A year with a bowl of Kimchi

This is a strange date for me since Kimchisama wasn’t my first wordpress account. In wordpress years I’m a bit older but in Kimchi years I just turned one.

So welcome to a year in a life of me!

Blog

It is interesting to look back on my year. When I first started this blog I did it for my creative writing II students. I had them make a blog and I made one along with them. Mostly to help them with any pitfalls along the way. Then I found amazing people and you all got stuck with me…

Anime Review

My first post haha and good old Future Diary became the very first anime I talked about. Wow have things changed and got a lot more random…

I noticed I started to focus my blog posts more on character. This is something that I’ve cared about with writing and since I don’t think I’m great with reviews I’ve enjoyed pointing out certain strengths and weaknesses in character development.

A Father’s LoveA Father’s Love

Obsession

Do Sunglasses Count?

A Debt Paid

These were a bit about character but my favorites will always be the ones where I mentioned each Yona of the Dawn characters. I had such a fun time writing about them and all their unique personalities!

Growing up – Fighting Back- A Badass Woman

The warmth in silence

Responsibility – Duty – Honor

I will take my freedom

“What a pain!”

I removed my heart.

Son Hak

Man that was fun and I almost want to do it with another anime. Hmmm.

So this blog journey has been great. I’ve gotten to interact with so many different people online and found a truly supportive group of people. Part of me wishes that I was better at making connections through messenger but also I’m a bit of a weirdo…

My blog post that had the most views was

Thank You Followers/My Reasons Why Award

This really warms my heart and I find myself going though some of your posts and holding tightly to your reasons. Your reasons for living helped me in more ways that you will ever know. The honestly and rawness would always bring tears to my eyes and sometimes I didn’t even know what to say but thank you in my comments.

I still thank you. I’m thankful for you. Even though I am not the best updater or writer or commenter your warmth reaches me on a daily bases.

Thank you.

So my blog has taken me on quite a journey. I’m hoping to be a bit better about posting an maybe posting things that are more meaningful but you know we need to see abs every once in a while… right :D.

Personal goals

In the year where I almost took my life I finally started to reach out towards something I almost gave up on. My writing.

It has been a journey.

This comic from Sarah Scribbles really sums up my life with reaching my goal to be published.

In the year 2017 it was a fight to sit down and write word after word that I thought sucked. I had to force my butt into the chair and some days getting 100 words was an act of God.

I wanted to give up. I wanted to just sit and watch TV again. I wanted to drown myself in junk food and depression.

But I had small beams of light around me support from other writers, friends, family and online. In December 2016 I finished my first book.

There was no feeling like it in the world. “The writer who didn’t write.” That is what I called myself for the last 10 years and here I was looking at something I finished. Was it pretty… eh? Do I need to hire a good editor? YES. haha but it was done.

Now that I knew I could write a book in a year nothing was stopping me. I knew I could finish. So I wrote book two! I finished it in less than six months. I couldn’t believe it. I now had two urban fantasy books done.

For these first two books I hand wrote them both. Now that may seem a bit insane, but it helped me focus on getting the ugly words out without trying to stop and make everything perfect. So I wrote, scribbled but didn’t back down. Then when I typed them all out I would edit and revise.

Now for book three I thought I could get a lot more done if I didn’t hand write it. So I started this new YA fantasy (inspired by Japanese and Korean culture) and I typed it. I started it in September and even though I had two- three weeks of not writing I’m going to hit my midpoint at the end of this month.

I’m planning to finish the first draft by the end of November. Three months.

First book: one year

Second book: six month

Third book: 3-4 months

I included editing time but not beta read time.

I’m still querying and pitching my books to agents, but I’m also saving up money to self publish. If it all goes well be on the look out for three urban fantasy in 2020!!

Now it feels weird to look back on my journey of personal goals and dreams. Writing is now a part of my life. Something I always wanted but never achieved until now. It is just always there every night when I sit down to write 2,000 words.

It is something that is there, even though things in my life aren’t going great but having a goal… Life changing.

This really comes back to My Reasons Why. To your reasons why. When you have those goals those things that keep you going they make all the difference.

I hope you take the challenge to make them a part of your life. Never feel guilty for doing something you love and than brings you joy. This is how we take care of ourselves.

I hope I get to grow in the next year with you all. Thank you for putting up with my rambles and pictures of abs.

Thank you for being you and I believe in you. Always.

Happy Watching :).