Looking back, moving forward on Popped

Hey, everyone! Ah, yes, it is that time again to take a look back at the previous year here on "Popped in My Head" and see how things went.

Last year at this time, I had set a few goals. Let's see how I fared:

On the "to do" list for 2013:

• Post more in 2013 than in 2012
• Start "Somewhere Main and Maple Meet" over from scratch; bonus points for finishing it.
• Add missing pieces to "Summer Breaks;" bonus points for republishing it.
• Cross at least one item off my Bucket List
• Perform a semi-anonymous random act of kindness at least once a month; bonus points for doing it more than that. semi-anonymous? That means I won't tell the people, but I may post about it here. I may not post about the acts, though. I wouldn't be doing these RAKs in order to brag or boast, so posting about them might seem that way. That is not my intention. Sometimes, though, performing a RAK may lead to personal insight and/or observation that I'd want to share.

And, how'd I do?

• In 2012, I posted 90 times. In 2013, 187 times! Now, I realize that sounds like I doubled my post output. While that is technically true, the majority of the 2013 posts came in the way of Instagram auto-posts of photos I took throughout the year. For me, this is actually a good way to go about generating posts. It means I am increasing my photographic endeavors. I love taking pics and sharing those out with the world. Why not? We're only here for a little while - no use keeping those to myself!  Plus, a lot of the posts came by way of note taking during various conferences I attended. For me, blogging my notes is a great way to share what I'm learning!
• I put "Main and Maple" on the back burner. I don't know about other authors, but when I try to push a storyline, it becomes too contrived and I hated that feel for what "Main and Maple" is supposed to be. In fact, I've decided to take the story in a whole different direction. I am going to try my hand at a baseball-related novel. We'll see how it goes!
• I am still working on the rewrite for "Summer Breaks." Rather than put this on a fast rail system, I've decided to put it on the leisure tour. The finished rewrite will most likely double the length of the original novel, fleshing out characters, adding time period references, and giving the reader more childhood adventures!
• I crossed a couple things off my Bucket List in 2013: Pay for someone else's meal and Take the family to Colorado for vacation. I also ADDED five things to it!
• As for Random Acts, I just want to say that the whole family participated in random acts during the year. We put each act on a scrap of paper during the year and those scraps went into a box that we read through on Christmas Eve. It was wonderful to hear how each of us were able to help others in random ways. We did not do it to brag on ourselves or pat ourselves on the back, but rather to remind ourselves that there are others out there we can touch with simple gestures.

Plans for 2014?

• Post more in 2014 than 2013, and post additional meaningful posts. I plan to keep sharing photos and conference notes, plus whatever else pops in my head!
• As I mentioned, I have a newfound direction for "Where Main and Maple Meet" - baseball! We'll see how that goes in the coming year.
• "Summer Breaks" will get a rewrite, but it will be a slow-cooker process rather a fast-food one.
• I hope to cross off at least one thing from the bucket list, but also to keep adding to it.
• We will continue to perform random acts and put those in the box to be read next Christmas Eve!

What are your plans for 2014? Feel free to share them!  And, as always, thanks for reading along.  You just never know what will pop into my head next!