Can you believe that, it’s almost 2024. That’s crazy to me, how fast these last few months have gone. I got a new job, got medicated for my anxiety, paid off my outstanding debt (to family, so there wasn’t a lot of pressure, but it’s nice that it’s done with now) and got really ill right before Christmas. It’s Christmas day now and I’m going to have dinner at my mom’s place. I tested negative and feel much, much better, although my taste and smell aren’t back to what they were, which is a tough reality when Christmas is all about good food. What I have noticed is that my interest and motivation to write has been really bad lately. It’s been so bad, to be real with you all, that I might fall right before the finish line and not reach my goal of 400.000 words, even though after this post I’ll be less than 6000 words away from that goal. I’ll do my best, but the inspiration just hasn’t been there after finishing the draft of Hesitant Hero volume 3. Let’s instead focus on something else, what can you expect from me in 2024?
I had some lofty goals for 2023, and not all of those were as good and successful as I hoped. That’s not a bad thing, it just requires me to adjust my expectations and plans for next year and try again. There’s a method to the madness, as always. I posted more than I’ve done in other years and I’ve written more than I’ve done in other years. That’s pretty good. Next year I want to drop the quantity a little bit in favor of quality. I still want to keep writing, but I want to post a bit less. Not terribly much so, though, I want to go back to a nice middle ground. That brings me to what you can expect next year.
I want to bring more high quality posts to the Monday slot of my blog. Mostly about anime, but as usual some other subjects sprinkled in. I want to do some genre deep dives, that have been on my to-do list for ages, but those take a lot of time and research (and with research I mean watching anime). The Wednesday slot will stay reserved for the One Piece manga volumes. I’ve got another year worth of volumes to get through, after all. Now, I promise I’ll be better about actually uploading them and not forgetting. It’s not even a question of not writing them on time, I’ve been a week ahead of schedule with those since the very first week, I always have the posts ready but forget to click the post button. I’ll be better about this.
Third post of the week will be the third volume of The Hesitant Hero. I might take more regular weeks off for that series, since I often end up with a few months of content draught at the end of the year anyway, and this allows me a bit more time to edit. But they should be mostly weekly again while I work on editing the first two volumes on the side.
Finally, The Necromancer’s Daughter returns in the new year as well. I’ve been far too focused on my other story to stay on top of this one, which is a bit of a bummer at times, but I want to take some moments and really develop the story for what has been my longest running project. With that said, Chapter twelve will be here somewhere in the first week of January. I’m not sure I can make it the first of the month, but I’ll do what I can.
And that’s really all there is to it. I’ve got one more post lined up before the New Year and that’s the 49th volume of One Piece. I hope you all enjoy your winter holidays and Christmas and New Years’ celebration (or any other celebrations you might partake in). I’m going to have to catch up on a little bit of work but as a teacher I do get the luxury of two full weeks off, so I’ve got until the 8th of January to regain some energy. As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you’ll enjoy next year’s content as well!
Opal Kaharis 