What’s Happening in 2019?

Happy New Year, everyone! It’s January 2019 and what better time to reflect on how things are going and what I want to change or keep doing in the new year than now, right?

At the start of 2018, I wrote a post about how I most of all wanted to have fun. Reading, baking, and blogging are my hobbies, so I didn’t want them to become a chore or something I felt like I had to do. I’m pleased to say that worked out quite well! I didn’t pressure myself into reading a certain number of books throughout the year – instead, I just read what and when I wanted and that resulted in me reading 50 books, which is 15 more than last year. Quite a good outcome!

The whole “keeping it fun” thing did mean that I didn’t post on the blog very regularly. I often didn’t have the energy to write new posts after a day of work and sometimes I just didn’t feel like it in the weekends or on my day off. There were times when I felt bad about that, but mostly I just let it go. I really enjoyed the posts I did write, and that was much more rewarding than putting up half-hearted posts just for the sake of it.

Which brings me to what’s going to happen in 2019.

I have one big goal this year: to finish writing my book. I already posted about my plans for this novel in November 2017, when I announced I was going to use NaNoWriMo to plan and outline it:

I’ve been walking around with the idea for a story that has the potential of becoming something pretty cool, I think. I was getting a little frustrated because I never got around to actually writing it, knowing that one just has to sit down and do it, but finding myself unable to.

I did outline my novel, and I did write some of it in 2018, but only the beginning. It still isn’t anywhere near finished and I realised that I need to schedule more time to write in 2019. Writing is what I love the most; it’s what I want to do the most. That’s been difficult to say (or write) out loud for the past couple of years because I was afraid of failure. That’s also why I didn’t sit down to write very often. You can’t fail if you don’t try, right? Well, that’s going to change this year!

In 2018, I worked four days a week, and that was too much for me, mentally speaking. I hardly had any energy left to do the things I actually loved in my free time. So, as of January, I’m working three days a week and I’m going to spend the remainder of my time doing things I love, with the focus on writing my novel. It’s going to happen this year, and that’s that, dammit.

That also means that, for now, I won’t be putting the focus on my blog. I’m not going to commit to a schedule and I will probably continue posting irregularly for the time being. I’m not instating a hiatus – that’s not what I want to do. I still want to post things (maybe I’ll even write about my writing process!), but it’s not going to be my priority. Perhaps that’ll change as the year goes on, who knows. I do want to one day get back to a schedule and posting regularly again, but I don’t know when that will be. I’m actually also toying with the idea of starting a YouTube channel (in addition to the blog), but that’s an idea for the future as well. For now, I’m committing to writing this book.

As for reading, I once again put my Goodreads challenge to one, while in my head I have a goal of 50 books. Luckily, I’m not good enough at maths to have the “you’re three books behind schedule” thing going on in my head.

I’m also posting to Instagram again! I’m terrible at posting consistently, but I’m going to give it yet another try. I’m currently doing a bookstagram challenge and having a ton of fun with it, so who knows, maybe I’ll manage to keep it up this year. My username is @booksbakingandblogging, so give me a follow if you want to know what I’m up to (and see cute pictures of my guinea pigs in my stories)! I’m also on Twitter (@bookbakeblog) but I rarely post on there because I can’t think of anything to say. I’m actually debating either giving Twitter another try and tweeting stuff regularly or giving up altogether. Follow me to find out which one it will be (lol)!

So, that’s my plan for 2019: write. I’m feeling good about it! What’s one thing you want to accomplish this year? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!