As we close out 2024, I look back and consider the year. How did I do? Where did I succeed? Where did I fall short?
This review is not about recrimination or blame; it is about acknowledging what I did well and what I did not and approaching the next year with a sense of how I can improve.
Projects
I am on the verge of publishing my next book, delayed only because of my last-minute move, which was time consuming and exhausting. Champion Bold is almost ready; I’m at the point where I’m calculating the book cost so I can assign ISBNs and then orders proof copies. The supplement books are right behind them.
I am about a third of the way through the re-write of Renaissance Army Book 3, The Colonel Lieutenant. This is my next big project after I finish Champion Bold. I’ve got other projects I’m working on as secondary or tertiary projects, each of which I’ve picked at sometime during the year. None of which I’d really announce as a primary project at this time.
My other big project work is how I’ve been revising my writing process. There’s a whole blog series I’m working on, but essentially I’m doing as much world building and planning as I can, to cut down on post-draft corrections. The idea is to make writing an easier and quicker process.
Books
By my count, I finished 27 books in 2024, both reading and listening. These were heavily weighted towards fiction (22 out of 27). Short of my goal of 36 books, but still a good showing.
2025 is going to be a little more difficult because I’m losing my bus rides, which is where I do most of my reading. Instead, I’m going to have to find time elsewhere to sit down and read.
Also, as part of my move, I made a list of all the books I own that I haven’t read and came out to more than a hundred. So clearly in 2025, I’m going to want to whittle that number down.
Movies and Shows
I watched a surprisingly little amount of new content this year. I only knocked 10 movies and about 15 seasons of TV shows off my watch list. That’s not great. Part of the issue is that I no long have new stuff playing while I’m writing or playing computer games; I try to sit down and watch it fully. Which is hard to do, because I have so many other things to do. I did get into reactor videos, which has also influenced my watching habits.
I want to knock more things off my to -watch list, and part of doing that is going to be doing some minor world building and brain storming while I’m watching new things. I might also incorporate one new episode of a show as my ‘you just got home spend half an hour relaxing’ routine. Whatever I can do to knock things off my watch list faster than they get on there.
Games
I played a fair number of games this year, but I didn’t really finish a whole lot of them. I did end a couple, but many of the games I was playing through at the start of the year I’m still playing through at the end. That’s not good. These are great stories to play through and I need to focus on finishing them and moving on to new ones.
So, I’ll be spending more time playing video games now that I’m done moving. Enough time that I can make progress on the games, but not enough that I fall behind on my projects.
For 2025
For 2025, now that I’m in a new place and I’ve got space to spread out (and I’ve shed a lot of excess crap) I’m looking forward to hitting the ground running. With a revised writing process, and 100 ISBN’s purchased, I’ve got room to write and create. I want to be efficient in knocking things off my lists, and with some effort I think I can be.
- Publish Champion Bold
- Advance 3 Projects
- Read 36+ books
- Own fewer than 100 books I haven’t read.
- Watch 15+ movies
- Watch 15+ Seasons TV
- Finish 6 Games
