2021 in Review: Learning Things
Jan. 13th, 2022 11:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forestofgloryIn 2021 I had a lot of free time and not many places to be, so I ended up doing a lot of self-directed learning. Here’s a couple of things that I learned about last year:
Classical Chinese: After believing basically my whole life that language study was not for me, in 2021 I started studying Classical Chinese. I love it so much, it really satisfies the part of my brain that likes puzzle and littling things building up to big things. I wrote more about this here
Wuxia history: Since I’ve been enjoying so much wuxia recently I wanted to understand the genre better. I find the idea of a genre as works conversation very useful, so I set out to better understand the conversation wuxia is having. For this project I watched many older movies and read a couple of academic books. I want to keep going and watch some more older movies, and also read some 20th century wuxia novels. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the genre, but its already made my watching of more recent wuxia dramas richer.
Figurative patterns for quilts: In 2021 I didn’t sew any garments using new to me patterns. I just keep sewing the same patterns in different sizes, but I did try some new patterns for quilting. Previously I’d made simple classical blocks and done a lot of improv piecing. In 2021 I did figurative quilting for the 1st time, making first space bees and then chickens. I was intimidated by these kinds of patterns, and they are rather fiddly but they have more room for error than I 1st thought. I’m very pleased with how both projects turned out!
Writing: 2021 was a year of slow and steady writing for me. My progress in learning to be a better writer was also slow and steady. While I am sometimes frustrated that I can’t write as fast as some people I know, writing small amounts most days adds up. Last year I really got into 15 min writing sprints, just having a small distraction free time helped me get focused on what I was writing.
I also experimented with format in my fics. I love writing epistolary fic, but I hadn’t written fic that mixed letters with 3rd person narrative before. But after reading “On a Long Journey” I really wanted to try it. Towards the end of the year I also experimented with format by writing some small weird fics that don’t have much plot. This was good practice in making ideas more story shaped, something I struggle with.
What fun things did you learn in 2021?
Classical Chinese: After believing basically my whole life that language study was not for me, in 2021 I started studying Classical Chinese. I love it so much, it really satisfies the part of my brain that likes puzzle and littling things building up to big things. I wrote more about this here
Wuxia history: Since I’ve been enjoying so much wuxia recently I wanted to understand the genre better. I find the idea of a genre as works conversation very useful, so I set out to better understand the conversation wuxia is having. For this project I watched many older movies and read a couple of academic books. I want to keep going and watch some more older movies, and also read some 20th century wuxia novels. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the genre, but its already made my watching of more recent wuxia dramas richer.
Figurative patterns for quilts: In 2021 I didn’t sew any garments using new to me patterns. I just keep sewing the same patterns in different sizes, but I did try some new patterns for quilting. Previously I’d made simple classical blocks and done a lot of improv piecing. In 2021 I did figurative quilting for the 1st time, making first space bees and then chickens. I was intimidated by these kinds of patterns, and they are rather fiddly but they have more room for error than I 1st thought. I’m very pleased with how both projects turned out!
Writing: 2021 was a year of slow and steady writing for me. My progress in learning to be a better writer was also slow and steady. While I am sometimes frustrated that I can’t write as fast as some people I know, writing small amounts most days adds up. Last year I really got into 15 min writing sprints, just having a small distraction free time helped me get focused on what I was writing.
I also experimented with format in my fics. I love writing epistolary fic, but I hadn’t written fic that mixed letters with 3rd person narrative before. But after reading “On a Long Journey” I really wanted to try it. Towards the end of the year I also experimented with format by writing some small weird fics that don’t have much plot. This was good practice in making ideas more story shaped, something I struggle with.
What fun things did you learn in 2021?
