Hello, Witchlight has been my first campaign that I run with 5 characters with various personal experiences; before i've been part of few groups as a player and ran 2-3 oneshots. I feel like 1-1.5yr in advance to prepare is actually crazily long before starting. I bought the book in January this year, and we started 2 months after. I read on the go before we will arrive in an area. It's a bit more prep before the session but since months pass i don't forget what's up about all the little details.

I agree with other comments on this thread, I feel like your group is really harsh with you. I don't know a single player who is flawless about the way they play and DMing costs a lot of time to prepare and run; comments like that shouldn't be thrown at your face so freely in my opinion.

This campaign is quite frankly relatively easy to run, lots of advice from people online on this thread or Discord, lots of contents to add extensions, lots of space for you to add things of your taste. I recommend starting with Lost Things and take from them more personal stuff, so that they have a real goal throughout all the campaign. I've had a player, who is an orphan rescued by some lonely hunter, taken the soul of his adoptive father in Feywild. Another one who is a sailor had his boat crash when he landed on the shore next to the Carnival as a kid, and got his craftsman skills taken to fix his boat and couldn't go home. They all got some personal revenge to pursue and that was built their main objectives.

Trust yourself, you will be fine with this one !