I can’t believe a whole year has passed again. A year ago, I posted some very general New Year’s resolutions, as I failed to accomplish my detailed 2017 New Year’s resolutions. At the end of 2017 I felt like a failure for not having accomplished what I had resolved to do. On New Year’s Day 2018 I decided not to set myself up for disaster, so my resolutions were short and general.
I was going to write a review of 2018 yesterday, but time got away from me, and I ended up not writing anything. I wasn’t too bothered yesterday, but I have decided that in order to look forward, I would like to reflect on the past year.
Blog
My blog has grown a lot over the last year. I wrote 97 posts in 2018, which is a HUGE amount for me. I made Molly’s Daily Kiss’s Top 100 Sex Blogs 2018 list, which made me really happy. I have never made a Top 100 list for anything before, so that was a proud moment. At the end of the year, my blogging slowed down significantly though, due to a combination of moving house and getting a puppy (and the resulting lack of sleep and time).
For 2019, I want to get back into blogging. I don’t think I will be able to be as prolific as I was in 2018 (some weeks I posted a blog post every day!), but now that my puppy has settled down a bit more and doesn’t need constant supervision, I will be able to post more regularly again. After all, my opinions on sex and feminism haven’t gone away all of a sudden.
Novels
One of my 2018 New Year’s resolutions was to finish my erotic novel and self publish it. To my shame I have to admit that I STILL haven’t finished rewriting it, let alone edited it. I seem to have a mental block when it comes to writing it and I don’t know whether it’s because I this is my first erotica novel and I am scared of screwing it up or whether I am just procrastinating, but it’s not progressing as I would like.
In 2019 I at least want to finish my erotica novel. I have two other romance novels (not erotica) on the go as well, which I also want to finish, so this year is going to be busy writing-wise. But participating in NaNoWriMo in November brought home again how much I love writing, so I just have to make sure I take the time to sit down and do it. Even if it’s just half an hour each day.
Paid writing gigs
At the beginning of 2018 I did not dream I could make money off my blog that year, but by the end of the year I had secured a few paid writing gigs. I wrote a few paid-for guest blogs, I have been accepted as an author for the Sunsette app (a new app with erotic short stories which will hopefully hit the market soon) and I managed to write a number of articles under my real name. I feel incredibly blessed that people find my writing good enough to pay me for it.
I am hoping to continue to seek out paid writing opportunities in 2019 as it is my hope that I can earn enough from my freelance writing to start working part time at my day job. I am still a LONG way from that goal, but every little helps. I wasn’t that proactive at seeking out paid writing gigs in 2018 and I still managed to get paid a fair amount for my writing, so this should get better if I put more effort into it.
Mood/mental health
2018 started off good with respect to my mental health, but the combined stress of buying a house, moving and getting a puppy meant that I ended the year on a low. Lack of sleep is never good, but this time it coincided with a tough time at my job, so things have not been ideal for me in the last few months.
Mental health is a tough one to control, but I am planning on focusing more on my own needs this year. I am going to try and sleep more, and I am hoping to find a new job by the end of the year, as my boss is getting increasingly more misogynistic (either that or I am noticing his misogyny more).
I am also hoping to step back a bit from the news, as the world is a dumpster fire, both in the US and the UK. I have no idea whether I am even going to be able to stay in the UK with this Brexit BS, so that is going to be fun. But I have decided not to get too worried about things unless they are a reality; there is enough real stuff to worry about right now.
2019 is going to be a challenging year, I’m sure, but I am ready for it. I am going into this year refreshed and full of hope and really, that’s all I can do.