So I’ve already posted my goals for NEXT year (it’s coming so soon y’all!), but I think now is a good time to reminisce on the year that is on its way out.
I can’t complain about 2015. It wasn’t a super memorable year, but it definitely wasn’t a year I’ll try to forget about either.
I got engaged in December of last year (Dec 26th at the Riverwalk in San Antonio <3), so I spent the majority of the first part of the year riding the engagement high. Pinterest all the time!
The summer was boring as heck at work. I work in a college library, and there are just a few classes taught over the summer. We librarians spend our time trying to stay awake most of the day. So, summer was definitely not memorable.
In October I was able/semi-forced to quit my second job waiting tables. I was only working one night a week, and it finally came to the point that I was being forced out. After 4 solid years. I went down to once a week when I got my library job in late July 2014. It was great extra cash! But then one of the managers turned on me. Started messing with my schedule so that I wasn’t making money anymore. It wasn’t worth being miserable at work on a Sunday night every week to deal with it anymore. So I quit. Gracefully. I wrote a short story about serving tables in college. I just uploaded it to my Wattpad. Read it here!
The fall is when I rediscovered my love for reading and writing again. I started this blog in October after I found out that you can get free books for being a book reviewer. I had just finished reading two books (Broken Grace during my free trial of Kindle Unlimited, and Life and Other Near Death Experiences, which was my Kindle First book for the month), so I set up my blog, wrote reviews for each of them, and thus started my journey connecting with the writing community, ie all of YOU.
As far as book reviews go, this year, in the 3 months I blogged, I was asked to review books twice. I finished one finally (When Life Hands You a Lemon), and I’m working my way through the other (it’s 500 pages long!). I’m hoping to make that more of a thing as next year goes along. I love helping out other authors by reviewing their books. 🙂 (Psst, if you need one —> let me know!)
I partipated in NaNoWriMo after taking a year off (you could argue that I took off 2 considering my word count in 2013, haha) and while I didn’t make it to 50,000, I wrote more than I had in a long while, and I ignited a spark. I’m still working on that thing. It’s been hard to continue (because I know it’s flawed like crazy) but a first draft is just that. A FIRST draft. Which is why I really just need to finish it already. My goal for Cover Up is to write THE END by the end of January. That’s achievable.
I had every intention of Where I Belong being my NaNo novel , but I have too much stock in that one. I realized halfway into Day 1 that I didn’t want to write the rest of that in 30 days. That is one I feel is going to be my ‘best seller’ in the near future. I need to do lots of research though. That, or I need to figure out how to get people to suspend reality and imagine that the amnesia my MC has is real. That’s probably more where I’ll go with that, but we’ll see.
After just 3 months, I have 201 followers on my blog. 45 posts (inlcuding this one). At the time of writing this, 349 comments (only 103 of which are mine!), 855 visitors, 2,500 blog views even! How great those numbers make me feel! And these are not my Facebook friends or family, either!
It’s hard to post a “Top Posts” considering how young my blog is, but I can do this:
The most popular post of the year, with 157 views, 44 likes and 14 comments: “NaNoWriMo 2015 – Finally! A Plot!” (it’s funny because I didn’t even end up doing that one, ha)
My favorite post of the year to write, with 88 views, 30 likes and 17 comments: “Things I Hate About My Novel” (this one was like writing therapy. It was amazing.)
I make every effort to engage with other bloggers, and I’m so glad that I have an active following. I hope that continues through the next year!
I also got back into Twitter! At the time of this writing, my Twitter account is 8 days old, and I have 128 tweets, have been added to 17 lists, lots of likes and retweets, and 200 followers!
This community of writers and bloggers is amazing, and I can’t wait to see what 2016 has to bring with that.
Goodness, it’s hard to believe that today is the last day of 2015. I make no promises in regards to my sobriety tonight, but I know at 11:59pm, I’ll look back one last time and be pretty thankful for how this past year has gone.
And when the clock strikes midnight, the carriage won’t turn back into a pumpkin, and I can keep this stride going into the new year.
Happy new year, friends.
The Caffeinated Writer 
What advice would you give for getting more followers?? I feel like I am stuck in a rut and I’m just yelling things into a void where no one cares haha
I believe most of mine came from engaging in others’ posts. Looking at tags that I frequent myself with my posts and liking and commenting on other peoples blogs. Follow ones that interest you (lots are likely to follow back – or at least I usually do). If you’re not tagging your posts, do! You can see what tags are popular here (https://wordpress.com/tags/) and maybe work your posts around those. Those are my tips anyway.
Sometimes, the “bestseller” in our heads has to sit and wait a little longer. I’ve one of those as well and it’s been started, stopped, refreshed, planned, started, and repeat for the past 6+ years. I discovered that the older I get and the more experiences I have, the better I feel about each newer “version.” So groom your novel-in-progress, it only gets better from here.
ps. I read your excerpt on WP. So glad you’re out of that place. I’ve been a barista at a coffeehouse in my youth and I swore I’d never work with food again. But working that midnight shift like you? I’d be terrified. Now I work in retail, which isn’t much better, but at least we don’t have to take orders all day long.
Thanks for the encouragement on the novel! It really does feel like the best idea I’ve ever had. I just want to make sure it works. I may sit down and pick it back up tomorrow. We’ll see!
And thankfully I only worked at IHOP for 6 months. I then worked at Red Robin for just short of 4 years when they made me feel replaceable. I cut my losses. It’s great money, but I think it was ruining my outlook of things anyway. Because a lot of people suck lol
They do. But I believe it also has to do with our being artists and that we look at life from a very different perspective than most other people. Better than you’re in a library now, I wish I had your job! Every job has its pros and cons, but at least you don’t have to deal with inebriated skirt chasers anymore!
Heck. Yes.