Resolutions for 2024: Creativity + Community

Hi, Hello, and Happy New Year! I know it’s been a minute (more like almost a year) since I properly made a post here on the blog! In fact, it’s been so long that I am struggling a bit with what exactly to write here. It’s been so long, but I suppose blogging is a lot like riding a bike; I’ll get my balance again soon enough!

I thought coming back to the blog at the beginning of the year with fresh resolutions would be fitting. I have missed my little space I carved out so many years ago. And I even attempted to keep writing through other means but alas, it only left me with several unfinished drafts and half-baked ideas in my Google drive. But that changes this year! Albeit, very slowly. I don’t want to jump back in with both feet and drown before I have had a chance to swim. I want to reignite my love for blogging first and foremost.

So what does that mean exactly? Well, let’s take a look at my resolutions for the year so I can go into a bit more detail!

Resolutions for 2024

• Create a Writing Plan & Template
• Finish an In-Progress Story
• Write a Story for My Game
• Start Blogging Again
• Create a Fanfiction Book Club

This is usually where I chat about my blog and content resolutions, but really I don’t have much of a blogging presence right now. So! We’re switching it up and referring to this section as my “Creativity + Community Resolutions.” I’m focusing on getting back to being creative AND building/participating in the community for 2024. In 2023, I read, played, and wrote. In 2024, I am taking all those things I loved and enjoyed and bringing them back to the blog or finding new ways to share them with others!

The first thing I need to do before anything else on this list is to create a writing plan! I really need to to find a better way to plan out my stories which in turn should help me create a template I can follow for all future stories I write! THEN that should help me with completing some in-progress stories I currently have. I really would like to finish one out of the three big chapter stories I am working on already. Hopefully I can carry that momentum and planning into *finally* writing the story for my game I have been researching. Another post on that may come later, but for now, all I can say is I bit off more than I could chew and decided to scrap the original game story for now in favor of something that a one-gal team can actually finish!

And yes, I have blogging on here as well! What is the plan? Well, there won’t be a schedule or even a day that I pick to post. My goal right now is to get back into the swing of things and aim for a monthly post. What that monthly post will be is totally up in the air. BUT! I have a whole list of ideas, games, reads, and more that I want to do write ups and reviews on so it’s not like I don’t have a game plan at all. I just want this to be low stress while I find my writing voice again as a blogger rather than a writer. This goal might be a bit hard to measure, but as long as I can get in a few posts this year that I am proud of, I will count it as a win.

The last resolution on this list probably will not see the light of day until 2025 if I’m being honest with myself. I have tried to make a Fanfiction “Book” Club before, but it got de-railed. Not in a bad way, of course! But it didn’t turn out the way I had envisioned. This year I want to try again! I plan on getting a Discord server set up and researching actual book clubs so we can have real discussions about of favorite stories! I have lots of research and work to do so maybe by next year I will be able to share that with all of you!

Meg’s Personal Resolutions for 2024

• Create a Gym Space
• Make a Workout Plan
• Create a Savings for Home Updates
• Be a More Present Friend
• Plan Monthly Date Nights

Now we’re getting to my personal resolutions for this year. I actually struggled a lot with these because there are so many things I want to do, but I really had to prioritize the things I wanted to accomplish for this year, otherwise I would try to do All The Things and not complete any of them. I decided to try to focus on things that are the most important to me right now! The list above is what made the cut, but I still have my big list so that I can reference it again for next year.

I figured I would start with some health related goals this year and that’s to get the basement gym cleaned back up and re-organized. This last year was pretty rough and as a result, my space in the basement for working out became a dumping ground for holiday decorations and furniture that we couldn’t sell or donate before moving. Before you say, “But Meg, didn’t you move back in 2020?” let me just say, trying to sell or donate before we moved was incredibly stressful and that has not changed in the last three years. I have a smaller vehicle now so I can’t take the items to Goodwill (again). Also Facebook Marketplace is a joke. I know other people have had great interactions there but I literally could not give some of these things away without encountering some of the worst kinds of people as hard as I tried.

Once the basement gym is cleaned up, it’s time to come up with a plan to ease back into working out. I already have some ideas for that! I plan to squeeze in a daily walk for at least 30 minutes a day and get back into lifting weights. The goal is to work up to 3 times a week, but I will be taking things slow and making sure I keep proper form. I don’t want to try to go back to how I was before since it’s been way too long since I was active.

Those two goals actually are what inspired me to start saving up to “update” some areas of our home. Namely the basement. In order to get it cleaned up and keep it cleaned up, I want to put some money aside to re-organize and properly store things that are going to be kept in the basement. Most of what is down there (besides the things we could not sell or give away) are actually decor that needs to be hung or displayed in the house. The rest of the items are seasonal or are not used often. So I am hoping by next year that the basement will be more functional and that our every day decor down there will finally be displayed around the house as it was in our old one!

These last two resolutions are more personal than usual. I had actually written “Be a better friend” on my list but I wanted to narrow down what that meant to me exactly. So I have settled on being “more present” in my friendships. That means tracking birthdays, checking in more often, keeping up with life updates, etc. I also want to be more open with myself and my feelings. I think choosing to be more consciously present for my friends will help me achieve that!

Lastly, I told my husband that I really wanted to make an effort to have “real” date nights this year. Our date nights don’t feel very romantic anymore, and they have mostly turned into an excuse to order takeout and veg out on the couch, hah! We have both been stuck inside way too much the last three years as well. First it was because of Covid, then it was the fear of catching Covid, and now we have both been avoiding leaving the house at all unless we have to. So this year I want to have a monthly date night where we leave the house! If we don’t leave the house, date night has to consist of more than anime and fast food. It needs to be a time to connect so I plan on setting some kind of guidelines for staying in AND making a list of dates outside of the house!

Ah, writing this has been pretty cathartic. I had forgotten how much I actually enjoyed this. It’s nice being back here. Hopefully next month I will have a little post for y’all! Until then…

What are your resolutions for this year? Let me know in a comment below!

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