Introduction
For the past seven years, I've made plans at the beginning of the year. I make plans for books I want to write and publish, screenplays, or short stories. I also try to blog to boost my "platform." All that's in my plan.
A couple of years ago, I had the bright idea of assessing how that went. This is my end-of-year look back at my creativity efforts for 2022.
Executive Summary (tl;dr)
My hopes for book sales and something like notoriety faded over the course of the year, compounded with disillusionment with my current work-in-progress (a psychological thriller). But interest in cartooning, essays, and a late Moth StorySLAM victory buoyed my spirits.
"Successes"
Fiction
I have two novels I self-pubished at the end of 2021. I spent months fighting for reviews as, as far as I know, reviews are the key to sales for independent authors.
The reviews I've gotten have been good. Sales are still lagging.
I shared the manuscript of my new novel with beta readers and they weren't impressed. So I spent months rethinking the story and spent the end of the year rewriting it. It's been fun.
In the middle of the year, I had an idea for a short story from out of the blue, so I spent two months nailing it. It went long, though, at over 10,000 words. I submitted it to a contest, thinking that was its best hope to find a place in the sun.
Humor and Satire
I placed four satire pieces this year, one that was written two years ago (which is cool):
- Open Enrollment for Red-Blooded Americans
- Now That We Have a Potion From the Forest Wizards to Dampen the Curse for Spontaneous Human Combustion, it’s Time to Return to the Office
- Our Ride or Die Pledge has been Revised. Please Read Carefully.
- 15 Things to Do With That Economy-Sized Tub of Guacamole From Costco
Nonfiction
I stumbled on a class from Pandemic University called, Developing Your Comedic Voice Through Personal Essay. It seemed like something I didn't realize I needed. I loved it, and took more classes with the instructor, Zahra Noorhbaksh.
Craft and Creativity
Every year, I pursue other creative arts to keep my mind sharp, and read books or take classes on the craft of writing.
- Studying cartooning has been fun. I envision something coming of it in the next two years
- Matt Bell's "Refuse to be Done" seminar was excellent
- The book "Sin and Syntax" is great (and I need to finish it)
Other
I love to tell stories live at Moth StorySLAMs. I've delivered 17 of them at Ann Arbor, and in August I finally won a StorySLAM. It was a hoot and a half. It also makes me eligible for the GrandSLAM in May. I can't wait. Moth events are always a riot.
Summation and Going Forward
That was my year in creativity. My key takeaway is you have to keep slugging away at projects because art will demand the work.
Is that helpful? I'm not sure. Maybe I can ponder that and give you better answer later.
Which reminds me: I'm going to be doing this on a weekly basis, sharing what I've learned, tips and tricks of the creativity life. If you'd like to here more, sign up for my newsletter, Creativity for Fun and Profit and I'll send you a free course, Awaken Your Creative Abundance, for joining.
Thanks for your time!
–mickey