𓅇 Chase J 𓅊 - lv 33 🍜🐲

Hello everypony. As I said in a previous post, I used to do this on tumblr, so now I'm gonna do it here! Because telling other people makes it feel more real and gets me moving.

2022 resolutions and outcomes

This was the year I was really gonna focus on my writing! And get things happening!

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1. Finish editing 🏳️‍🌈🦅- Done! It took me over 2 years to do so, and I learned, so, so much, but it is done! Finally!
1. And begin submissions to literary agents - I am going to do that tomorrow :) I was expecting to finish editing much earlier in the year. And submitting over the holiday period seems eh so I decided to wait until 2023
2. Publish the demo for 🔍🤔 - Did not do. 🏳️‍🌈🦅 took up everything
3. Finish first draft of 🏳️‍⚧️🌕🐺 or 🔍🤔 - Did not do. Again, 🏳️‍🌈🦅 took up most of my time. You can see how, uh, optimistic I was when I was making these
4. Develop 3rd project - Done! But not in the way I was expecting. My aim is to always have 3 (no more than 3) big projects going at a time, and since 🏳️‍🌈🦅 is now closed, I need a new one. Instead of being another fiction novel, it's...a memoir. Because some Personal Stuff happened that is very memoir-able
5. Learn 100 new words - Done! Thank you dictionary.com
6. Apply to Furry Writer's Guild - Did not do, but it's not my fault! You have to either have 2 pieces published in an unpaid (but still editorialized) market or at least 1 piece in a paid market. I was supposed to have my second piece published at a furcon, but it was cancelled because of covid. So unless a meteor hits San Jose, it WILL be published this year then I WILL be able to finally do this lol
7. Finish [very long/ridiculous fanfic] - Did not do. This was supposed to be my dedicated blowing-off-steam writing project, but...idk I needed to do things that WEREN'T writing to relax. So I did those other things instead of making myself write.

Other writerly things that happened, but I hadn't planned to have happen:

• Wrote/finished/started submitting 2 short stories I am very happy with
• Wrote an incredibly silly and multi-media fanfic
• Attended a writer's conference
• Joined an irl critique group
• Wrote a very long argumentative blog post, while a friend wrote one about the opposite position, and it was all very silly and fun
• Further embraced my "yes I am mentally unwell yes this makes my art Unhinged but I love it and won't apologize for it" phase

2023 resolutions

All right, here we go!

Writing goals

1. Get a literary agent for 🏳️‍🌈🦅 - My goal is to get it trade published, which means I need an agent. So this is gonna be persisting and keep working on it. The ultimate success of the goal is out of my hands, 'cause I can't MAKE an agent work with me (like how you can't MAKE someone give you a job), but I can do my very best to increase my chances!
2. Finish the first draft of 🏳️‍⚧️🌕🐺 - This is my "the pitch is so fucking good but the actual text will be Insane so idk if anyone will want to publish this" idea. Worst comes to worst, I know a small, furry press would absolutely love it. But I just gotta write it! It'll be 60-80k, which is 1/3-1/2 the size of 🏳️‍🌈🦅, so the whole writing/editing process should be much, MUCH shorter
3. Get into the Furry Writer's Guild - Should be able to knock this one out quickly lol
4. Get a new short story out for subs each quarter (so 4/year) - I keep thinking that I am Bad at short stories, but I have gotten great feedback on the ones that I've shared. And more writing credits is always good. It won't pay the bills, but it is money to go into the fursuit fund
5. Critique more! - Whether that's friend's writing or on this one forum I'm on, I should sit down and read and critique. It's helping other people out, and it helps me become a better writer, too
6. Do at least 1 writing-related task each day - So this can be writing, editing, outlining, "problem solving," doing submission stuff etc. Writing is way more than putting words on a page, and getting stuck with only doing one thing every day is no fun. But it's keeping that forward momentum going to get all my goals done :)

Not writing goals

1. Journal in regards to Personal Stuff - To help figure out my brain more and get a handle on Things
2. Look into therapy for Personal Stuff - It won't be too expensive if it's in network...but it's starting that up and finding someone and all that that's ugh. It's so many annoying, frustrating things but I know it'll really help me. So gotta make myself do that.
3. Get up and move outside each day - It's very easy to sit inside all day and write or play games, and I can feel my body be not happy with me. And it helps my mental health to be active. So this can be biking to work, or for errands, or playing Pokemon Go, or something
4. Have at least 1 meat-free day a week - Because of various health things, it really is not feasible for me to be a vegetarian or vegan. But I DO want to make better choices, for health reasons and lessening the suffering of animals and all that. So this will push me to eat new things, cook more for myself, and make better choices. Also vegetals yummy
5. Do a social thing at least once a month - It is very easy to just...sit at home and be by myself and be a mega introvert. But almost every time I go out and be social, I DO enjoy it! I need to be mindful that, hey, I like doing these things. I should go do those.

Previous years and metrics and such

This is already a super long post so I'm just gonna give numbers instead of detailing everything lol

• 2015 - 6 goals, 4 accomplished - 66%
• 2016 - 5 goals, 2 and a halfish accomplished - 50%
• 2017 - 3 goals, I technically did all three but a thing exploded so it ended up only having 2 being truly done by the end of the year - 66%
• 2018 - 4 goals, 1 accomplished (but 1 I later decided nah I'm just not gonna do that) - I'm gonna say 33%
• 2019 - 4 goals + 1 stretch goal, 2.5 accomplished and technically did the stretch goal - 62.5%
• 2020 - 3 goals, all of them got torpedoed because of covid times - I'm gonna give myself a free pas on this one
• 2021 - 3 goals, 2 accomplished (the one I didn't was submitting 🏳️‍🌈🦅 to agents like I really did mean it has been taking me forever to finish it) - 66%
• 2022 - 8 (!!!) goals, 3 accomplished, 2 deferred to Jan 2023 - 37%
• 2023 - 11 goals (why)

So that's an average of 54%! 2022 sure did ruin my metrics lol