Making the Last 3 Months Count, aka The 4th Quarter of 2018
Hello everyone! Hope you are all doing well.
Last week I wrote about my lofty, admittedly over-ambitious goals for 2018, and the progress I'd actually made on them 9 months after. Amazing how the human body can create an entire other human body in 9 months, yet I cannot do something as simple as stick to a single goal.
Anyways, for this week, I wanted to talk about something a little more uplifting and delusional: how I'm going to attempt to salvage my year! :D
Let me tell you, I just spent all day deep cleaning my house and doing my dishes immediately after using them, so I am on a good vibes roll right now. I will try to keep the goals manageable and realistic, though. For my own sake. You guys are just here for the inevitable train wreck.
I'll organize this by having each individual month and what I hope to accomplish in them, followed by overall goals. I realized last week working on some non-art freelance projects that I can get my butt up and complete work by or before a deadline, but there has to be that hard deadline. I've always been wary of deadlines with my art because I knew that they weren't "real" so to say. I wasn't going to get fired or yelled at for not reaching them, so I'd let them slide. But now I'm rethinking and, for the time being anyways, going to try reinstating the idea of "hard" deadlines, self-imposed as they are. After all, I've got nothing but time.
October
What's planned for next month?
Inktober, for starters.
For those who aren't on Instagram and don't follow any artists, Inktober is a challenge where you draw a piece of art in ink every day for the entire month of October. I've successfully completed this twice, but have attempted it the past four years. My patrons already know, but this year, I'm planning on doing something a little different and probably much more difficult. I'll also be working digitally because why not. I'm really hoping I can get through every single day this year, so this is definitely my biggest goal for October.
I want to start live-streaming this month as well. Since I'm doing Inktober digitally, I was planning on daisy-chaining these two goals together and use Inktober as my first live-stream. The entire process seems overwhelming since it's, well, LIVE, and I make tons of mistakes when I draw, and I've never done it before, but if I just sit down and do a bit of research, I'll be able to figure it out.
Lastly, my boyfriend had suggested turning my paintings from Hawaii into a calendar. I liked the idea, procrastinated on it, and now I'm going to make it happen or die trying! The biggest roadblock was that I was 3 images short, and the 2 images I did paint were in portrait orientation, so essentially unusable. Plus it just wasn't as motivating painting from a photograph compared to in real life. And, okay, I was lazy. But yesterday I did some research into calendar printing options, and today I did another painting. If I keep this momentum up and finish the last 2 this week, or next week at the latest, then I can spend most, if not all of October deciding which paper and printer to go with, touching up my photos, designing my layouts, ordering the calendars, and setting up a storefront. Easy.
And last, this is less a goal and more of a project (with actual, legitimate deadlines): I got accepted into my very first zine! I'm super excited about it, so I'll be working on my piece for that the first three weeks of October.
So to sum up: Inktober, live-stream, calendar, zine. Totally doable, right??
November
I like to call the last three months of the year the Holiday Grand-Slam. We got Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, right after another. But it's also a bit of a Creative Challenge Combo too: Inktober, NaNoWriMo, and Vlogmas (or Drawcember). So of course, I'll be doing NaNo this year again, right after Inktober. If you're unaware what NaNoWriMo is, it's short for National Novel Writing Month. Essentially, you write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. That's it. Easy, right? I've been doing NaNo for 7 years now, and won twice (including last year! Woo!) I don't really feel the need to prove myself this year, but I enjoy the excitement and communal hype that comes with it, especially since I made an effort to participate in a few write-ins last year. This year I'm doing this non-traditionally, and basically rewriting my story from last year, which will eventually be turned into the webcomic, that's right: Portal House. If you've been following me, you've heard that name over and over through the past couple of years. And if you've really been following me, you'll know this is just the latest iteration of "the story" I started in 8th grade. It's been a hell of a time nailing down a solid story, and I often get stuck in the outline process, but this time I'm just going to barf it all out. Obviously, you're supposed to wait until November, but I told you I was doing it differently. I've already started writing, so the only thing I'm sticking to is the 50K word-count requirement (even though the story will be much, much longer than that.)
Assuming I'm able to get all my calendar prep done in October, November will be when the product goes live, and I can start processing whatever orders I receive. Might seem kind of early, but as you will soon read, my December is not very available.
And finally, since apparently I need 3 per month, I want to finish my online art class finally! I won't exactly be waiting to work on it until November, but I would like to complete it by the end of November, and since I'll be doing so much art in October and almost none in November, it'd be a good month to catch up and go hard on my assignments. Seriously, this class has been haunting me for two years. I have five weeks of assignments left, and they are ALL HARD. T-TIn summary: NaNoWriMo, calendar, art class.
December
Funny thing about this month...I will actually be in Korea for 3 weeks! My family recently moved there, so I'll be visiting for Christmas, and since I have not been to Korea in 8 years, I wanted to spend a little longer than usual. Plus, it's Korea. Gotta make that plane ticket worth it!Needless to say, not much will be accomplished. I leave the first week of December and come back the last, so in total I have a potential week of sturdy computer use on American soil. And there are whispers of other plans for New Years, so realistically might be less than that. But, doesn't mean I can't be productive! (And I won't lie, the temptation to once again attempt Vlogmas, a "vlog every day, or at least the first 25 days of December" challenge, is very, very strong)
One of the things I enjoyed most about Hawaii was painting my little postcards, so I plan on doing that while I'm in Korea as well! Every day might be a tall order, but hey, let's be ambitious! If I can return with 21 little paint sketches from Korea, I will be a very, very happy camper. (and...I can use the timelapses...for easy vlogmas vids...oohoohoo)
Other than that, I guess continue to write in Portal House, post NaNo.
And most importantly, spend some quality time with the fam.
In conclusion: plein aire painting, writing, family time. (maybe vlogmas. someone please stop me)
Overall
Jeez, don't I have enough on my plate? Apparently not. Though, to be fair, these are smaller goals. More like to-do lists.
In the next three months I'd like to keep up the more regular posting schedule I've been following the past month. Weekly updates for the blog and my two webcomics. At least two Youtube videos a month. More art. And, oh yeah, there's also a podcast I've been working on with two friends. Plus other life things, like keeping my apartment clean and taking care of myself. I want to run a half marathon next year, so I need to start training for that soon. And I started my non-art freelance gig, so scheduling that in with everything. And somewhere, I need to fit in revamping my portfolio...Big Sigh.
Okay. Let's wrap things up before they get out of hand!
Wow, Corinne, you just really love punishing yourself don't you?
What can I say. This is what happens when you goof off for 9 months. You scramble the remaining three.I know there's a lot of big goals. Just, a lot of goals in general. In a seemingly short amount of time too. But, for me, I find some comfort knowing that I have accomplished my three biggest goals before. I know they're doable, and in a tighter schedule as well. So that's encouraging. As for the other goals, yes they're overwhelming and scary, but if I break them down into smaller parts, then it should keep that uncertainty-fueled procrastination at bay. Plus, now you guys know what my goals are. They're public. If I fail, I can't just wallow in private anymore. I have to wallow in public.So that's how I plan on finishing my 2018 with a bang. Now tell me about your goals. What are you planning on doing to end your year with a success? What edits and revamps have you had to do? Let me know in the comments. And if you think I'm crazy, or you're thinking of doing something crazy, I'll leave you with part of a quote someone wrote that I read on a HONY Facebook post: "Even if you fall, you're still falling forward."