2020: A year in review.

Do you remember all the jokes we were making at the start of the year about having twenty twenty vision? Yeah, none of us could really see what 2020 was going to bring, could we?

Hello everyone and welcome to end of 2020. Thank god, eh? I think we can all agree 2020 was an atrocious year. To recap the year was started by the threat of World War Three when America bombed Iraq. This was followed by the Australian wild fires that left three billion animals dead and scorched over one billion acres of land and murder hornets were sighted in the US. The death of George Floyd sparked riots across the world and who can forget to Coronavirus pandemic which killed one and a half million people and sent most of the world into lockdown.

There is only one major positive of 2020 I can think of… We got rid of Trump!

Of course, when the year started none of us knew what was to come and I set some very optimistic goals in January.

1 – Have a decent draft of The Truth About Nicole and The White Wasteland.

While I was able to complete a redraft of both manuscripts, I found that after spending the day working from home I didn’t have the mental energy to focus on complex projects. This means that although both manuscripts have been improved upon, they are not in the condition I would like them to be in. 

This isn’t to say that I have not been writing. I have plotted out several TV show ideas, one book series and one stand alone novel in great detail. I also completed a manuscript from NaNoWriMo. I hope these projects do turn into something but if they don’t, if they forever reside on my laptop then that’s fine. They kept me sane.

 

2 – Visit more of the world/England.

Hahahahaha. No.

I have noticed that the locations of my writing projects have started to wander. I realised that a good majority of my writing (at least those set in the modern day) was based in the city I know best, London. This year the settings of my stories have strayed across the UK and beyond.

 

3 – Consume more media

I think this is the only goal I achieved, I think everyone across the world consumed more media this year. I’ve been watching shows and reading books that are outside of my comfort zone. While I have enjoyed most of these, all of them have proved educational.

I don’t feel too disappointed in myself as the world is in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic. 

 

If I was asked to describe the year 2020 in a single word I would say… ‘clusterfuck’ but I would like to end the year with a story of love and kindness. I hope you enjoy.

In 2001 five skeletons were discovered in Georgia. These skeletons were transported to a lab and subjected to a variety of tests and from these, archaeologists were able to deduce several things. Firstly the skeletons were Homo Erectus Georgicus, a very early form of Homo sapiens. They were over one and a half million years old and they lived of a diet of nuts and berries.

The third skeleton in particular was the most interesting. The third skeleton was a male who died in his forties and at the time of his death was missing all but one of his teeth. Archaeologists concluded that the man had lived a long period of time with one tooth and that during this time he had presumably been fed by the four other cavemen. This raises a new question. Why? Why would four cavemen make a conscious effort to keep this man alive? They would not have had anything to gain from this, it would have been a drain on their resources, another mouth the feed.

Archaeologists concluded that the cavemen kept their friend alive for no other reason other than compassion and love. They were being kind. Isn’t that brilliant? These five cavemen didn’t have the concept of a government or currency or war, like we do, but they shared one essential trait with us. If we were able to reanimate their corpses and show them our world there would be only one thing they would recognise. Our ability to love and to be kind.

I’ll see you all next year. Take care, stay safe and be kind.