Review of the Year – 2022

Review of the Year –2022

Throughout 2022 I tracked and logged my progress in three areas: Writing, Exercise, and Work. I am primarily following James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, the process of answering 3 questions.

What went well?
What didn’t go so well?
What am I working toward?

This is my first self-review, and it will be messy. But as I progress into 2023, I am committed to doing a Career Best Effort (CBE) profile for myself, similar to what Pat Riley introduced in 1984 for the Lakers. I will track daily, weekly, and monthly improvements in my CBE portfolio. I’m setting goals to improve by 1% daily or as much as possible. And just to expand on some areas of my life, I am including auto-tracked data regarding sleep, learning, money, and any accomplishments/certificates.

Writing

Writing -What went well?

When I’m writing, I am actively tracking word count and writing time as I produce my work. I could spew out a fairly impressive-sounding WC but in relation to my writing time, it’s not all that. An estimate is about 300-400 words per 30 minutes, on average. So, an entire 80K word count novel could take me 135 hours (27-30 days if I write 5 hours straight). But in reality, it takes me months. I do not write 5 hours straight except during Nanowrimo on a random Saturday.

I, also, preset my novels in Scrivener for a 2000 Word Count goal per chapter and I strive to reach that length. But if the chapters naturally end up shorter or longer, I modify to a new goal to keep the book on pace (aka changing to 1000 WC per chapter or 3000 WC per chapter). It’s all formatted by the story being told. I try not to force those things. Genres of sci-fi/Fantasy and romance really differ and while I’ve written less than 10 in quantity, I can tell the chapters are usually shorter for romance and longer for sci-fi. Must be all that alien technical goop. I shared a couple of thoughts on tracking and setting goals in a blog. You can read my take on it here: The Ultimate Writers Higher Productivity Tips

And in 2022 I started sending my rough draft stuff to my line editor (mom) and that has eliminated some lengthy editing sessions. But I still edit my blogs and the occasional chapter and I self-edit (quickly), every time I pick up where I left off in the next writing session. For the sake of this review, I’m only going to list the total count of finished chapters and total word count and the number of blogs. That way I have solid numbers to go by.

Power in the word

I posted 39 of 48 chapters of Sparrows Legacy under JLNich on Kindle Vella. (69,846WC)
I posted 15 of 25 chapters of Soldiers-In-Arms under JLNicky on Kindle Vella. (26,704WC)
I posted 8 blog articles for Blog Beats on JLNichauthor.com
I posted 6 blog articles for Sexy Scholar on JLNickyauthor.com
I wrote 29 chapters of soon-to-be-published Cavels Colt by JLNich (78,621WC)
I wrote 16 of 25 chapters on Homeless for JLNicky (22,949WC)
I participated in the 2022 NYCMidnight short story challenge and wrote Bubble Competition (was ousted in the first review for going over the word/page count).
I posted 6 Pinterest pins using Canva to design them. My 2023 goal is 52 pins.
I attended 3 weeklong conferences online (aka Escape the Plot Forest, Find Your Readers, Style, and Voice) and one 12-week course for improving emotional writing called Memory, Emotion, and Body from WordEssential.com. All of these were chock full of goodness.

I probably spent way too many bucks on shiny writers’ packages. Here is a list of a few that stood out: Daria Whites No Time Writer (5 Stars), the Writers Craft 5.0 bundle (5 Stars), Britt Malka’s Historical Fiction Research Made Easy and Partridge Method (Good), Derek Murphy’s Creativindie Reach Your Readers subscription and Bestseller Blueprint: Write Books that Sell (Good). The Writers Craft 5.0 bundle is ridiculous with course material. You could probably get away with just that. However, I’m a learner and I like to know how things are done from scratch to finish. Until I feel comfortable/successful with my own work, I will continue seeking different writers’ guidance. I’m still going through most of these training materials. In fact, I’ll be setting up a training day, once a week, for just this type of learning in 2023.

#vss365 Poems

I, also, wrote 20+ various topic #vss365 word prompt poems on Twitter under @jlnickymaster and @lesbianspecfic (see a few below):

#vss365 #poetry A brittle cry cracked my resolve Escaping my body to dry up and dissolve My #curcuit of happiness ran and hid far inside I lost my belief. I’m capsized. I’ve no pride. You had just one moment to restore me with truth. You blew it. You ruined it. I lost my youth.

#vss365 #poetry #CANCER Receive my roars of rage Tremble at my ire Each day only feeds the growing fire I’m barely in control of me I argue of my dosage of pain I’ve nothing left to drain Without this #catharsis of grief Hinder not the fight I deliver Or my soul will quiver

#vss365 #poetry I’ve waved my fingers trying to conjure you here You keep persisting in my minds veneer My loneliness #curcuit strangles my heart If only your smile would be my fine art To find you just so on my internet screen I’m almost rueful. Do I continue to dream?

#vss365 Grifter writing on bones Toss them into play Does your fanbase know What you do all day Tease the ladies wide Write the romance words Pull the readers in #Prompts of feeling heard Any books a stage Characters arc in bed Lesbian pillow talk flows Until THE END is read.

#vss365 #poetry Pebbles roll on the waters brine A lulling of time to drink natures wine The rustle of critters, the #country below We walk over their mountains and crush with our toes. The air is much cleaner, where animals reign. We are the intruders of the night owls domain

Social Media

Overall, I had a ton of growth in my writing career. I am still learning and plan to expand to include social media advertisements on Pinterest, and possibly video advertisements on YouTube/TikTok.

I hired a company to support my social media and websites and their stats show I have:

8 Mailchimp subscribers for JLNicky
14 Mailchimp subscribers for JLNich
1 Patreon subscriber for JLNicky
0 Patreon subscribers for JLNich
511 Facebook followers for JLNicky
399 Facebook followers for JLNich
825 Twitter followers for JLNicky,
2,256 Twitter followers for JLNich

And lastly for writing, but not least, I participated in Nanowrimo and was successful in reaching 50K this year for one of my novels Cavels Colt. I actually plan to send this one to the editor and get their line editing before seeking out a cover artist and posting on Kindle Vella. This is my first goal for the new year 2023.

What didn't go well

Writing – What didn’t go well

I have only 12 followers in KV for Sparrows Legacy, earning $276.48
I only had 4 followers in KV for Soldiers-In-Arms $41.38
I obtained only 1 Patreon follower for the year.
My FB followers are +500 but I’m not seeing any conversion for readership
I’m limited on marketing due to KV options.
Journaled haphazardly. Not tracking this well.

Writing – What am I working toward?

In order of importance:

Advertising:
Add 52, weekly, Pinterest advertisements
Publish 1 e-book
Post 2 more Kindle Novels (FEB and APR)
Add 3 Patreon short stories
Blog 24 articles, one each month per author
I am completing these projects in 2023: Finish Drayton’s Discovery edits, and finish writing Canid Spirito’s War novel.
For my own guilty pleasure, I’ll be adding 52 poems to Twitter
I want to add a Writers Craft website page for both sites breaking out blogs that help writers vs blogs that entertain readers.
I want to gain more Patreon followers which means more short stories.
Create a video(s) -Youtube or Canva shorts
Begin an E-course for PLOTTR tutorial
Look into automating features of my work (using Mailerlite or AI tool Appsumo).

Exercise

Exercise – What went well?

My entire tracking began when I decided to lose weight. I bought a Hero’s Journey book to track my daily health and fitness goals. And I bought a lifetime subscription to the Fabulous App. I have slowly been becoming fabulous.

Mirror Time – 22 sessions for LuluLemon Mirror (Strength, Dance, Cardio, Stretch, Bar, Boxing, Yoga, and Pilates).
Duolingo – 1838 minutes (Spanish and Japanese)
Strength training:
Dumbbell weights 15 lbs 3 days a week, 3 lbs 3 days a week.
Weight watching – started 2022 186lbs, currently weight 192lbs
Steps average 5000-6000 four days a week (total distance tracked 752 miles)
Sleep average of 7.24 hours a night (3.50 deep sleep, 3.34 light sleep). This is an area that needs improvement. I need more deep sleep. I’ve started meditation.
Meditation – 59 sessions for 397 minutes (average length 7 minutes)
Vitamins – taken daily for total body, which includes multi-vitamin, eyes, menopause hot flashes, calcium, GNC Vitapak® Program 50 Plus, and Prevagen
Logged 2 days a week (average) May thru Dec daily goals in my Hero’s Journal.

Exercise -What didn’t go well?

I got most of my exercise equipment in the middle of the year.
I am not doing cardio as well as I’d like.
Walking dogs fell off the chart.

I haven’t tracked the times of workouts or days. I need to be more diligent.

Exercise – What I’m working toward.

Habit tracking my workouts, logging my food, tracking my daily workouts, and increasing my strength training program.
Walking and training dogs for 2023.
Adding jump-rope training

Work

Work – What went well?

Completed and received 5 Linked certificates.
I was very successful in completing 2 major projects within my new position as Procurement Buyer
Closer to making 7 figures possibly 1 more year.

Work – What didn’t go well?

No promotion.
Did not finish my AI training like I wanted.
Bought way too many courses and haven’t even used them yet.

Work – What am I working toward?

My dept offers a Legacy Leader course to get managerial experience. I’ve applied.
Increasing LinkedIn Learning coursework quantity. I should get more than 5 certificates a year.
Taking Coursera UIPath training coursework. Found a course to up my game on AI.
Following an AI Learning path on CodeAcademy.com

Summary:

The year review is complete. With these three areas of Writing, Exercise, and Work, I’m moving toward a better me. I’m using habit tracking, automation reminders, and atomic habit improvement to sustain my progress or improve upon it. I am more focused on emotional improvement than before, and it seems to help keep my health and outlook positive. I’m reading more self-improvement books than probably needed but I find a colonel of truth in every book. I’ve never shared this type of information with myself, much less anyone else, but now that it’s out there I can see why James Clear submitted it for public review. I find it freeing and binding at the same time. To allow others to get my viewpoint and statistics of success and failure allows others to see me as I want to be seen. Or as I hope to be seen in the future me. I’m interested in feedback, but don’t expect much. Did I forget anything? I think I’ll be adding a relationship category in future years. Hopefully, this messy review is the beginning of a relevant take on my professional and personal life.

Jeanne Nicholas

Please read and review my serial publishing novel Sparrow’s Legacy on Kindle Vella. You can read the first three chapters free on Amazon by searching for “Sparrows Legacy Kindle Vella” or clicking here. I hope you enjoyed this blog. Please subscribe to my website if you want to be notified when I’ll be publishing or to get free samples of my work.
Also, sign-up for exclusive content throughout the year and chapter sneak peeks of my ongoing work as a subscriber to my Patreon
JLNich, Science Fiction Fantasy Author

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