It’s 2022 already.

Feels a bit like 2021 never actually happened, which is about how fast it seems 2020 went by despite how much actually did happen in both years.

In December, I realized that I had overwhelmed myself with expectations for this blog. Expectations of not just what people wanted to read, but also what I wanted to write about. Like taking a trip to the grocery store without a list, I wandered around the aisles of ideas in my head, just grabbing things at random without a clear idea of what I needed to be focusing on.

So, I asked myself: what is your first and always love? 

The answer was so simple and yet so complicated: writing.

Simple because it’s what I love most, and what makes me happiest when I am doing it.

Complicated because I haven’t been doing it, and if I’m not doing it, who am I to be posting about it? Unless…

I move away from writing tips and whatnot, and just talk about my personal journey as I get back to writing. By writing, I mean original fiction stories of all lengths, fanfiction stories that are a pure pleasure (never guilty), and maybe at some point, writing to make some extra money.

Do I still love travel and travel writing? YES! And I will get back to that, but I want to get back to basics first. In On Writing, Stephen King said, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” I whole-heartedly believe that, and yet I almost completely stopped doing both of these things in favor of watching television (movies and shows). Not that watching television is a bad thing, but I was doing it to avoid other things like reading and writing, and language learning.

Ah, language learning, my productive procrastination activity of choice.

I say it is productive procrastination because while I do it and learn from it, I am not giving it my full attention to use it in a meaningful way. If I am busy with a lesson in writing Chinese characters then I have a reason for not reading or writing, and that is doing a disservice to the languages I do love and want to learn.

My solution is to take deliberate baby steps and see what happens along the way. The beginning of the year is always a fun one for me because I feel like anything is possible, and my private heart-to-heart was in late December so it all worked out.

Rather than year-long goals, I thought it might be fun to do 30 day challenges related to writing. I have a list for the first quarter.

• January: 30 days of journaling – currently on day 17 and I have absolutely noticed a change in thinking, not just about myself but of how I am approaching writing and ideas.
• February: 28 days of flash fiction (100 words or less) – no set ideas, genre, etc. Just want to write down what comes to mind, whether it’s just dialogue, or a detailed scene.
• March: 30 days to a short story – where I write within the same plotline everyday for the month and have a first draft of a short story by day 30.

For the blog, starting today, I will keep to the old schedule of posting every other week, with quotes or pic posts in-between. The posts will be reading and writing updates, the quotes will be about reading and writing motivation. 

I am currently reading Sword of Destiny from The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski, re-reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and just started the English translation of The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (Mo Dao Zu Shi / 魔道祖师) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. My choice of what to read before bed depends on my mood. Each of these books is part of a series, though Grandmaster is one novel divided into four books, and the second translated version will be released in May. Three books in some kind of fantasy genre and written in entirely different styles. (I once read a chapter in Sword of Destiny and then picked up Chamber of Secrets and my brain stomped on the breaks and I had to go make a cup of tea before I could continue reading in order to give my brain time to reset.)

I’d like to finish one book by the end of January; considering the length of each, finishing them all would be quite the challenge. (One I would be willing to take time off of work for, if only I had the money!)

Am I still studying languages? Of course, I am on day 760 on Duolingo and while I told myself to just stop and let the counter go back to 0 so that the days I am actually using the app I am doing it with a purpose, I’m not sure if I am capable of it without hearing QUITTER in my head forever. It’s a work in progress. I am continuing with the Chinese character writing course I found on the Coursera website, but only on the weekends when I can sit with my coffee and take the time needed to practice.

So there it is. Bit long-winded, but this is the first time I’ve written it all down in one piece, not just in random journal entries. Of course, the trick is to actually do what I say I will now that I have put it out there in the world….