Hi there, happy Sunday
Here it is, the first inagural 'proper' newsletter for Novel Title TBC. We'll chat reflections on 2022 and setting up for the new year ahead.
Is it too late to say Happy New Year?
I hope your first full week of 2023 has been a positive start, and if it hasn’t I hope the coming ones bring you something better.
I, like many others, went back to work on the 3rd. Thankfully it was still pretty quiet and not too much of a shock to the system. I had also very strategically booked the end of the week off and have spent the last few days in a lovely little cottage in Yorkshire. It’s a treat to have a busy festive season celebrating with family and friends, but it sure is tiring - I hadn’t really appreciated how nice it would be to have a recovery break afterwards. I’m very grateful that we’ve been able to do this and catch up on some sleep!
A little reflecting on 2022
For me, it was not the year I had expected to have. Not in a bad way necesscarily, it’s actually been a great year and I’ve had the priveledge to experience some amazing things - to name a few we moved into a new house, got to see 3 sets of friends and loved ones get married, went on lovely holidays. For some reason though, it’s also been one of the most challenging ones for me personally. A huge amount changed for me over this year, including that new house I mentioned, as well as changing jobs in the spring and taking on a bigger team. I really lost my routine, at times I felt directionless and ended up questioning a lot of things. I found this extremeley frustrating as nothing was wrong. I am fortunate to have a roof over my head, food on my table, loving relationships, what should be a fulfilling job. I also finally got Albedo in Genshin Impact. So why did I feel like I wasn’t where I was supposed to be? I certainly don’t think it’s because I turned 30, so I won’t be perpuating that myth, rather I think it just so happened to also be a cumulation of lots of upheaval in my life. It made for some difficult points mentally at times, but I’m very grateful to have been supported through it and am starting this year on what feels like a positive foot.
Also, 2022 was the true birth of this novel and my intentions for starting this substack. So whilst it’s felt like a bit of a rollercoaster, I’m thankful it’s brought me here.
Top reads, watches and general activities for 2022
So I started out the year with a goal of reading 10 books for the year. If you include Save the Cat, I ended up only reading 5…and none of them were even 5 stars.
The one that came the closest was The Song of Achilles. I love Greek myth and have been meaning to get round to it for quite a while. I’m glad that I did, it’s a beautiful take on the story of Patroclus and Achilles - it even made me feel sympathy for Achilles which is quite a feat. Fan of Greek myth or not, I’d highly recommend it.
Next on the list is Spy Family. An anime that has taken the world by storm and in my opinion, rightly so. It’s cute, it’s wholesome, it’s funny, the characters are all endearing and well built in their own rights. Even if you don’t normally watch anime, treat yourself to Spy Family. The opening and ending themes for both seasons are also bangers.
Lets talk music. I have what I suppose you would call an ecclectic taste in music, and I’ll jump from kpop to reggaeton to tropical house in pretty quick succession. I’ve also loved folk music, but this year it had a real resurgence in my repoitore. Particularly the fully acoustic variety, of which Elephant Sessions reigned supreme. They are a delightful mix of traditional folk and electronic and will make your spine tingle.
Rounding out this with favourite places visited, which are tied between the Isle of Skye (Scotland) and Freiburg (Germany). Both beautiful places, very connected to nature and had some really great food. If you do get chance to travel to Skye, I highly recommended the drive from Glasgow up through the national parks.
Honourable mentions go to MCM London Comiccon and Genshin Impact, the latter of which I didn’t play anywhere near as much this year but it still holds an iron grip on my heart.
Resoltuions for 2023
Rounding out todays newsletter with my intentions for this year. I actually don’t normally do resolutions, I generally find they’re too much pressure and not a healthy way to set yourself up for what is more often than not failure (in the eyes of your resolutions). For me this year though, it did feel relevant - mostly because I am starting a new venture, but also that loss of routine I mentioned earlier. I quite like routine, so I’d like some of that back.
Personal;
Try and practice a little mindfullness each day, at least a few minutes breathwork. (I know this one might be controversial for some, but pre-pandemic I’d picked up some habits that I found really helpful for me personally.)
Less aimless scrolling or time on my phone. Use more of my personal time to work on goals for the year. (I bloomin’ love tiktok, but my goodness is it a black hole for your time).
Spend longer learning Japanese each week. I studied Japanese for 3 years at university as an extra to my degree, and have been maintaining it with Duolingo (and anime). However I often take the easy route of practicing what I know rather than challenging myself to progress.
Look after my body more. One thing that has been a victim of my lost routine is my approach to what I’m eating and how much I’m exercising. I know this is boring and who doesn’t what to get fitter as a new year resolution, but I think some of the lethargy I’ve felt over 2022 was down to a loss of fitness so - it’s going on the list.
Creative;
Launch and maintain substack for serialising my novel. Well, we’ve launched! Which is exciting and nervewrecking all at the same time. Now we just need to keep it up.
Write in some format for at least 15 minutes, 5 times a week. I know for a fact I will not write everyday, and these intentions need to be realistic. Work is busy, I get tired, other things distract me. So this is the minumum I want to be regularly achieving.
Aim to have a paid subscription tier by the end of the year. The main goal and intention of this substack is and always will be to share my writing experience and (hopefully) build a community of readers. I would also love to be able to turn this into more of a career option in the future, which is where the paid tier comes into it. Lets hope we can get there.
That’s all for now folks! I hope you enjoyed this first newsletter, I am beyond grateful that you have chosen to give me some of your precious time to read my content. In two weeks time I will be sharing Chapter 1 whilst I sweat nervously, I do hope to see you again.
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