The Year In Review & All That

I suppose it's time for the obligatory "year in review" post, hmm?

About the only thing I can say for 2014 is that it hasn't sucked quite as bad as 2013. Anything beyond that would probably be too generous.

I spent roughly half the year--from March until probably September--in what was, in retrospect, a really severe depression that took a turn toward suicidal ideation there at the end. I fought it for six months, and all it took was a doctor's visit and a med adjustment (and a few weeks afterward for everything in my head to settle down) to fix it. Hopefully I'll remember that the next time this happens and not screw around so long before I seek professional assistance.

Hopefully.

The only real thing I wanted to do at the beginning of the year was to write. And I did. Not nearly as much as I wanted, of course. But I think I've probably written more, quantity-wise, this year than I ever have, despite the bullshit depressive episode that took up half of the year. (I've currently got a stack of poems that need editing, several short stories, and roughly one-third of a novel.)

Yes, I would've liked to have written more. (I posted some on my writing blog, but the majority of it has never seen the light of day beyond my computer, except perhaps the few I sent to FangBunny.) But even with what little I've done, I can tell that it's getting better. My prose is tighter. My narrative style is crisper. And despite the fact that something in my subconscious must think I'm Faulkner, given the length of the sentences that I tend to write, I'm getting better about not wandering around the point so much. My narration is less ADD now, I suppose you could say.

Still, my writing's not anywhere near good, mind you. It's just...less shitty than it was. So...progress?

The only other thing I've really managed to make much progress with is improving my Spanish. It's also not anywhere near good yet, but it, too, is less shitty. (Bless you, Duolingo and YouTube videos.)

So there's my year in review in a handful of paragraphs.

What am I expecting for 2015? Nothing in particular, really. I learned my lesson in 2013 about being like "ZOMG, THIS IS GONNA BE MY YEAR!!!!" or whatever, so I won't be doing *that* again. Instead, I'm just hoping to do some more writing--maybe get a good bit more done on the aforementioned novel--and brush up some more on my (not so great) Spanish. Oh, and I think I'm going to pick up Dutch, too, because fuck it. It's not like I have anything else to do with my life. (Bless you, Duolingo.)

So those are my plans. We'll see how well they work out, I suppose.

Adios, 2014.