Meet Bella. She’s big, she’s loud, and she’s really happy to see you! She’s happy to see anyone really, except Alfred, but can you blame her? There’s about a-bazillion years of conflict going on there…
Bella ambles through the thick underbrush. The sun is warm on her pebbly scales, and the comfort and safety of older member of her herd is always nearby…
She eats great mouthfuls of plant matter as she walks, the sounds of cracking branches and tearing foliage almost as loud as the constant rumble that shakes the air and the ground beneath our feet. The voices of nearly one hundred behemoths of muscle and scaly skin call to one another like cattle.
Bella raises her head and bellows out a sound like a massive eighteen-wheeler truck. Smaller animals dart out from the brush between her feet, and scurry out of the way. I think we’d better do the same!
Making progress…
It’s that time of year when I’ve had a month to evaluate the previous year and make plans for the new one. I hope you’ve been having a good start to the new year!
It’s been a crazy year for me, but in the end there were many blessings that came from all the chaos. 🙂 It’s always good to start the new year on a positive note, so I took a look at what my goals were for the year 2020.
- Put together a collection of short stories for publishing
- At least one, but possibly 3 new creatures for the shop
So how did I do?
Goal #1: Success! I completed everything on my first progress chart. I put together all the short stories and illustrations I already had, designed a layout for everything, and completed all the illustrations that would accompany the stories. Then I determined that the little collection needed more content to make it more worth your while, so now each creature has a little info, and I have a good start on that already. 🙂
Goal #2: Success! Not only did we met Nina the Nanosaurus, but Fossil Friday introduced dozens of new creatures! They weren’t characters added to the shop, technically, but each one was a fresh illustration complete with researched facts and size comparison illustration. There are sixty-two new creatures all together! I’ve gathered them all for your viewing pleasure. Which one is your favorite? 😀
So what’s my take away for 2020?
I am definitely better at coming up with realistic goals for the year, and I was better with focus and overall production. I created more posts and creatures for the website than ever, and I really enjoyed that! It’s a nice boost of confidence to find out I can do weekly posts if I work at it, and I want to bring back Fossil Friday as soon as possible. I really like being able to explore the environment and creatures of different formations. Exploring them in the simpler style is fun, relatively simple, and I really like having a better picture of the environment as a whole.
I do need to be better at precise focus on certain projects, so that I can finish these larger projects faster. As fun as the smaller projects are, they are a bit distracting when it comes to working on the larger projects. I plan on giving myself another month to see if I can work out a schedule that works. 🙂 Perhaps one or two days out of the week dedicated to Fossil Friday posts, while other days are for the collection. Or perhaps I can create Fossil Friday posts in batches, and dedicate a week to the four or five posts for the month. That way I have the entire rest of the month to focus on the collection. I’ll figure out something. 🙂 Just know that I plan on bringing back Fossil Friday soon!
So here are my goals for the year 2021. 🙂
- Finish collection and prepare for publication
- Publish short story collection
- New critter for the shop.
- Work out a rhythm for Fossil Friday.
Here’s how the second progress chart is looking so far. 🙂 I added pretty background colors so I could easily see which ones are done!
Do you have any creative goals for this year? We can cheer each other on. 🙂
Coming MARCH 1st…
This big guy needs a lot of space to swim…you wouldn’t happen to have a goldfish bowl the size of the Mediterranean would you? 😉
Share your guess in the comments! He’s one of the critters over on the critter page. 🙂
Pete's Paleo Petshop 
Are the insects in the picture found in the Morrison Formation? (I used a translator because I am not familiar with English.)
LikeLike
Thank you so much for stopping by! The insects would be common throughout the Jurassic period, so they could be in the Morrison formation. But I did not research any direct fossils from that formation. They’re just an example of what might be there, because they were common everywhere at the time. 🙂
LikeLike
So exciting!! 2020 was a really productive year then! It’s been so cool to see all the new critters (and such a big variety of them, too! Good thing Pete has a lot of space in his shop). 😀 Hard to choose a favorite, but as far as the new critters, I really like Kayentavenator, Stokesosaurus, and Kayentasuchus. Dilo still tops the list though. :3
And how can you resist Nina’s floof!
Can’t wait to see future progress on the anthology. That’ll be super exciting! Dinosaurs are the best way to ring in the New Year. As for me, my goal is to draw one dodo every day. That way I can finish my dodo comic. I also want to revise five pages of my 17,000 word short story every day! We’ll cheer each other on. 😀
LikeLike
Hi Brownie! It’s good to see you here! Hehe, dinosaurs are always the best way to ring in the New Year. 😀
Drawing a dodo every day sounds like a great goal! I’m curious to see how it goes. I love the tip of drawing the same simple thing every day because it forces you to get really creative when that one thing starts getting boring. I’ve noticed my one fish of the day is starting to get more emotive and experimental with different styles. Playing with expression is fun too. 😀 And hey, don’t think about it as doing a comic, but just one panel at a time right? 😀
Best of luck on your short story too! Revision can be a bear, but the effort is so rewarding! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello again, Patricia. The wrap-up from last year’s goals is a good thing you promised. Also, I am sure Gulper is next. And the progress, keep it up!!
LikeLike
Hi Angel, thank you for stopping by! I’m glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Yes, Gulper is next! 🙂
LikeLike
And one more question: When will Fossil Friday return?
LikeLike
I really want to know because you have not posted since November and you never mentioned that you would skip February.
LikeLike
In this post I said that I am trying to figure out a system that allows me to continue Fossil Friday without compromising progress on the bigger projects I am working on. Before Fossil Friday can come back one of two things needs to happen:
#1- I focus completely on the collection, with no Fossil Friday at all during the time I work on it.
OR
#2- I take a little extra time to work out a system that makes it possible to do both. Or at least find out if it’s possible for me to do both.
Either way, Fossil Friday is temporarily postponed until I figure out how to make this work. Fossil Friday was an experiment. A fun one, and I want to bring it back, but I have no idea when that will happen. The only guarantee I can make is that monthly posts will continue, and I will do my best to make them worthwhile. 🙂
LikeLike