How are you starting the year? By looking back at the previous year?
Look across the web today and you'll find two types of articles - the 'here's what to look forward to in 2015' type and then the 'here's what happened in 2014' type. Why do they do this? By they I mean more than just websites; they're all at it, from TV stations to magazines, and bloggers through to sites of all descriptions.
Is it feeding a need to review before embarking on another year?
Or is it really about re-purposing old material during the last couple of weeks of the year - making work easy. But it doesn't give us, the readers/audiences, much of substance.
Why? Because there is no critical enquiry in the review of the year. The vast majority of the reviews are simplistic 'here are our top 10 stories from 2014' or 'my 5 favourite books of the year'. Sometimes it really is 'the top 5 clicked links' of the year. Thats it. Its just clickbait aimed at getting us to revisit these old stories or reviews of books, etc. They tell you the what but rarely look into the why.
Which is a shame because there is a lot to be said for taking the time to sit back and contemplate on change before embarking on the next phase. A chance to ponder on what trends are becoming apparent, on what didn't work for me as much as what did work.
After having a look at the numbers I've taken some time to reflect on my year. So here are a few of my reflections on 2014:
It was the year that I learned to love historicals. I not only bought more historicals in 2014, but I enjoyed them more too. It was never really a genre, or sub-genre, that I had connected to before. Personally I blame Jordan L Hawk for her Widdershins series. That set of books was my gateway drug to other historicals, most notably the work of KJ Charles. Its a good thing. Having my eyes opened to the possibilities of enjoying something that I've never really enjoyed before and being alert to my changing tastes is most welcome.
It was also the year that I decided to slow down and read for depth rather than coverage - I read fewer books in 2014 than the previous year. I did this on purpose. Rather than gorging on everything available I wanted to take my time and savour what I read. To take my time over the nuances that writers had spent so long crafting, creating and serving up for our pleasure. I absolutely loved savouring the work of Alexis Hall, GB Gordon and Con Riley in 2014. I'm hoping for more of that tasty stuff in 2015.
I waste a lot of time. Really. A whole load, like a metric fuck-tonne load. I mess about, I tweet, I peruse as much of the internet as I possibly can. I put off procrastinating for nap-time, then I wake up and procrastinate. Its a serious problem. While this is great rest time from the day job it doesn't help me create the space I need to write. So my one and only New Year Resolution is to create more space in my life to write.
People are mostly generous online. We've all see or heard of some awful online bullying, from the big worldwide stuff like #gamergate and #everdaysexism to the smaller, but no less dangerous, stuff like random homophobic attacks, the internet gets used to abuse people. But I have to salute those that I interact with regularly. Generally speaking those individuals are very generous with their time, very responsive to interactions (even when I'm in a silly mood and posting rubbish) and they are doing social media right - by being social. They celebrate with each other the everyday successes and with just a few words of empathy they support people through the not so good times. More of the same in 2015 please. I doubt that online abuse will ever stop but I can push it to the side so that it's not in my direct line of sight, so that I don't have to waste my precious procrastination time on it.
When I started writing this post I was firmly in the frame of mind that I hadn't achieved very much in 2014. But now that I've taken just five minutes to think about it I realise that I've done pretty well. I achieved two of the 'life goals' I set myself 18 months ago - I changed jobs and moved home in 2014, both pretty big things. I also achieved a lot of the smaller stuff that I set out to change about my life. I'm more deeply engaged with family; I'm more confident about my abilities in certain areas, which is something that needed a fair bit of work; I'm more happy and content in general than I have been for a number of years. So I'm taking 2014 as a year that helped ground myself and position myself for an even stronger future.
So here's to a great 2015 to you and yours!
(Did you notice that there are 5 things there? I could have titled this post '5 Things I Learned in 2014' and turned it into pure clickbait. Maybe I should have done.)
What about you? What are your thoughts on your 2014? Do end of year reviews interest you or leave you cold? How does reflecting on the past help prepare you for the future? What are you hoping 2015 will bring for you?
