2025 is here, and I have no plans.
At least, none that are public. I don’t have a release schedule for people to look forward to. I don’t have any novels in the editing stages. I don’t have anything coming with absolute certainty. But that doesn’t mean I’m not working on anything behind the scenes.
Last year we got a new manager at work, and she immediately set about getting to know everyone by giving us our yearly evaluations so she could assess where we were at with our work, how we were feeling about things, and where we wanted to go moving forward. I took this seriously and took it as an opportunity to really think about my future. Those who follow me on social media might know that in 2023, I was forced out of my laboratory assistant position after an eczema infection took out my hands and prevented me from wearing gloves on a daily basis. As such, I moved into the administrative role I’m in now.
Ten years ago, I would have said this was my dream day job. Working at a computer all day? Not really having to deal with people? Problem solving at my own pace? Delegating tasks where appropriate? Brilliant!
But when I really stopped to think about it, I found I was miserable. I’d loved working in the lab. It was the first time I’d ever had a day job and thought, “I could see myself doing this as a career.” I’d even gone as far as looking into university degrees to be able to further myself in the field before everything went down with my hands and those dreams were shot to hell.
Being in admin isn’t what I thought it would be. It’s easy work and I love not having to deal with people much, but it’s dull. My tasks are mindless. I caught up on the massive backlog I’d been left with so quickly that a weeks’ worth of work now takes me a day. I’m often done with everything by Thursday, and then I scramble for things to fill my days. And worst of all, sitting in front of a computer eight hours a day, five days a week has not been good for my body. I’ve gained so much weight in the last twelve months that I’m not at my heaviest ever. I hate it. The dull drone of my day-to-day coupled with watching the number on the scale grow larger has been terrible for my mental health.
So when asked how I was feeling and what I wanted moving forward, I told my new boss the truth: I felt unfulfilled, I was only there for the paycheque, and going forward I wanted to focus on my goals outside of my day job.
Basically, I had decided it was time to really focus on my writing.
In the Days Before hadn’t dropped yet, but I knew from the start it wasn’t going to be a popular release. First, it wasn’t written to market. Second, even if it was, I know nothing about marketing, and hadn’t done much to promote said release. And third, I’m a nobody. The only other indie author I regularly spoke with at the time was Nicole Northwood, as friends. Even now that I’ve connected with a number more indies, I don’t have anyone I would call a “business connection”.
So this year is about three main things for me.
Personally, it’s doing something about my weight. Eating better. Exercising more. Finding ways to be more active at work instead of sitting in my chair all day. Every year I say I’m going to eat better and exercise, and I never stick to it. But seeing that number of the scale…I think that might have me sticking to it this time. Fingers crossed!
Career wise, it’s focusing on my projects. I have two that I’ve decided to dedicate myself to this year — project: wisteria and project: junebug. I won’t go into them in this blog entry, but you can learn more about them by checking out my socials or signing up to my monthly newsletter! Right now I’m aiming to at least get them both first drafted this year, at wisteria at least into the hands of alpha/beta readers. Anything more will be a bonus!
In terms of business, I’ll be learning about marketing in my downtime. I’ve already learned a few basic things that I’ve yet to put into action, but I’m interested in learning more. Because if I want to get serious about this indie author thing and have any chance at some day being even a minor success, I know I need to get on top of this. Right now I’m debating if I want to show my face, or if I want to keep trying to make a go at my (mostly) faceless account. We’ll see!
I’ll be trying to remember to update my blog along the way, documenting things I’ve learned and trialed, leaving tutorials if I have any. Whatever the case, here’s to hoping 2025 is a creatively successful year!
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