Janus has two heads so he can look back and ahead. Plus, you really can’t make meaningful progress unless you take some time to reflect on your accomplishments and understand where your journey has brought you to this point.
Let’s start with December, shall we?
In the wake of NaNoWriMo, I needed a wee respite from the purely creative writing. I kept up with my regular blog posts and caught up on a few things that happened in November that I had set aside posting about because of the aforementioned NaNo.
I returned to Marushka after a few days, though, because the force is strong in this one ;) Also, I have to finish my shit (Wendigism).
Toward the end of the month, though, I wanted to get another short fiction submission revised and sent.
So at the end of the month, I’d written a total of 15,167 words, 8,812 of them on the blog, 6,234 on Marushka, and 121 on the short story.
What about 2014?
It was a good year, I think.
Since it was the first year I tracked my writerly output, I really have nothing to compare it to, but I know I’ve written more words in this year than I did in 2013 or any year before that.
The highlights:
“The Broken Places” was published in Bastion Science Fiction Magazine in its June issue.
“On the Ferry” won second place in the In Places Between contest.
“Downtime” will be in the fall 2014 issue of On Spec Magazine. The issue hasn’t come out yet (long story short—please subscribe or support them on their Patreon page), but I’m still pleased as punch.
I have writerly income to report on my tax return for the second year in a row!
I’ve put “The Broken Places” and “Downtime” in the short story category in the Auroras. It’s my first year doing this kind of thing, so we’ll see how it goes.
Overall, I submitted six short stories for publication. This is fewer than in past years, but given my greater focus on my larger projects, I’m happy with this.
I attended Ad Astra, CanWrite!, and When Words Collide conferences, and workshops by Brian Henry and The Humber School for Writers.
In 2014, I have written:
- 110,361 words on this blog
- 34,589 words on Marushka
- 21,464 words on Gerod and the Lions
- 3,521 words of short fiction
- 3,161 words on Apprentice of Wind
- 2,384 words on Figments
- Total: 175,480
That’s a fuckload of words. Sorry. I felt the profanity appropriate.
Plus, I mapped out and reverse engineered both IoS and Figments, and revised some of IoS.
I am still eternally grateful to Jamie Raintree for her wonderful Excel spreadsheet. This year’s has enough project slots that I don’t have to modify it :) Also, it appears to have a way to track drafting and revisions. I’m excited to see how it works out.
For the second year in a row, the most popular posts on my blog have been those I wrote back in 2012. Dress for Success has been consistently popular. I didn’t think a post about writing in my pyjamas would have been so compelling. Go figure.
Eight Metaphors for Persistence . . . is also a heavily viewed post. I appreciate that a bit more because it was the first post on this iteration of the blog and spoke to how I picked up the pieces after being hacked.
Still, I would like to see some of my book reviews, or conference reportage posts, rank higher.
My overall views on the blog went down from last year. In 2013 I filled the Sydney Opera House five times. In 2014 I only filled it four times.
I take all this with a grain of salt, however, as the number of my followers through WordPress has only grown and at 373, I’m closing in on 400 followers. That’s not bad for three years of blogging when I don’t have a book to sell.
Those who receive my posts via email, or who can read them through WordPress may not be counted because they haven’t actually visited the site.
Personally, as long as you’re enjoying what you read, I’m good. I’m a fan of the slow build.
What’s ahead for 2015?
I’ve you’ve read me for any length of time, you’ll know I don’t go in for resolutions. I set goals and manage my projects on an ongoing basis, sometimes re-evaluating and adjusting my goals to account for the dreaded scope creep :)
That’s all stuff I learned from the project management I have to do for work. It’s also similar to the dreaded underwear creep (damnit, not another wedgie).
In all seriousness, I intend to revise and submit several more short stories throughout the year. I also intend to write a few new ones.
I intend to finish my first drafts of Marushka (goal length approximately 76,000 words) and GatL (goal length approximately 50,000 words). I can manage this at a pace of about 5,000 words a month. I’ll finish Marushka first, because it’s where my head is at the moment, and then return to work on GatL afterward.
I will revise IoS and finally (FINALLY) start querying. This is so long overdue, I can’t even. Can’t. Even.
I will move onto revisions of Figments once I start querying IoS.
I will map and reverse engineer AoW and probably Marushka.
I don’t think I’ll be able to manage much more than that for the bulk of the year.
I will again engage in the NaNoWriMo Challenge, even though I will be working through the month of November. I was very pleased with the 2014 results, even though it wasn’t a “win,” per se.
For financial reasons, I’m going to stay close to home this year with conferences and conventions. Most likely Ad Astra and Can-Con.
My big expense, professional development-wise, will be a writing retreat in the summer (if I can swing the leave from work—summer’s a peak time and it’s always a big deal), also local.
I’m facilitating my first writing workshop in years in February. You know I’ll be blogging that one :)
And the rest will be based on opportunities as they come my way.
I like preparing my Tipsday and Thoughty Thursday curation posts on the weekend for easier distribution (and more writing time) through the week.
Aside from that, the bloggage will come out of my writerly life, as it usually does.
I have one more post to go before the night is over.
See you shortly :)
Filed under: Work in progress Tagged: Ad Astra, annual review, Apprentice of Wind, author, Bastion Science Fiction Magazine, Can-Con, CanWrite!, Chuck Wendig, conference, Downtime, Figments, Gerod and the Lions, Humber School for Writers, In Places Between, Initiate of Stone, Jamie Raintree, Marushka, Melanie Marttila, On Spec, On the Ferry, Short story, The Broken Places, The Next Chapter, When Words Collide, work in progress, workshop, writer, Writing, writing progress
