Assessing 2024: Here's what happened
And here's what's next
This week I’ve been completing my annual review as a freelance writer. I got a lot done this year, but more importantly I made real progress on my quest to actually do less, but better.
Here’s some of what happened in my world.
I quit all three of my blogs, and the newsletters associated with them
I sold domain names and closed my online store
I unpublished some of my Kindle books
I started this Substack publication and newsletter
I grew my subscriber base here to over 1,000
I made my first ever YouTube video (I may never make another one)
I published 105 Medium articles, and made thousands of dollars over there
I grew my following on Medium to over 26,000
I kept writing even though I also became a registered carer for a family member
I kept my copywriting business ticking over (although I did less on this front than the previous year)
I made a full-time living writing online
Here’s what I really want to do in 2025.
Continue to grow on Medium and Substack
Write two non-fiction books (already somewhat planned out)
Get back into writing fiction
Seems like a short list doesn’t it? And that’s a good thing. The quest to do less but better continues. This week I’ll be planning out my entire 2025 in more detail. I’ll be sharing it with you next week if you’re interested.
In the meantime, I suggest you also take a look at your big picture goals for 2025. Do they look like mine? Or very different? Are there a lot more of them? Or maybe fewer? In fact, let’s do a little poll.
There’s no wrong answer. I’d just love to see how much people are planning to achieve. Feel free to share details in the comments too if you want to.
Some thoughts from others I’ve been enjoying this week
Surprising! I’ve Analyzed 75K Substack Newsletters and Here’s What You Need to Know by
&Want to Write a Book That People Actually Want to Read? Do These 3 Things First by
What the Haters Said About My Book by
What else I’ve been up to this week
Reading: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (I only covered writing goals above but a personal goal is to re-read all my favorite classics)
Watching: This YouTube video: Women Are Not Small Men (because yes, I also have health and fitness goals for this year - though they’re a little vague)
Enjoying: Wrapping the gifts, watching the Christmas movies, listening to the Christmas music and celebrating the longest night of the year with an extra hour in bed!
This week’s Medium posts
(Friend links, as always, so you can read for free if you’re not a member.)
That’s all for this week. If you’re reading this online and you’re not subscribed yet, feel free to subscribe to get future posts straight to your inbox.
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