Year-end reflection for 2023: Successes

Laurie Thompson — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 00:50:15 +0000

I love participating in children’s author Julie Hedlund’s 12 Days of Christmas for Writers as part of my year-end reflection and new year goal-setting process. Day 3 of the series is an opportunity to reflect on our successes during the past year.

Here is my professional success list for 2023:

I signed a contract for a new picture book and delivered the final manuscript text.
I drafted an informational fiction picture book I’ve had in my head for quite a while (but am still working on).
I re-envisioned and re-drafted an older informational fiction picture book manuscript I’ve been working on for a long time (and am still working on).
I finished revising a nonfiction picture book manuscript.
I took Elana K. Arnold’s Revision Season course and did several revision passes on my first-ever novel (and still have more revising to do).
I did a ton of promotion for my new books, You Are a Honey Bee! and You Are a Raccoon!
I delivered many school visits and appearances.
I updated my school visit presentations.
I updated my website with the new book information and speaking details.

Personally, I also:

spent a lot of quality time with my adult children,
volunteered as a naturalist with my city’s parks department,
volunteered in a variety of roles with Citizens Climate Lobby, including lobbying Congress (twice!) to take action to protect our climate,
got CPR certified, and
took not one but two dream vacations!

I often feel like I’m not getting enough done, like I’m not working hard enough, like nothing is happening. It’s good to look back and see, wow, actually, it was a pretty good year!

On overnight success (Surprise! It’s a lot like failure.)

Laurie Thompson — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 19:50:14 +0000

I posted over on the Emu’s Debuts blog yesterday about what makes an “overnight success.” If you missed it, here’s a little excerpt:

Both of last week’s posts here were about failure, or at least the constant perceived threat of failure that so often makes it hard for us to move forward. I’m going to continue the theme, but on a slightly different note. Our own Emu Empress, Erin MUrphy, once said something along the lines of, “For every success, there is a waiting period that feels like failure.” And in a post on this very blog almost three years ago, she followed that up with, “But it’s NOT! It’s just waiting!”
When she wrote that post back in 2011, I’d only been with the agency for a few months. One year from now, I’ll have three books published. That doesn’t seem like very much waiting, especially to those familiar with the pace of the publishing industry. Many of my writer friends have walked up to me and said something to the effect of, “Wow, you’re on FIRE!” Some say things like, “I guess you’ve been busy lately!” Others ask, “So, what’s your secret?” as if I’m holding out on them. A few say, “Boy, did you get lucky!” never thinking that some authors might be a little bit offended by that. (I never am: Yes, indeed, I have gotten very, very lucky!)
So, in the interests of dispelling myths and keeping things real, I thought it might be helpful to break down my “overnight success:”

You can read the rest of that post here.

success - Laurie Ann Thompson

Year-end reflection for 2023: Successes

On overnight success (Surprise! It’s a lot like failure.)