A Year-End Roundup + a Recap Doc

Surprising Myself When I Actually Did the Math

Dec 10, 2023

Check out my first post here to read more about the namesake of this newsletter and make a copy of the input/output tracking sheet if you so desire.

Here’s what I “accomplished” or tried to accomplish in my creative life this year (all pulled from my input/output tracking sheet):

Started this newsletter in February, after initially getting it set up 8 months prior. Gained 800 subcribers from my initial import list of 1200. Was, for me, somewhat consistent with posting, while also not becoming obsessive and punitive with myself, which is the line I’m always trying to walk.
Wrote three new classes: Write Like an Athlete, Writing a McSweeney’s-Style Piece (the first multi-week class I’ve written since 2018!), and Comedy Writing for Non-Comedians.
Published three co-written pieces with the great writer Tom Ellison, two on Weekly Humorist, one on McSweeney’s:
- My Sleep Rider: Contractual Requirements for Sleeping at a Friend’s House After Age 35 (this is basically autobiography, we both had a lot to contribute on the vagaries of sleep)
- “The Optimal Life Can Be Yours If You Have the Right Routine and Zero Obligations” (We share an interest in mocking tech men + business boys)
- “Predictive Texts for the Conflict-Adverse” (really proud of this one because when Tom first shot me the idea, I almost said no, since I am not…conflict-adverse. But I decided to give it a try and our writing styles were a great match for this topic!)
Finished a book proposal two years in the making that went on submission with my co-author (more on that soon!!!)
Pretty much completed another book proposal and promptly lost interest in the topic, very good job, Caitlin. Waiting to see if the spark returns…
Wrote a synopsis and then an outline for another longer project that didn’t pan out for a variety of reasons, though it was fun to work on.
Did four major rewrites of my novel, FINALLY unlocking some of the key elements I’d been struggling with, including one question that has plagued me for TWO YEARS.
Played around with 150 pages of a new novel idea I started at the end of 2022. I’ll return to that in 2024.
I read sixty books, and I’ll probably read another few before the end of the year. That’s a lower number for me, and to be honest, I was not on the most, uh, rigorous reading plan—I read a lot of bad thrillers along with rereading old favorites. There was a lot of skimming to go to sleep. Next year, I definitely want to push myself to read more intellectually nourishing books.

I was also on medical leave for close to four months of this year—two months for an issue that occurred at the end of 2022 which required bed rest and taking it easy, and six weeks for an unrerelated issue (please, body, stop being so dramatic). So really, this is all in eight months of work. Plus all the additional paid consulting and freelance work I did for $$$.

If you’d asked me a week ago, I would have said this was basically a lost writing year for me—which is why it’s so key to take stock. I felt the book proposal was really the only thing I had accomplished. Clearly, I was extremely wrong!

Even with the projects that went nowhere, I don’t believe that creative energy is wasted. Writing a class is no small thing, so to create three from scratch is major. I hadn’t been on McSweeney’s in three years, and I was delighted to return with Tom. I conceived and started this whole-ass newsletter! And I fell totally back in love with my novel again, after battling with it for most of 2022 and feeling despair.

I think the time away from writing played a big role in that. In January, when I couldn’t look at screens or read following a medical incident, I spent hours a day staring at the inside of my eyelids. I started to mentally imagine different changes to my novel, playing them out and seeing how I felt about them. It helped me reconnect to the story and why I’ve poured so much time and effort into it in the first place. Months later, when I returned to it, I felt a huge creative renewal.

A few things I inputted that stuck with me were:

The Disney+ series Andor. I am NOT a Star Wars person, so I went into this with the lowest of low expectations, but I found the character evolution and themes truly excellent and thought-provoking. Andy Serkis needs an Emmy!!
I went to Carnegie Hall for the first time and saw a classic piano concert. For two hours, I was absolutely rapt watching the hands of the performers and listening to the music. It was the most relaxed state I was in for the first half of the year, with no other stimulation.
Books I really liked: Old Enough by Haley Jakobson (tender, funny, smart), The Only Survivors by Megan Miranda (a thriller that actually dealt with survivor’s guilt in a non-exploitative way! Shocking!), The Ugly History of Beautiful Things by Katy Kelleher (these essays were so thought-provoking, and I learned a lot. A month later I saw the glassmakers in Murano, something she spoke about in the book in the history of mirrors). I also read an ARC of Shannon Reed’s new book, Why We Read, and truly loved it. Out in 2024!

Things that didn’t stick:

Severance on Apple TV. This should have been so deep in my wheelhouse, but I couldn’t connect with any of the characters and I hated the set design. Stopped at episode 6. Yes, I know the ending is shocking, no, I’m not going to keep watching, yes, I’m probably just going to read a plot synopsis of what happened. I watched very little TV this year in general.
Barbie. It was fun? Great set design and music. Not revelatory to me in terms of theme. They should have cut the creator character all together, in my opinion. I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it hadn’t been hyped as feminist masterpiece.
Most books. I had a harder time reading this year than I have since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. I have so many excellent books in my queue, but I’ve struggled to really engage with them. I just finished Tender is the Flesh, a book I’ve seen raved about, but it left me pretty cold (cold as the meat lockers in the book). I’m going to start 2024 with a reread of one of my touchstones, The Secret History, and see if that helps me get back into the groove. Things have improved in the latter half of this year, so I’m hopeful.
Applying for fellowhsips or grants. I don’t have a lot of success with involved apps (probably because my bad attiude starts to show halfway through) and this year, I decided to save myself the trouble of applying for something only to see that a Pulitzer-Prize winner got it.

Personal/Health Milestones:

Had surgery to remove skin cancer by my eye and plastic sugery follow up (successful! Get your spots checked! And bully your dermatologist, mine initially said the spot was nothing and he would biopsy it to “put my mind at ease” and it was basel cell carcinoma. You clown.)
And on November 25, I hit a year sober from alcohol. The lack of drinking has made a huge difference in my creative work this year, in a way I’m still struggling to talk about. Maybe next year!

I made a little doc you’re welcome to follow if you want to try a year-end recap yourself. These are the questions I tend to use, feel free to adjust for your own purposes. File—>Make a New Copy.

Did you surprise yourself at all this year? What are you carrying forward into 2024? What are you leaving behind?

If you couldn’t see going to the Arctic with the residency I had last newsletter, here’s one in PA. It’s a residency opp for satire writers—I did St. Nell’s in 2021 and loved it! Make sure to read who qualifies, app open until 12/21. From St. Nell’s:

This residency begins on Monday, March 4, 2024 and ends on Monday, March 18th.
We are specifically looking for satire writers this round. There will be three residents in total.
There is no fee for the residency itself, but residents are responsible for their own transportation to Williamsport - a 3.5 hour drive from NYC or a longer train-bus combo.
All residents MUST be vaxxed, and the residency is open to female/nb creators (sorry, cis dudes)
The application fee is $20.00, and applications cannot be considered without payment of fee. *** Fees are payable to saintnells@gmail.com(paypal) or @stnells (venmo). Applications for this period close December 21st, 2023. Head to www.stnells.com for more info! Thank you and good luck!!

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ABOUT ME: My name is Caitlin Kunkel and I’m a comedy writer, long-time teacher, and creator of The Second City’s Online Satire Writing Program. I currently teach classes and consult on gift book proposals, modern adaptation, satire, and comedic literature. I co-founded The Belladonna Comedy and the Satire and Humor Festival, and I co-wrote the satirical gift book New Erotica for Feminists: Satirical Fantasies of Love, Lust, and Equal Pay, named one of the Top 10 Comedy Books of 2018 by Vulture.