It's that time of year. Time to look back on the old and close the chapter on another year. Like others there are a lot of things I would have liked to have done better. There were also things I was super happy about. As I read through posts of other bloggers I was surprised to see how many could echo what I've been feeling: 2013 has been a year of personal pain but also of a vocational and creative growth. It's always interesting how pain and growth often intermingle.
1. I love blogging. This was the first year I realized that. There is a huge focus on making money with blogs, etc. but when it comes down to it I don't care if I don't make a cent. Composing content that {I hope} will be a shot of encouragement to the readers, wrestling trying to get what's in my heart out on they keyboard, struggling with the editing, creating art, finding pictures, creating stuff- it's a lot of fun.
2. Too many subjects on a blog can get well, messy.
I made the decision to shift all of my baking adventures over to this blog's sister site Bake Perfect Cookies. I'm still finding my feet over there as I work through recipes. Combing my love for baking, learning life lessons through the eyes of a novice cook, and my work towards growing as an artpreneur seemed to muddy the message of this blog. Which leads me to the next lesson.
3. It takes a while to find your artist's voice.
Someone recently said that they found their blogging voice after writing 20 posts. I thought that was pretty good. I've been blogging seriously for about 3 years. It was late 2012 when I knew I was on to something. It wasn't until this year, more than a hundred posts and several thousands of posts before I realized I might, might be finding my voice.
Some of us are just late bloomers. If you are blogging and just haven't quite find your niche, it's not a sign that you should give up. It's a sign you need to press in harder.
4. It takes a lot of creating art and action to find yourself. I'm about to publish my first novella (it was supposed to be out before Christmas but I had some er, technical problems). After writing three nonfiction food books I think I'm better at fiction with recipes than traditional cookbooks. But I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't gone through the process of trial and error.
5. Always back up your computer.
I let my subscription to my backup plan lapse this past summer. Naturally, that is when I had a major computer crash and lost two written books, a bunch of pictures, among other things. A painful lesson that still stings a bit.
6. Creating stuff is an absolute blast.
I love being a blogger, artist, and indie publisher. It's so much fun to write and create, to work with tech people and designers and editors and readers and then produce a product. I wrote and published two books this year, Bake Well, Live Well: How to Bake Perfect Cookies and Gain Confidence in the Kitchenand Bake, Blog, Build: What Women in Food Taught me about being an Entrepreneur. The novella, Jingles and Sprinkles comes out this week. It's the first in a series of novels featuring Melody, an impulsive, prone-to-disaster woman, her attempts to navigate life and the cooking group she's a part of. Yes, it's a Christmas novella. Next point:
7. Stuff is going to go wrong, be late, and stuff takes longer to get done that I make time for.
It will all be fine. It may be late or a little messy. Opportunities have been missed. But there are more opportunities and every experience has lessons to learn.
7. Sharing art scares me to death.
I'm still scared to death to publish my visual art. I've had a few people give me some really good feedback but I feel incredibly insecure and doubtful. This typically goes for any art- including my writing. I left my novel in a drawer for a year before dragging it out and doing a major revision. Then I almost decided (again) to chuck it because I was scared of what people would think. I know this fear is silly- there will always be people who love what we do and those who think it's junk. I get frustrated with the lack of progress I've made in my own insecurities. I want to work on that in 2014.
8. Community is a lifeline.
I don't think I would be where I am without the support of the virtual and offline communities I am blessed to be a part of. The help of other bloggers, creatives, writers, and artists is a vital support system to me. Their feedback and encouragement helps me to press on.
Tomorrow: it's the beginning of the year. Time for the annual "word" of the year. I'll share what I learned from my word of the year from 2013 and my word for the 2014. I hope you have been thinking of your word of the year because I want to hear them!
Thank you to everyone who has read this blog, left comments, and sent me emails. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love to blog but I really love to interact and connect with people.
The connection is the frosting on the cake.
I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful New Year's celebration.
Much joy to you,
Melissa
Leave a Comment