrote every second, I had time. I seriously underestimated the amount of time I would have to write in the month of November this year. Guest Blog posts: I wrote several guest blogs posts this year and I enjoyed each one. It has helped me learn how to write a blog post better so eventually I can get my own blog going. Newsletters: Monthly newsletters have been so much fun to update and share with the Discord server. I have really learned some new things about creating newsletters! Social Media posts: Oh my - this has been trial and error for me all year. I have tried various posts and hashtags. I even took a workshop on social media. It is something that I think I will continue to have a love/hate relationship with but will continue growing and learning into the next year. Live Critique Reads: One of my favorite writing events this year has been the monthly reads in the Discord Server. I didn’t have something to read every month but the months I did, I had the best writing. My readings were from various projects and chapters but helped me to grow as a writer. Writing Coaching: The workshop that may have helped me the most is the writing coaching workshop I took with S.A. Crow. This month-long coaching helped me find new articles and videos with conversation and feedback on my writing. It helped me to focus on getting words down in a manner that felt natural to me. (There is no one way to draft a book!)

What did you write this year? Did you finish a project or several? Are you proud of what you wrote? You should be! Even if you didn’t “Win” NaNo or get that draft finished you showed up for yourself and that is worth being proud of.

As we wrap up the year and scramble to finish those last minute projects, make sure that you take time for yourself. The end of the year is as much a time for last minute work as it is for reflection.

"The farther back you look," Winston Churchill is reputed to have said, "the further ahead you can see."