2021 Writer’s Review
Learning a writer’s journey
Looking back helps to reflect, learn, and move forward. Reviews are important as without collecting and summarising the evidence, you might easily tend to feel like a failure. Even with the evidence in front of you, there may be an inner critic who finds reasons to discount it all and remind you how terrible you are at everything. Even as I typed that I would ‘pave the way for 100X better next year’ in 2020’s writer’s review, my words felt false. That feeling stuck with me and made me discount what I’d written entirely. Returning to the review one year on, I’m surprised to see some sensible ideas that I’d completely forgotten or ignored. Planning not to let that happen again, I’ve scheduled in my calendar to use this article to make action steps.
In 2021 I published on Medium weekly until I stopped my full-time job at the end of June. After that I took a minimum 6-month ‘laying fallow’ period; by definition, an unproductive time. My plan was no plan, no job applications, and no commitments further than one month away. Though I expected to continue my writing habit, I went rowing across England, then served on a meditation course after which I’d lost my rhythm and discipline. I wrote and published about 20% less than 2020.
The shortest published writing was 70-words, “Myth of Tomorrow” poem; brevity correlates strongly with number of reads when I publish on Medium. The longest was “What’s new and want isn’t in UK secondary education? An alien answers” at just over 3000 words to cover 21 points. The most meaningful to write was “What Emergencies Have 115 Community Colleges (Not) Planned For?” which I’m still considering (procrastinating) on making into an article to be submitted to an academic journal. What brought me most joy was “How Sustainable s Willy Wonka’s Factory?” — writing between fact and fiction tickles me.
Publications with the highest read ratios of 2021 (percentage of people who view the page who go on to read it) are poems, around 75%. My most read is O.U.G.H. — a poem which helps English learners understand and pronounce correctly the multiple pronunciations of the combination of letters ‘ough’.
One change I made from 2020 was submitting to publications. However, with the exception of a neighbourhood newsletter and one competition entry, I only submitted to publications on Medium. I discovered this does not necessarily change the number of views or reads, although my biography published in “About Me Stories” engaged a number of readers. I shared on Facebook and sometimes on LinkedIn. Despite not using Instagram or Twitter, I feel I’m using social media more than enough. I understand my social-media aversion negatively impacts how many eyes land on my writing and remain averse to addressing it. Too much of my writing is focused on me, ME, ME! It’s clear I’ve been mainly writing for me rather than my readers. On the other hand, I know I’m doing something right as I have received some feedback related to thinking of things in new ways or making self-realisations thanks to my writing. I’d like to be doing more things more right more of the time!
In 2021 I wrote morning pages on 105 days (compared to 93 in 2020) and journaled on 162 days (compared to 189 in 2020) using the same prompts:
- What was amazing yesterday?
- How could I have made yesterday better?
- What three things am I grateful for today?
- How can I make today great?
Currently I’m experimenting with another prompt:
- Evidence of micro-bravery.
2022’s Creativity with a Deadline
- Publish poetry book as e-book and hard copy
- Publish family tree and history
- Submit one academic journal publication
- Enter 3–4 writing competitions and 3–5 poetry.
- Join a writing course / programme / group
- Update SEO on all writing published online published
Words onto page
Prevent the sorrow
Writing today
Righting tomorrow
