Get Your Creative Goals Back on Track With an End of Year Plan

When the 1st of January, 2022 arrives, I want to look back at my 2021 goals and say “I did it!”

These days, you can find almost any solution online. From fixing things around your house to how to create videos, anything you name it.

And learning something completely new isn’t impossible if you have a computer and can get online.

As a creator, I’m always relying on the internet, apps and tools to find solutions to my creative problems.

So, let’s get right to what I plan to do over the next few months so I can reach 2022 saying I did it.

Here are the three things I will tweak and tackle in my creative work for the rest of this year, including creating my writing content and the development stages of my first no-code/low-code application.

1. Fiction stories — You are in the right era to become creative with $0.

I aim to write up 15 fiction stories. I started using characters I created using Blender ( → here are fiction stories 1 & 2).

As the second one resonated with the writing prompt, I found it fascinating to write in response to the writing prompt. What I was able to do were these: producing a piece of flash fiction, creating the environment for the characters, publishing the story with three images, and I tide it to the previous story 1.

So I will continue to leverage writing prompts to stimulate my ideas.

I only have Fish and Buddy (the Dog) so far, but I may make a few to join them.

A robot?

A snail? That I randomly created?

Or something else.

How did I make these? I downloaded free software from Blender.org and learned the functions from YouTube tutorials. Mainly from Blender Guru.

Blender is just one example.

If you are a writer, Excalidraw may be useful. Squares, circles, rectangular shapes, and colors are already there for you to use. Drag in, make them smaller or wider. And you can put your words in there. This tool may help you express your ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

Sometimes, visualization helps us understand words, stories, and things around us better.

Why I jumped into it? I liked doing my artwork since I was little, in elementary school and junior high. I only took a few courses as electives and mandatory coursework and never majored in Art. The complements I gained from my parents and teachers in the past:

1. A wooden box (opens and closes) and a small purse I made. They first wondered if things curved on the surfaces were my ideas and if I did it, and they said those were well done.
2. A color print of cosmos flowers carved on a wooden piece made by hands. Somehow it got hanged in the meeting room.
3. A contour drawing of a tennis ball with a range of pencil darkness. The teacher told me it was the closest one to the A or A+.

If you have those moments knowing you love your artwork, and somehow never get pursuing it or trying after getting older, you are in the right time to do something.

You see, I have never crafted fiction stories like that — having several scenes along with characters inserted in the stories. I would end up with zero in my life if I didn’t try. Even though they are very short, I got two stories out!

Once you get used to the software, you enjoy more doing it.

2. Application — Have you heard of low-code or no-code app development?

“The growth of low-code development tools is making more developers, not reducing the number of existing developers…. Low-code development teams are springing up and need experienced developers to set them up and lead them.”

Ben “The Hosk” Hosking talks about the trend of low-code/no-code development and the need of knowing it even among skilled developers.

This year, I have learned applications can be created either by little programming or no programming at all. I’m not someone who graduated with a computer science degree from Stanford or someone who doesn’t want to know about programming, so I can definitely learn to make one application.

How? There are many options.

If you are interested in learning it and committing to it, that’s all it takes.

Here is the list of websites you can go and browse what is out there ( → here). I tried Bubble, and it gives you, on-screen guidance. Literally, zooming the button which you need to click among all other buttons to set up a map on your app, for example. Cool, right?

What if you want to use something different, such as using ML (machine learning) in your app because you know some well-known apps are using ML.

Here is what I found may be helpful.

A free Udacity course — to learn how to use ML in developing an application. I’ve also tried this. It starts with telling you the basics of what ML is, the feature is, and so on. It has the part where they let you see and try Azure, so it may be an option for you. You just need to spare your time and commit to it!

But, what if you determine to develop an app for iOS?

You can learn Swift from both Coursera and Udacity. You can learn how to develop mobile applications. If you are a YouTube learner, then here is the tutorial taught by CodeWithChris on how to develop an app with Swift ( → here).

I am learning artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning now. So this is why. I want to make something based on some knowledge I have gained. The application can be a super simple one, as it will be my first trial. But hey, the first step is always important.

If your passion and hobby can bring you some income, wouldn’t it be great? Not just writing, you can monetize your app if you want.

Scott Stockdale writes about aiming for a higher goal based on the 10X Rule written by James Clear, and setting his monthly income from online courses and writing to be $5,000.

Setting a reasonable and achievable goal is one way to go. Sure. But, as he talks about it, it is not wrong to set a goal 10 times higher than what you are seemingly able to achieve. You know you are going to put the effort into them.

If you didn’t achieve it, so what. You know you gained something when you looked back.

3. Watching and reading

To be able to write content, create 3D characters, objects (and rendering), and make an application, I will have to continue to learn, read some instructions, and watch tutorials — upskill and acquire new skills.

What it means to me is, I will spend tons of time learning, trying, (seeing it not working…), and trying again to eventually see the final versions that satisfy me. And hopefully, those also have some impact on others, such as enjoying reading my articles.

Writing and creating have become a little easier than when I just started doing them. Months of effort do pay off a bit, little by little.

It becomes easier. Well, they are still hard as I am not an expert in doing those like a magician.

I expect the same when it comes to building an application. I need to decide what kind of app I want to make. It involves unknown areas like when I started writing and creating 3D images. I wonder how I would be solving something that I have not even encountered yet. I have no idea now. But I think there are many bits of help out there. So, it is not like some tweaks. I feel like it is a Godzilla project. I will find answers and get it done.

In doing so, I will have to watch time and take care of my health. This is important for how I am going to get through the rest of the year.

Yap, my health. For whatever I do for the rest of the year, next year, and my whole life, I will have to continue to take care of myself. Namely, walking exercises indoor and outdoor, eating well, and sleeping well at night.

Why walking exercises? I’ve always enjoyed walking exercises. It is the best fit for my lifestyle. It is convenient to have physical exercise done, clear my mind, organize my thoughts, and gives me ideas sometimes.

It is not just walking exercise. You can schedule your exercise plan or whatever that can shift your mind away from your work. Leo Sharp writes about his strategy of leaving his work for one week and facing his writing work again after his travel.

Yes, the point is to take a break!

If there is a goal you did not achieve this year, for example, you can tackle it again if you have your health.

With those things that I want to do in my mind, watching my health is inevitably crucial. If I take care of my health this year, the following 12 months, and so on, it will become easier.

And some months or next year, I want to look back and see the effort I put into them and tell myself and others, “I’m glad I did that”, and “Oh, that was a success for me.”

Summing-Up

I am going to do these for the rest of the year:

1. I will aim to write up 15 fiction stories with images I create. I will be using characters from previous ones and add at least one new character to them.
2. Making an application. It will be challenging. But I will learn through online materials and get it done.
3. While learning and pursuing to accomplish 1) and 2), I will remind myself to take care of my health. I will continue my physical exercise, mainly walking exercise, eat well, and get good sleep at night.

These things are what I like to do. Doing something I like daily keeps me going, and I can put my effort into these. I can look forward to something I can create. I can look forward to the adventure that I see in the project.

I hope you have chosen what you like to do for the rest of this year, either that needs a bit of tweak from what you are doing now or something completely new and challenging!

I hope I can look back next year and be proud of myself.

I hope we can say “I did it!” on the 1st of January.

Thanks for reading!

And thanks to Elizabeth Dawber for this Flash writing prompt and advice!

Kaori writes about things like this. If you like this, please find her articles and support her by going ( → here).