Looking Back!

So, here we are.

To those of you worried—which would be no one since I’m online every day—I am not dead, despite the very little activity I seem to have produced these past couple months. I’ve posted very little writing (Gasp!) and have basically withdrawn into a long forgotten corner of all the public chats I’m part of(Gasp!). I am of course deeply saddened by my appalling behavior and promise to remedy all of this in 2020, but in the mean time, let’s take a look at what I’ve been up to this year.

image Source

Early 2019

You may not know this about me, but I am nothing if not predictable. Change and I are not good friends, and this is very apparent in my writing feed. Seriously. All I do is post poems with essentially the same syntax for months straight until I run out of ideas and write like a short story or book review or something.

But 2019 was the year to change all that. I started the year off strong, with varied content and started dabbling in different formats or poetry and storytelling in general. A lot of my posts from that time period are still some of my favorites of mine, such as Hazel, which I wrote in a style that was very different than what I usually use. I still how hard it was for me to come up with different analogies and wording to adequately describe the color Hazel but also the deep feeling of awe and wonder the narrator feels. This piece was different for me because usually all my poetry pieces have varying levels of elaborate plots. By this I mean that I usually try to come up with more complicated topics or have like bizarre plot twists at the end of my pieces. In comparison to all that, the idea behind Hazel was relatively simple, which meant that I got to focus more on my writing and technique and all that jazz.

My experimentation went on for about a month before I was back to mass producing poetry. Don’t get me wrong, I love poetry, it’s just that my own skills and abilities in writing it stopped improving. I also do enjoy reading and writing stories, it’s just that it takes me longer to come up with an idea and actually write them.

I don’t quite what my reading schedule was for these early couple months, which I take to assume that it was nothing out of the ordinary. I did find a couple of favorites such as here. Another favorite of mine was A Very Large Expanse Of Sea by Tahereh Mafi. I love these author’s books and this one was no longer exception. It dealt with a Muslim girl, Shirin, struggling to fit in at her new school and it was simply amazing to see her growth and read about her journey. This book also encomes a great family dynamic, which is always a plus. Check it out if you haven’t!

Curator Applications

I have been a member of this Amino for over 3 years and you guys will always be and always have been so dear to my heart, which is why I was absolutely ecstatic when I was chosen as one of the to be a curator. Hats off to the rest of the curation team for being so dedicated and brilliant all the time! I love how welcoming and creative you all are, so thank you for putting up with me :heart: .

Right around the time of the Curator Applications came Spirit War which was honestly such a blast. During this time, I was able to come up with like 1-2 posts every day and I’m still really proud of most of them. My favorite by far is Love by, well me, though. I don’t quite what the inspiration for that piece was, but I’ve always been in love with a fable-like setting and tone and every once in a while I try my hand it.

Fall and Winter

I could sum up my writing journey in this period with one word: Nonexistent. An obvious reason would be that I had no time—which is true, I was going through a lot of changes in my personal and work life and I was barely scraping by. But I was also just completely unmotivated to write anything. I’d come up with all these ideas in my head, yet I’d never feel the need or drive to put them on paper. So, yeah. I’d like to say I’m over my nasty case of writer’s block but it seems as if only time will tell. I am considering going back to some of my old posts and just revamping them in hopes of finally getting inspiration to strike.

I’m other news, even though my writing has suffered a blow the past few months, my reading has done nothing but bloom. I’ve read so many amazing books, about which I’ve told no one until now. One book I definitely recommend everyone checks out is The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. I read this book in one sitting. Everything about it from the setting to the diverse characters to the humor to the relationships were so very well done. This one of the few books in which I don’t have a favorite character because everyone is so amazing. In this book Chambers has created something so unique and thoughtful, and I doubt that I anything I say about will do it any justice.

Even though I don’t really create reading goals, it’s always my desire to read more non fiction. And I’m proud to announce that I’ve read a total of 9 nonfiction novels this year. I know this isn’t much, but it’s more than what I usually read. Out of those, my favorite is hands down is Born A Crime by Trevor Noah. I swear, I could feel my soul sing when I read this book. Noah tackles so many topics and memories in a warm, funny way with absolutely zero judgement. I loved all the relationships, but Trevor’s MOM, my gosh I love her. I aspire to be as brave, caring, determined as she is. Born A Crime is a treasure, please please please read it, you’ll never regret it.

Background image: Salvador Dalí