Fine, I'm Rounding Up the Year Too, You Ghouls
Mostly because I don't want to revisit this year once it's over
There is one thing my mom, my therapist, my second-grade teacher, several best friends, and a handful of professional astrologers agree with and that is this: I am very hard on myself. I am! I don’t quite know how to change this lol. My brain is a constant montage of the opportunities I squandered and the mistakes I made. I live in a perpetual state of frustration, being fully aware that my resume has never lived up to my talent and also wondering if my talent actually lives up to my ambition. The last time I felt at peace at the end of the year was in 2017—one of those banger years where I had a job I liked, a boyfriend I liked, a dog I liked, an apartment I liked, and working on a project I liked and I still felt like a fucking failure back then. But at least a failure that was rebuilding her life.
That was six years ago, for the liberal arts majors out there.
This is a long-winded way of saying that I am trying my very best to celebrate my little wins because I no longer have the kind of good health insurance that covers therapy lmao. I also do not care to look back on this year when it’s over! I’ve had worse years—one with real tragedies and heartache. For fucks’ sake, I am not running away from bombs and other horrors, so I know I’m fine. But this year has been relentless. Every month brought on a new issue I had to react to, tend to, and resolve. I’m drained! I’m tired! I’M CRANKY! But I’m going to list the few breaks in an otherwise dud of a year.
BYLINES
Very few but they were meaningful! I’m proud of my work, proving that quality over quantity is what I want to pursue moving forward:
All My Divorced Friends Are Sharing Custody of Their Pets for The Cut
13 Lima Restaurants We Can’t Get Enough of for Saveur
Meet The Hustle and Morning Brew Alums Shaping the Future of Newsletters for Inbox Collective
TRAVEL
After a COVID pause, it was lovely to knock off new countries off my list. More international travel for 2024 por favor.
New Orleans
Santa Barbara
Portland
Cancún
Lima
WORKSHOPS/CLASSES
Lamenting with my writers group about how little creative output I had in 2023, my wise friend Rae pointed out the amount of classes I took this year. Classes where I wrote, a lot. Capitalism has so destroyed us all that I have a hard time even noticing how much I DO write because it is not in its polished, published form.
Tin House Summer Workshop—Crowning this my biggest win of 2023
Essay-Collection-in-a-Year with Megan Stielstra
Personal Reported Essay (RIP Catapult)
PJ Seminars on memoir with Ilana Regan, Mary Laura Philpott, and Claire Dederer and one on the art of brevity with Grant Faulkner at StoryStudio
Sharing Work with Literary Journals with Alexandra Watson
What I Learned from Editing the Best American Essays with Alexander Chee
Creative Research with Megan Milks via The Shipman Agency
Where to Start with Short Humor with Luke Burns
TEACHING/PANELING
Moderated a panel on Literary Leadership for Pub Crawl
Taught a single-session class on humor in nonfiction for StoryStudio
CLIENT WORK
I don’t share much client work because most of it is for internal purposes, of little interest to a general audience, or the kind of product where we are all supposed to pretend that no individual human had a hand in creating it lol. However, there are two projects I feel particularly proud of and may even be cool for you folks to peruse.
I translated an investigative piece on Missouri’s backlog of child abuse cases for NPR
Wrote a toolkit on the Inclusive Internship Initiative for the Public Library Association
SUBSTACK
I’m not super thrilled with the changes Substack introduced this year. The checkmarks, the notes, the obvious way the algorithm is rigged so that popular accounts not only get highlighted more—that’s to be expected—but they bury the smaller ones to where nothing feels more humiliating to me than writing a Note lmao. I can talk to myself in the privacy of my own home, thank you very much. Other changes have made it easier for people to find me and I have grown steadily! But more than the total number of subscribers, I feel proud of two stats:
My open rate is over 50%
More than 10% of you have upgraded to paid and I am so, so grateful for that.
BEST WAY THE UNIVERSE TOLD ME TO GET OVER MY FUCKING MOPING ALREADY
I took a break while writing this newsletter to go to Books Are Magic. There are at least 5 bookstores closer to me, but I haven’t made my way there in a while and it is the only one that sells Moleskins, guaranteed. I did get my lined notebook but, even better, I saw copies of the poetry collection I co-translated. There, chilling on its main table, the one with all the new and hyped-up releases. Like a real dork, I turned to the booksellers manning the cash register to say “Hey, that’s me!” and they politely feigned interest lol. Anyway, look at that. My name on the cover. Probably the only time me and Langston Hughes will ever be connected to each other lol.
Homework
Write down your wins and then go take a walk.
State of My Wallet
November Invoiced: $4,684.69
November Received: $6,061.93
December Invoiced: $3,155.51
December Received: $3,253.11
Total Invoiced for 2023: $74,576.24
Total Received for 2023: $71,853.44
Numerically, the most I’ve made in my life ever. Because of inflation, I’m still below the last full-time salary I earned in 2018. It’s become apparent that the only way to survive is to make six figures so we’ll see if I can pull that off next year, melting face emoji.
Progress Report
I tallied it all up and I put myself out there 62 times—that includes pitches, letters of introductions, contest submissions, job applications, residency/workshop applications, everything you can think of. I received 40 rejections/no-responses which puts my rejection rate at about 64%, which honestly does not sound that high. Yay me! One day I hope to reach 100 submissions et al.
Shameless Self-Promotion
I recently changed paid subscriber benefits to the following, in case you want to upgrade:
Full access to the archive. For free sign-ups, posts are paywalled after a year. Not for you special folk, though!
Subscriber-only posts where I share my accepted pitches, residency and intensive applications, query letters, LOIs, templates, and other miscellaneous material that I used to get published. This is by far what most people want access to and, since they are sensitive materials and shit I worked really hard at, I think it is fair to put them behind a paywall.
A weekly, one-hour Zoom write-in for paid subscribers starting January 2024. I’ve been taking advantage of many of these from around the web and have seen my output increase quite a bit. It’s a way to make community too, see some of your lovely faces.
Other benefits coming in June 2024. Sorry for being so mysterious but I don’t want to get ahead of myself! There is some behind-the-scenes work I need to do before I can show all my cards.
My suggested donation for Tarot card readings is going up next year! If you book one before the end of the year, even if the reading itself is in 2024, the suggested donation remains at $30. The half-hour virtual sessions are a great way to gain some insight into next year. Books yours here.
I have availability in 2024 (especially the first quarter) for new clients or projects. Hit me up! My services include content writing (articles, blog posts, web copy, newsletters), internal communications (toolkits, reports), and English<>Spanish translation and copywriting. If you’re an editor, my usual beats are food, culture, and personal essays. You can find out more about my professional background on LinkedIn.
Do you have residencies or workshops in your 2024 goals? I can help! I’m teaching a single-session course on writing the artist statement on January 11. I’ll also be teaching a one-night workshop on how to use reporting to shape your creative writing projects.
I loved my "memoir in a year" class with Megan! What was your favorite class/instructor of all the shorter ones?
You did so much to be proud of this year! As ever, thanks for your transparency about work and money. Let's both hit $100K next year!