2010: My Year in Review

It doesn’t seem like it was all that long ago I was doing this for 2009! I think I probably feel that way every year, though.  First off, let’s see how I did on my stated goals for 2010.

1. Read 24 books in 2010. – Done.
2. Read 24 scripts in 2010. – I managed only 12. Not so good.
3. Finish TDPU & submit to contests. – Done, and while I got no Nicholl love at all this year, ‘TIL DEATH PARTS US did make the semi-finals of the BlueCat competition this year, so I’m taking that as a small triumph.
4. ScriptFrenzy 2010. – Done.
5. NaNoWriMo 2010. – Done.
6. Visit a place I’ve never been before (preferably in Europe). – Definitely done! I returned to Paris with my sister, and I visited London twice, once with my sister and once on my own.  I also went to the beach and then to the Smoky Mountains, where my sister and I completed a 5.4-mile, moderately challenging hike (not bad for first timers!) up to Rainbow Falls.
7. Write & film [secret project]. – Well, I didn’t end up writing/filming the secret project I originally had in mind, but I wrote and filmed something else, I think I can count this as done.  As a bonus, I also started a movie podcast with my friend Matt, which isn’t something I’d ever really considered doing, but turned out to be pretty fun.
8. Write an adaptation. – This didn’t make it onto the agenda, sadly.
9. Keep up with FridayFlash/short stories. – I only did 8 true #fridayflash stories this year, and I wrote a few travel/memoir pieces. Not quite the output I had in mind, but I’m relatively pleased with the pieces I did write.
10. Watch 200 movies. – I very nearly made this, with my count currently sitting at 191, not including repeated viewings. This also includes a few seasons of various television shows, so I’m certainly not going to complain about my media intake this year.

I kept one big goal to myself at the beginning of 2010, and that was my health/fitness efforts.  I’ve since posted a little about my journey and made mention of it several times in my #reverb10 posts.  In total this year, I lost about 65 pounds.  I hit my original goal weight, and I’m wearing smaller clothes than I wore in high school.  I’m not quite where I want to be, but I’m close enough that people look at me like I’m crazy when I say that.  In addition to the weight loss success, I also ran my first 5K race on Thanksgiving, tried/survived/came to love hot yoga, and in general got to a fitness level where I can show up grown men at the gym on a fairly regular basis.

Lessons Learned: Honestly, it was a rough year for me creatively speaking.  After churning out story after story in 2008 & 2009, I think maybe my brain just needed to take it at an easier pace.  I also was obviously devoting a lot of time and energy to the whole health/fitness thing.  Contest season put me in a bit of a roller-coaster state of mind, but NaNoWriMo helped get me back on track with my daily writing habit.  After my birthday trip to London, I felt creatively refreshed and ready to get back to work, and I hit the ground running the day after I got back.

I think I’ve covered a lot of what else I’ve learned this year in my #reverb10 posts, so, if you’re interested, here’s a round-up for your perusal.

• Dec. 1: One Word – In which I peg 2010 as Reinvention and predict Manifest for 2011.
• Dec. 2, 5, 6, 7: Writing, Let Go, Make, Community – In which I talk about how I design my life to support my writing, mention that I stopped spending unnecessary and unwarranted emotional energy, try to remember what I made this year (stories, short film, food), and wax poetic about my love for twitter and give a shout out to SparkPeople.
• Dec. 3, 4, 8: Moment, Wonder, Beautifully Different – In which I admit to my ridiculous but needed sobfest brought on by Child’s Pose, discuss the benefits of expanding one’s gaze beyond the ordinary or comfortable, and pinpoint a few ways in which I try to light people up.
• Dec. 9: Party – In which I almost pass out thanks to a corset.
• Dec. 10: Wisdom – In which my friends try and fail to help me figure out how I’ve been wise this year.
• Dec. 11 & 12: 11 Things & Body Integration – In which I name 11 things I want more of in 2011 and talk about the mind-body connection I get through fitness and how it translates to other areas of my life.
• Dec. 13: Action – In which I get on my soapbox and encourage people to do instead of talk.
• Dec. 14 & 15: Appreciate & Five Minutes – In which I talk about our ability to add or subtract joy through small actions and recount in snapshots of words & photos the things I’d most want to remember about 2011.
• Dec. 16 & 17: Friendship & Lesson Learned – In which I encourage everyone to chill out so we can appreciate and learn from one another, and where I talk about how I should leave the scripting for my scripts instead of my life.
• Dec. 18 & 19: Try & Healing – In which I talk about wanting to get back to my habit of trying out-of-the-ordinary things (like fencing, horseback riding, and aerial acrobatics, and where I quickly talk about how hot yoga has helped me with body image distortion.
• Dec. 20: Beyond Avoidance – In which I make excuses for not cleaning my house.
• Dec. 21: Future Self – In which I end up feeling very schizophrenic by writing three letters to/from three different versions of myself.
• Dec. 22, 23, 24: Travel, New Name, Everything’s OK – In which I recount my various trips, create a few personas/aliases that might be fun to use some day, and refuse to tell the story about how I learned that sometimes foolish things are worth doing.
• Dec. 25, 26, 27, 28: Photo, Soul Food, Ordinary Joy, Achieve – In which I repost a photo of myself in a silly hat and talk about why it’s my favorite of the year, link to my post about French pastries, decide I should sit on the sofa & read more often, and tell people to wait for my year-end recap (which just so happens to be this very post!).
• Dec. 29, 30, 31: Defining Moment, Gift, Core Story – In which I talk about my short film screening, the gift of having great friends & receiving grace & kindness from strangers, and stealing my life mantra from ELIZABETHTOWN.

And last but not least, here are my goals for next year.

1. Query TDPU.
2. Query the children’s story/poem/thing I wrote in 2009 (which includes the task of finding something more clever to call it instead of “story/poem/thing” in case publishers do not find humor in me Pippining at them).
3. Finish M. Valentine screenplay.
4. Visit 3 places I’ve never been before.
5. ScriptFrenzy.
6. NaNoWriMo.
7. Write a stage play.
8. See something I’ve written produced in some way, shape or form.
9. Watch 200 films.
10. Bonus: Get & keep house in order.

I think that covers it.  2010 really did end up being a pretty awesome year, and I’ve got a feeling 2011 might be feeling a little competitive. Here’s hoping each and every one of you has found some joy and laughter in 2010 and that you find exponentially more in 2011!