This year has flown and I can’t believe that Christmas is just around the corner. It feels like a short time ago I was in these planning stages for 2023 and now I am in the throes of organising 2024.
Reflections on 2023
This has been a great year for reading and writing with two more drafts on that convict story, one on a new story and a new short story. This year I also launched my writing retreats and took on contract communications work. It’s been super busy trying to fit everything in and has seen me rising early each day to work on my writing before heading off to work. I hit the exhaustion button last week and this is making me think about what next year might look like.
Usually, my end-of-year wrap also includes the books I have read. There will be more read before the year is out but so far, I have read 48 books. The standouts have been: The Hummingbird Effect, Horse, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Prettier if She Smiled More, Southern Aurora, Nothing to See Here, Nightbitch, I’ll Leave You With This, Smokehouse, and Someone Else’s Child.
Writing
That convict story…
Last week, I completed what I thought was the nineteenth draft of my manuscript inspired by my First Fleet convict ancestor but is actually the 22nd. The story has gone through many iterations over the last seven years including twelve titles (ranging from long ones like Needleworker, Whore, Thief, Cook, Mother to short ones like Fray. Its current working title, Un|Common Thread, may change still.
Its current version weaves a contemporary storyline of a woman deciding to solo parent while grappling with her mother’s rejection and need, through the convict woman’s story. The themes are complex mother-daughter relationships, and solo and single parenting. It is all framed around a needlework sampler.
Earlier this year, the manuscript was longlisted for the Queensland Writers Centre Publishable program, which was a thrill and gave me access to some wonderful resources. Not long after that, I was accepted as a 2024 Fellow at the Katharine Susannah Pritchard Writers Centre from an extract of this manuscript. I’ll be over in Perth in May and am planning to get there a day early to catch up with Perth people (give me a cooee if you’re keen for this on Sunday 12 May).
Farm hand needed, comes with house and dog
I was so excited to have a short story of mine Farm hand needed, comes with house and dog accepted in the Outback Anthology of Short Stories Volume 8 earlier this year. The story came to me whole and is informed from the many towns I have been through and from thinking about towns that were suddenly inundated with city folk during the lockdown years. It is about dying towns, new blood coming into them and what it is to live in the shadows.
You can grab a copy from Boolarong Press.
Untitled work in progress
I finished an ugly first draft of a contemporary romantic comedy in June and am looking forward to digging my teeth back into it. I know it is a hot mess but that is part of my process. My plan is to get into it early in the new year.
Retreats and communication work
With my heart in my hands, I leapt into launching Retreat with Me. I knew it was something that people needed and wanted, but I was nervous about whether I had thought of everything. It was a resounding success and on the heels of that, I set dates for more retreats next year.
I also jumped into a fabulous role as a communications specialist with V/Line (the regional rail provider) and learnt so much from the wonderful people I worked with. I loved leaving them in a better place after cleaning up their intranet pages, creating messaging about what they did to the rest of V/Line, drafting a technical writing guideline and setting up a logical document management system. It was a great reminder that taking a leap of faith to leave my last job was the right thing.
Reach out if you need a hand to clean or set up your intranet/internet pages or document libraries, get guidance on a communications strategy or any other communications or editing work.
My studies in coaching continue and I am not rushing it; instead, I am taking it all in and practising and reflecting as I go. It was great to be able to provide this to the retreat recipients earlier this year and watch them grow from it.
Bring on 2024
I am in the planning stages for 2024. I’ve got my year planner out, blocking out time for things I know are happening and allowing space for spontaneity.
My initial plan is:
- to run the retreats (locked in)
- provide more freelance editing and communication
- continue my coaching study and provide coaching for creatives
- go to Perth for my KSP Fellowship (locked in)
- complete a couple of drafts of my rom-com
- write a few more short stories
- get a contract for that convict story.
Registrations have opened for the six Retreat with Me and have begun filling, so if this is something you are keen on don’t wait to register. I’m so looking forward to meeting new writers.
Soon, I will pull out my 2024 diary (yes, I am still paper based in that way) and begin to fill that in with my goals for myself (read about how I didn’t do that at the beginning of 2022 and how I felt unanchored). Thinking about the future and setting goals, assists with bringing them into actuality. At the beginning of this year, one of my goals was to make my body more flexible. I approached that by committing to regular yoga, and it has helped. I also committed to each of the drafts I then completed. These goals help me to carve the time to make them happen.
When I set goals, I look at them through spiritual, physical and mental lenses. My goals include things like my relationships with family and friends, my body’s health, my writing and reading, my connections to nature, my learning, my attention to creativity and play. I enter into goal setting with a growth mindset: How will I grow in the year ahead? What am I going to learn and why am I interested in learning about that?
Do you plan? If you do, how do you approach it? If you don’t, how do you achieve your dreams?
Comments below, as usual. I love to hear from you.
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