Wow, friends, it's been a year. I wanted to make this a proper announcement, but quickly discovered that the list of things I wanted to say outstripped the character limit for a message on my Wattpad message board.

R.I.P.

Anyway, that got my butt in gear. I've finally made the profile-updates book I've been meaning to make for some time now. And, in true inaugural fashion, the first update will be a celebratory one: this is a year in review, with all the events, milestones, and accomplishments I've found worth celebrating from the year of 2021.

This past year, I:

Wrote—and finished—four novellas for Wattpad's 2021 Open Novella Contest

Won two Ambassador Picks, a Round II win, a quadruple Longlist, a one-per-author Shortlist spot, and an Honorable Mention in that contest

Finished Listen to the Water, the first book of my deep-sea Dark Fantasy trilogy

Wrote more than half of its sequel, Song of the Deep

Wrote almost half of Rocks Can Dance, my (chonky) Sci-Fi/Romance novel

Finished writing and posting Dark Night Fall, the sixth and final book in a series I'd been writing for nine years, starting with the first book I ever wrote

Got an idea for a new epic series that will last me the next two decades, and wrote a novel's worth of worldbuilding for that

Spontaneously planned, sprint-wrote, and posted a Horror novella (Vanilla) in time for Halloween

Got hit with late-December inspiration and decided to sprint-write the next novel in my queue before February: As the Crow Falls, a Dark-Fantasy/Romance ace Cinderella retelling

Discovered flash fiction through a friend's blog, and got hooked. Wrote a small novel's worth of it over the course of 2021, including bonus scenes for most of my books, and exploratory writing for future ones

Entered three books in the Wattys

Shortlisted with two of those (I See Fire and White Crystal Butterflies), with an additional shortlisting (for I See Fire) in the Best Cover category

Accepted an opportunity that would let me dedicate more time and energy to writing, polishing, and posting my best work for free on Wattpad

Completed all three National Novel Writing Month (NaNo) events:

Camp NaNo in April: Wrote 100k in a month, a personal record

Camp NaNo in July: Wrote 150k in a month, a new personal record

NaNoWriMo in November: Wrote 50k despite being in the middle of a Masters of Engineering, which I'm pretty darn proud of

Overall, wrote more than half a million words this year

Not counting an additional 220k+ of planning, worldbuilding, and zero-drafts

Crossed a new milestone for my writing life as a whole: 2M words

Those were the practical highlights of my writing year, but I also need to thank all my readers, and all the communities I've been a member, mod, and organizer of, for being highlights of their own kind. Whether in person or online, and especially online during lockdowns, you guys have made—and continue to make—my writing life a social, productive, and rewarding one.

Here's to another year!

What will that one contain?

Well, that merits its own chapter in this book, now, doesn't it?

Next chapter: Jan 1, 2022: Coming Up Next