I am recovering (slowly!) from this dang cold. But I didn’t sleep well last night, and that has slowed down my recovery even more. I had a different blog post planned, but my brain isn’t mighty enough to tackle much of anything today. (Sad face – no writing today – not when I’m this exhausted. Maybe after a nap I can get some words in. Or, more likely, I’ll tackle the new project fresher tomorrow.)
So I figured I’d do that looking back thang that I tend to do at the end of a year. And maybe some looking forward as well.
In terms of writing, 2018 was an *awesome* year. A year of production. Assuming that I don’t write anything more this year (beyond this blog post) I’ll have written about 614,000 words in 2018. Previously, my most productive year was 2016, when I wrote 412,667.
And next year, I plan on doing even better. My stated goal for 2019 is 750K. When I’m feeling well, I know that’s totally doable. When I’m not feeling well, I honestly feel a bit overwhelmed by that number. But I’m still going to strive for it, with the understanding that if the goal feels too daunting by mid-year, I can change it.
I changed to a twice-a-month newsletter, and I continue to really enjoy that. I also started blogging regularly, to ‘prime the pump’ as it were for the fiction, and I’ve also been enjoying that. So included in those word counts are blog and newsletter counts.
My words before anyone else’s continues to remain a huge mantra for me.
In terms of publishing, I did a lot. I kept both Blaze and I on the 30-day Amazon pulse, meaning that I published something of his as well as something of mine every single month. Have done that for more than one year now. I published a few other people but I didn’t add any authors to the KRP stable. Instead, I published them for an upfront fee and let them collect 100% of the royalties.
We also started publishing Boundary Shock Quarterly, which doesn’t take up a lot of my time, but it still takes up some.
I’ve (finally!) started pushing publishing work out to my virtual assistant (VA). OMG that makes me happy. It gives me more time to think and do story stuff.
We’ve been incorporated for a year now, and that still appears to be working well for us.
We have plans for 2019 on the publishing front, things we’ve already put into place, so stay tuned for announcements as they happen.
On the health front, I feel as though the year has been up and down for me.
One of the ups: I had THREE migraines in 2018. Three. That’s it. I’m still kind of astonished at that. I’ve been 114 days since my last migraine. I count that as a serious win.
For a while this year, I dropped out of hard-core keto into just low carb. Couldn’t maintain it, however and had to go back into keto again due to hormones.
I can’t say with 100% certainty that my cycle will finally end in 2019 and I’ll actually be in menopause, and not perimenopause. I am optimistic, however, that will be the case.
Despite being sick with this danged cold right now, I know I’m healthier than I used to be. And because I’ve been so much healthier, I’ve been able to write a lot more, even on the bad days.
Next year, I plan on doing the same. Staying hard-core keto until I finally reach menopause, then maintaining it for a year. Moving more, doing more body weight exercises, getting back into better physical condition. I am not getting younger, so I need to make more effort when it comes to my physical health.
So I guess, 2019 is going to look similar to 2018, except with more writing, more exercise, and less of the publishing work (so as to make room for the other two.)
I hope that you’re looking forward to your 2019, and that it will treat you well!