2022 Goal Recap

At the beginning of this year, I laid out four goals in areas that I was somewhat familiar with, but I made them each large enough that it required me to stretch myself. I did not reach each goal, but I can say where I am with each, and I'm mostly pleased with this year's results.

By the end of the year, I want to:

1. Have worked on my own embroidery designs.

The intention of this goal was to take a new art form I was learning and stretch my ability in it. Up until this point I had only completed DIY embroidery kits based on other peoples' designs. I wanted to make my own.

My first design came about because this is something I need to remember, and something I wanted to give to my husband to remind him of this, too, when we're in stressful situations. It's so easy to lose perspective and to think that what I'm feeling right this second is how it's always going to be from now on, but it's never like that. This was a good reminder and a simple, easy-to-reproduce design. The first one (left) isn't for sale because it was a gift to Sergey, but I put the second version (right) up in my shop. I may make more, toying with stitch-type and colors, but this is the design I'm most satisfied with.

My second design was an adventure in itself. I lost confidence several times when trying to stitch it. I thought my stitch choices were dumb. I thought I couldn't pick colors correctly. I thought I made a mistake picking a green fabric to stitch on. What should have only taken me a couple days stretched on for many months as I put it down and refused to pick it up for long stretches of time.

Eventually I had to embrace the idea of "doing it badly" in order to get it done, and to my surprise I didn't think it was too bad by the end. I actually like it. Next time I might try a different color fabric so I can pick different color threads. I really am happy with it, though, and this is a quote I really want to internalize, which is why I picked it to embroider.

This first version is also not for sale, as I sent it as a gift to someone who I felt embodies this quote.

Third design was semi-accidental. I signed up for a community gift swap through my art shop, Ko-Fi. It was mostly between digital creators, so my giftee and I worked out that what I could do was a time-lapse embroidery project. I had a mushroom lady designed in pencil for the longest time, just waiting for me to sit down and paint her. When I looked at the old design again, I thought it was something I could embroider.

After the fact, there's a lot that I think could be better. It probably needs a border of, like, moss or ferns. I think I should have changed the order of what was stitched. The face isn't clear enough. This is the design I'm least sure of, but it was still worth trying. Maybe in the future I will try a second draft of this.

I created three original embroidery designs and I completed this goal.

2. Have published a children's book by Christmas.

The intention of this goal was to take a short piece of original fiction that was already complete and go through the self-publishing process with it. I hoped that by lowering the stakes from a full-fledged novel to a children's book, I could focus fully on the process of self-publishing and knocking down my fears about learning how it works.

Too much too soon. I have a children's story written and I have it divvied up into the proper number of pages. I have also spoken with an illustrator friend of mine about page-by-page commissions, and I know I chose the correct person because... well I mean look at this!

This. This. This is everything I would want for my little story about a frightened bird who wants to visit the sun and receives this beautiful visitor along its journey.

I froze up while digging through the details of self-publishing Print-On-Demand books. I don't like Amazon's policies, so I turned to IngramSpark. It's not... the most user friendly. Or comprehensible. It's hard to make myself look at their information. On the other hand, so much time has passed since I last looked at BookBaby's website that now THEY offer Print On Demand and not just minimum print run publishing. I'm more familiar with BookBaby, but I feel like I owe it to myself to do some comparison between BookBaby and IngramSpark before I make that decision.

I'm not going to make my goal this year, though I did learn several things about the nuts and bolts of children's book construction. I hope to re-evaluate what I'm capable of and maybe, maybe, see this project through next year.

I did not complete this goal.

3. Have made one proper large wire bonsai tree that I am happy with.

The intention of this goal was to take an older art form I was familiar with and stretch my ability in it.

I was so afraid I'd make a wire monster and throw the whole thing out in disgust that I waited until the very last minute and I'm still not done. I could easily finish this with another day or two of work, but as I type the year is winding up, so this is as far as I got.

I don't absolutely abhor it. I have no idea what I'll do with it when I'm done because it's fragile enough that I cannot ship this thing, therefore I cannot place it in my shop. However, I did try. I may even make one more, but I don't think I'll make this a habit. As I asked myself, over and over, WHY I made myself do this, the answer kept coming back to, "Because my little wire trees aren't REAL wire bonsai trees like I see the REAL artists make online."

Yeah, well, I declare that to be a stupid reason to make a type of wire tree I don't particularly enjoy making. I absolutely will finish this, but I probably won't do it regularly.

I almost completed the goal but procrastinated too long and decided it wasn't a particularly good goal to begin with.

4. Have edited Thicker Than Water Tales with a print copy by Christmas.

The intention of this goal was to take a style of writing I was very familiar with (fanfiction) and use my familiarity with it to help me face my fears about editing. Before this point, I had never edited a full manuscript that I wrote. I want to take it seriously enough as a project that I end up with a print copy in my hands (not for sale) to show me what is possible, in the hopes that the next project I do this for is a piece of original fiction.

I vastly over-estimated my re-writing and revision speed. Thicker Than Water Tales is 4 separate stories long, and I am fortunate to have finished editing the first story (Best Served Cold) by the close of this year. With all that happened this year in real life, as well as my slow realization that I needed to drop extra projects in order to focus better, getting the full work edited and printed in one year was never an option.

However, I am encouraged. In past years when I tried this, I never got farther than about six chapters in. This time, I finished the first fanfiction. I replaced the old content of Best Served Cold with the new content on the Archive of our Own version only (Wattpad and Fanfiction.net still have the original version). I took it from a 37.5k word first draft to a 51.9k second draft. I also commissioned a cover with an incredible artist. It's a piece that gives me a little jolt of motivation every time I look at it.

I also have spoken with a friend about hiring him as an editor for this piece. I want to take this project so seriously that it's not as scary for me the next time I face down trying to edit a manuscript. I think I'm winning over the fear, one step at a time.

I did not complete the goal as originally set out, however I met my modified goal of finishing a revision of Best Served Cold this year, plus I commissioned the book cover and got an editor on board. Got a few chapters' jump-start on revising the next fanfiction in the saga, Worse Than Death.

BONUS: Finished Laughter Lines.

This fanfic has taken up headspace for so long. I've been splitting my attention between revising Best Served Cold and wrapping up Laughter Lines, the last fic in the Just Legends series. Laughter Lines is now complete and that means I have more focus to give to the Thicker Than Water Tales project. I've also finally given the characters the ending they deserved. It's been quite a ride, and I'm mostly satisfied. Still, I will miss them.

Just Legends is complete.

BONUS: Wrote one original fiction short story.

Just over 2,000 words of original fiction. I'm not ready to show it around. But it exists.

Wrote some original fiction.