Wow. I can hardly believe the end of the year is upon us again. It’s crazy how quickly a year can go by–and how much can change in an instant.
Welcome to our traditional Year End Wrap-Up post where we take time to reflect on the major goals of the year and plan ahead for the new year. This is the Part I to my two-part post. Stay tuned for the New Year New Goals portion (which I may post in late January this year as I plan to take the first few weeks of January to think through and pray over my goals for 2024).
For those of you who are new around here, I seek to live on purpose for a purpose, which means taking intentional time to pause and reflect. I feel it’s necessary to assess the past before strategically planning for the future. I believe it’s part of how we change and grow.
So, here is our 2023 Wrap-Up
Reading Wrap-Up
My friend Cassie and I ran a Books Owned Reading Challenge on IG this year. The focus of the challenge was to prioritize books we owned prior to Jan. 1st, 2023. We were tired of buying books and never making time to read them, but we built a system to allow us to earn “new” reads and didn’t enact a book-buying ban–cause we knew neither of us could keep to that.
The challenge went extremely well and we both exceeded our reading goals. We’ll be hosting a TBR Reading Challenge for 2024 (for more info see our IG post here). I could write a whole post recapping the 2023 Reading Challenge (if I feel inspired, I might XD), but for the purposes of our Wrap-Up, here are the highlights:
I originally set my goal to 60 books, including 12 nonfiction books, 3 devotionals, and 1 writing book as usual. However, I met my 60 book goal long before the year ended, so I adjusted that goal to 80, and still surpassed the goal.
- Overall, I read 90 books for the year (I’m hoping to finish one more by tomorrow night)
- 13 nonfiction reads, including 3 devotionals and 1 writing book
- 25,069 pages, surpassing 2022 which had 17,211 pages
Cassie created a really cool spreadsheet which broke down some other neat stats, too. This year I read:
- 73 Books Owned (prior to Jan. 1st)
- 6 “New” Books (purchased in 2023)
- 12 ARCs, Group Reads, and/or Other (Children’s Books went into this category since they didn’t count for us to earn a “New” Read)
- 17 different genres (the top genre was Fantasy, shocking XD)
Check out my 2023 Reading Recap to learn more about my favorite 2023 reads!
Each year I set goals for specific TBRs and here are some of the larger accomplishments for the year regarding those goals:
- Finished the Inkworld trilogy & Read The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time
- Read Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen & The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
- Started the Eldentimber series by Shari L. Tapscott and the Andari Chronicles by Kenley Davidson
- Finished the Spoken Mage quartet by Melanie Cellier, the Villains Ever After novella series (various authors), and King Arthur and Her Knights by K.M. Shea
- Reread half the Disney Fairies series
- Restarted the Keeper of the Lost Cities series so I can finish the series hopefully next year. I also made copious notes after each book so if I ever need to pickup in the middle of the series again, I won’t feel like I’ve forgotten so much!
- Read On Fire by John O’Leary & Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller
Overall, a very successful reading year 😀
GraceBought Wrap-Up
GraceBought will be 6 in February. It’s definitely had some more and less busy seasons, but I’ve enjoyed posting book reviews, monthly reading updates, and the occasional other post. It’s been a fun little hobby and as always, I’m thankful for those of you who have joined me on this journey.
The blog hasn’t been high priority for the last few years, and intentionally viewing the blog with lower pressure has been nice. I’ve tried to stay mostly consistent with book reviews, though y’all know I’m far from perfect. We did update a few of our banners though, which was a fun update.
For our traditional stats (cause I’m a nerd XD)
- 62 posts in 2023
- 50,347 words
Thank you guys for taking the time to visit, comment, like, and engage <3
This year I also launched my one-on-one Writing Coaching Services as well as my Proofreading Services both with their own tabs here on the blog. It’s been a blast to work with coaching students and proofreading manuscripts. I look forward to continuing this work into 2024.
Writing Wrap-Up
Writing in 2023 didn’t turn out at all like I’d planned. But still there are some notable milestones for the year.
I received my first professional developmental edit on MSF (from the one and only Nadine Brandes, of course!) in March. Because I was preparing SGH for pitching in the summer, I set that fabulous editorial letter to the side to implement at a later date.
I only got halfway through my self-edit of SGH before losing my job, which understandably turned my life upside down. But I pushed through to clean up the second half (not a true edit, more like just trying to catch obvious errors and typos). I pitched it at Realm Makers to Steve Laube, who was very kind. I also submitted SGH to Sara Ella for a developmental edit and got that back in the fall. I have yet to implement those edits, but am thinking I may be able to make progress on that next year.
Honestly, I haven’t written much of anything since June. I co-wrote a spoofy short story with Cassie as a prize for our 2023 Reading Challenge participants, which was fun. I’ve done a few low pressure writing exercises here and there from a writing craft book, but nothing more. It’s been really hard to write in this season so I’ve taken a step back.
In regards to conferences, I attended Write to Publish for the first time as well as Realm Makers again. I also was honored to speak at the Young Writer’s Workshop (Student Organized) conference in August.
Cassie and I have been working with Sara Ella through her Summer, Fall, and Winter mentorships together since June and look forward to continuing with her in 2024. I also attended Nadine Brandes’s Fiction Fellowship Self-Editing Course in the fall. Both of these resources have been phenomenal and I cannot more highly recommend them.
I purchased my own domain to launch an author website this year. However, due to the upheaval in June, I didn’t do much with it this year. But I did get professional photos taken to take the next steps toward getting that launched. You can find the new headshots here on the blog or on my IG.
Personal Wrap-Up
This year has presented challenges new and old. I’ve spent much of it in confusion, tears, hurt, anger, and prayer. But I am blessed by faithful friends and mentors who have stood by me and prayed with me. Despite the rocky year, I’m thankful for a God who sees me. He knows me and He loves me anyway. His grace is more than sufficient, especially when the world lets you down.
I pray you find the beauty and grace in 2023, even if it was a difficult year for you. And may your 2024 brim with new blessings <3
~*~
What about YOU?! What’s one thing you learned in 2023 or one way you grew? What’s one thing you accomplished and are proud of?