Adara VS 2023: Yearly Roundup!
In this video I look back at my writing year for 2023!
Visual Description:
Shows Adara sat on a chaise longue by a window, talking to camera. This footage is interrupted repeatedly by footage of two black cats, footage showing Adara working, and clips of Adara’s previous videos from across 2023. The ending image shows a dark starry sky above a forest canopy with the words ‘writing my story one word at a time’ in the stars.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to my yearly round-up video: Adara versus 2023! A year of changing course.
This year I entered the query trenches with my first novel, then pivoted to an indie mindset after a lot of thought, worked with a professional editor for the first time via Reedsy, and I ran my work by sensitivity readers for the first time.
The decision to go indie was driven by my want to control the timing of my releases and other aspects, to make sure I could make my novel as accessible as possible, as well as just taking a hard look at the genre of my novel, which is a genre fusion: YA paranormal romance with dashes of sci-fi.
I think that while AI continues to grow it will be able to recommend books to readers in more genres than just one which will open readers up to more than the books that simply fit neatly into one genre. As well as getting to grips with AI along with the rest of the world, I also had that writers moment where I realized the chances are my fanfictions have been scraped to feed the large language model machines of the future. Now, my fanfictions are under a pen name so I won't discuss them further here, but needless to say they progressed too this year, and with them I had my biggest audience response to date.
My writing year was split across various activities. I wrote 40,000 words, and spend over 100 hours in a mix of copy editing and proofreading, not to mention planning my second novel. Track changes in Microsoft Word were a big learning curve, but I got to grips with it pretty quickly, as well as becoming a lot more familiar with the Chicago Manual of Style and the New Oxford Hart Rules, so kind of the British equivalent.
My first novel was longlisted for two writing awards, and I've explored interior formatting and some cover design concepts, as well as messed around with a few marketing ideas for novel one. The way things are going, 2024 should be my debut publishing year for novels!
In terms of reading, I passed my goal of reading more than 30 novels, and of course as usual manga and fanfiction are endless. And speaking of reading, I also found my name in a book this year! I am happy and proud to say that a novel that I was a sensitivity reader for was let loose into the wilds this year. I highly recommend Invisible by Joey Paul: the first in a new YA dystopian quartet, with tons of disability rep. Thanks again for the dedication Joey. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it!
My writing area has also gotten a bit of a makeover. While I retired my desk a few years back, needing to sit with my feet up due to my POTS, I Incorporated laptop stands, bed tables and laptop trays, as well as Bluetooth keyboards which came in very very handy, and proved their worth in gold because of the last change.
The last change being by far the biggest, which essentially made my world turn upside down this year, was the arrival of two 16 week old kittens. They turn one on January the 4th. Where has the time gone? Two brothers, all black, named Thelonius and Kuriboh. In terms of my personal health, I'm still pretty much housebound, leaving only for health appointments. But as household illness has struck and I needed to urgently get up to hospital on more than one occasion, the unsung hero of this year has been my backup folding manual wheelchair. Wheelchair taxis became almost non-existent in my area after the pandemic, but after requiring some rubber push-rim covers, combined with some padded wheelchair gloves, I can now propel myself for short distances on flat indoor surfaces, without my lips going blue too quickly. And by knowing how to fold down and re-assemble the chair, I can access regular taxis at any time again.
So that was my 2023 in a nutshell. What were some of your proudest moments this year? Leave a comment below. Leave a like, and subscribe if you want to journey with me into my debut publishing year, and come along for the ride. I have to go now as I have to continue to write my story... one day at a time. Happy New Year!
[Piano Music]
Credits:
Thumbnail and ending image created free using canva.com
Music credit 1: ending theme – Adara Spence Music
Credit 2: Beloved - Sakura Girl https://soundcloud.com/sakuragirl_off...
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/3ji1zZc
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/omTgn4GQcKAMusic
