2024 Goal Recap: What Now?
Legit, I forgot this was a thing until yesterday. The last two and a half months have been an absolute scramble. I peeked back at the goals I set for this year, so let's see where we are.
Finish a first-draft manuscript of The Remara Phenomenon.
Yes-and-no. Yes, in the sense that I reached a wordcount equivalent to a full manuscript. The story is 104k words to date. However I realized the last arc that I wrote did not fit into the story very well. It was both too long and too rushed, with the only real fix being that the arc itself ought to be removed and turned into its own novel (being about a third of a novel-length all by itself). With the transition to Japan looming, it became too much to deal with. I had to let go of my goal to finish this story before the move. While it is still incomplete, many ideas are churning.
As much as the current incompleteness of the manuscript feels like failure, I am trying to hold onto the fact that I wrote an original story that was at least the length of a novel. No more being eternally stuck at 40k words.
Prepare (repair) the house and all its systems so that it can weather our absence well.
I got almost all of it done. Two new issues were discovered before we left, but I handed them off to our plumber and our housemate to deal with. I have let go as much as I can.
Be able to read a Japanese children's book and/or largely understand a manga (Japanese graphic novel) and/or understand most of what is being said in an anime (Japanese animation).
This did not happen at all because most of my focus went toward writing The Remara Phenomenon this year.
It's hard to even know where to begin with goals this year. I think I know a few reasonable ones, though.
- Reach and maintain my final weight goal (range, 135-40lb/61-63.5kg).
- Be able to hold trivial conversations with friends and interact with shopkeepers in Japanese.
- Learn 2-3 new crochet patterns.
As much as I want to set a writing goal for the year, I don't believe that's practical. I hope I write. I hope I revise a couple chapters of The Remara Phenomenon and maybe write a rough ending to it. However, I start intensive classes at Coto Language School on January 6, 2025. That will be 5 days a week plus homework. I'm going to have my hands full if I hope to be conversational by the end of the year.
Here we go, 2025. What have you got for me?