How to Create Your Own Yearly Chapter Book
Yesterday I made a TikTok about my self-published book “Chapter 27”. It was a book that documented my 27th year on Earth, and included my writing, art, achievements and failures in 2020. If you haven’t seen it, watch my TikTok below!
@debbbag document every chapter of your life 😌 ##foryou ##fyp
♬ Steven Universe - L.Dre
Introduction
Since last year, I decided to document every year of my life in printed form. I call it the “Yearly Chapter Book” – it’s a book I self-publish that documents everything significant that happened in the past year.
The concept is pretty simple. Each “chapter” corresponds to my age (I was 27 in 2020, so my chapter was called “Chapter 27”). In my Chapter 27 book, I printed my artwork, my essays, secret gossip, traumatic events and a summary of the year. I went through many changes in 2020, and I didn’t want to forget them.
Where I got it printed
I printed my book with a print-on-demand company called Blurb (If you use that link it will get you $30 off your purchase which is pretty cool!). It cost around $50 including shipping, but will vary based on the size of book you chose and how many pages you have. My size is the Trade Hardback (6x9 inches) with an Imagewrap Cover and printed in Standard Colour. I ended up with around 112 pages. Year-to-year, it will be different!
I designed everything in Adobe InDesign (I’m a graphic designer), but Blurb has their own software which makes it easy for you to design your spreads without needing design experience.
How long did it take to make?
I created my book in the last week of 2020, but had gathered everything I made throughout the year (most of it being in the latter half of the year). It’s never too late to start documenting and don’t be daunted by it! If something is important enough, it will go in the book. You don’t have make it perfect either, you want to document the year in it’s most authentic form. If your year was chaotic, your book should represent that :)
After ordering my book, it took around a month for the book to arrive from Blurb.
I had a lot of requests for a template of prompts for the book, so I have outlined them below as a guide!
Before we get started, please note: Everyone is different so you don’t have to follow these or include everything, this is just a way to help you think about what to write or include in your book. There are no rules about how to write your book, it’s yours and up to you!
Prompts for your Yearly Chapter Book
Introduction/Note to Self/Editor’s Note
I like writing a small note to myself at the beginning (almost like a disclaimer), it’s a way to communicate with your future self about what lies ahead in the book.
A photo of yourself
A photo of yourself in that year, so you can see how you’ve changed.
2021 Stats (and Favourites)
A list of numbers and statistics that you’d like to compare year to year. Examples:
Number of Books read
Number of Movies watched
Number of TV Shows watched
Current Weight (if you’re on a fitness journey)
Current Height (if you’re on a height journey)
Number of kms/miles run
Total Yearly Income
Total Yearly Spend
Total Gross Savings
Favourite Game(s)
Favourite Movie(s)
Favourite TV Show(s)
Favourite Book(s)
Favourite Podcast(s)
Favourite Restaurant(s)
Favourite Artist(s)
Favourite [Insert Here]
Top Songs
Tiktok Followers
Twitter Followers
Instagram Followers
Facebook Page Likes
Youtube Subscribers
Website Visitors
Year Summary (Reflection/Essay)
A written summary and reflection of the past year.
Some prompts include: What did you do? How did you feel about this year? What did you learn? Did anything significant happen? How did this change you? Did you change?
New Years Resolutions
Write a list of your New Years Resolutions you made for the year and reflect on whether you achieved or failed them.
How do you feel about them? Did you learn anything from achieving or failing them?
Will any of them carry onto the new year?
2021 Month to Month (Dot points)
A short dot point summary of things that happened in each month (It can be achievements, failures, good or bad events)
Example:
January
My Tiktok went viral!
Got a new car
Lost my job
February
Celebrated my birthday in lockdown
Started my sticker business, the only purchases were from my mum and my neighbour
Lessons Learnt (Dot points)
A succinct dot point list of lessons you learnt in the year. These can be practical or existential lessons.
Examples:
Stop anticipating, be reactive instead
Just because you understand someone’s toxic behaviour doesn’t mean you should put up with it (learnt that from TikTok!)
Other things to document in your Yearly Chapter Book
Artwork Gallery: Artwork you have created within the year. If it’s in a traditional medium, digitise it and include it!
Scans from important pages of your journal: If you journal on the regular and there are entries that you like, include them as a scan.
Letters you have written to yourself, or others have written to you: Type them up or include them as a scan.
Essays/Blog posts: Any pieces of writing you have written in the year
Photo Gallery: Your favourite photos of the year
Book, Movie or Food Reviews: Anything you have opinions about
Progress on your hobbies or fitness goals: Document how well you did month to month!
And that’s what I included in my Yearly Chapter Book! There’s a lot you can include in yours, the important thing is that it’s important to you. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or stuck, I would make a rule to only include things you want to remember, or you want to see progress of year to year.
Good luck and I look forward to seeing your published books in 2022!
x Deb
P.S. Find my other guides in my Resource Index, follow me on my socials (Tiktok and Instagram), or buy me a Ko-fi :)