LessthanThreeD

Hello and Happy New Year!

We don’t typically do a great deal to ring in the new year, but we do like to make a nice meal and have a few drinks. This year we made moules-frite and some cocktails. It was a lovely time. I hope you also had a lovely time, whatever you may have been doing.

I think this is the first year I’m not setting a list of clear goals for myself, whether for the year, the month, or the quarter. I do have some things I’d like to do though, I’m just not thinking of them as clean cut goals that I can cross off once they’re completed.

Here’s how I think I’d like things to go around here, organized nicely into some familiar categories:

Reading

I’m going to pretend I’ve been doing A Book a Week for real all along and state that I’m going to continue with it by reading a book every week and posting the review for it the following Monday. The reality of this is that I’m at the point in my physical TBR where almost everything I’m reading is either a large fantasy novel or something non-fiction, so I’ll finish them when I finish them and post the reviews on Mondays as I do.

Speaking of reviews, I’ve decided to stop using star ratings. I used to rate books out of five stars, but lately I haven’t felt like this is good representation for what I though about anything I read. Some of the books I loved have flaws, some of the books I didn’t love have great qualities. I want to share more specific, unquantifiable feelings about the books I read. I also may start adding a section of clearly marked spoilers at the end of my reviews, for anyone who has already read the book, so I can go into more detail about the things I did and didn’t like.

Writing

I’m trying to finish draft three of my manuscript before my birthday. My birthday is this month. That is not a lot of time, but also plenty of time if I use my time wisely. Theoretically. I have a plan. I always have a plan, though, I just tend to stray from it constantly.

By the time I’m done with this draft, I’d like my manuscript to be in a state that I’m happy enough with to begin the querying process. So I’m using my birthday as a deadline because I work better with a deadline, even if it’s a self-imposed, inconsequential one.

Art

I have a few old projects I want to revisit and make better, and I have a few new projects that are still just vague ideas. I’ve spent most of my drawing time recently playing around with random prompts, different colors, new brushes, and eventually realized I had no idea what I wanted my art to look like. My ‘style’.

Then, I looked at everything I made throughout the year and my clear favorites were all in a similar style, with a few exceptions. And that felt nice, to recognize how I personally like my art to look, and more so that I don’t want all my art to be in a single style. I like a few different styles, and I’m sure I’ll keep experimenting, but I’m feeling less aimless in my art now.

Right now, I want to draw less pieces, but spend more time on each one than the quick, experimental sketches I’ve been doing.

That’s about that. I haven’t got much figured out beyond my reading, writing, and art plans. I’m still working on the house, bit by bit. I’m thinking about going back to work in some capacity, although I no longer have any idea what I’d like to do professionally. And I’m still learning new skills, two at a time.

Around here will be book reviews every Monday that I’ve finished a book, monthly updates the first Wednesday of each month, followed by art and writing topics on Wednesdays in between when I have something new to share or discuss, and art time-lapses on Fridays.

Are you setting any goals or intentions for the new year?

<3D