I wrote a post like this last year, over on the old site. There hadn’t been much productivity in 2021. Posts were inconsistent, but the summer saw a sort of rejuvenation for me. I was thinking about writing for the first time in a long time and I was so damn excited about it, that I couldn’t help but take some time to look at the big picture of my work and feel good about it.
Since it is officially the last half of the year, I thought it was high time to take a look at how I’m doing. Not just how I’m doing re: 2022 Goals, but what my story stats look like, what news has come out this year, and what projects I’ve finished, and what are still on the table.
So let’s.
First thing’s first, what is this year’s mantra?
REACH
This year’s intention is meant to remind me to take risks, not to self-reject, and to believe that I am already good enough to achieve great things.
Some ways that I have “reached” this year (so far) are:
- Applied for Clarion West
- Started Querying Something Sulfurous
- Joined Not a Pipe Publishing for #TheLongestDay
- Going to the Willamette Writers Annual Conference in August
I need to look up some more challenges for the in the fall. Maybe some competitions? Grants and fellowships, that sort of thing? I’ll keep this in mind while I’m at the WilWrite conference and see what opportunities I can learn about.
What about goals? What did I want to achieve this year, and how am I progressing toward those achievements?
2022 Goals
- Revise and Query Something Sulfurous
- Finish Santa Sarita
- Finish Victoria Rough Draft
- Submit 2 new short stories
- Read 52 books
Progress So Far?
- Revise and Query Something Sulfurous
- Yes! The revision is done and queries went out on Monday. The bandaid has been ripped off and I am officially trying to get an agent. Which feels very surreal.
- Finish Santa Sarita
- No progress yet. More on this further down the post.
- Finish Victoria Rough Draft
- Yes! I honestly didn’t think I’d ever finish this story, but it’s done. For now.
- Submit 2 new short stories
- Yes! I’ve submitted two new short stories this year! I’m hopeful that there will be at least a third, if not a fourth before the year is through.
- Read 52 books
- Hahaha…. progress check: I have read 19/52 books, putting me about 6 books behind schedule. Hopefully the summer months will help me catch up.
Cumulative Word Count (so far): 74,719
Works in Progress
- Sanura Trine
- Twins and the Haunted House
- The Shadowboxer
- Mass Effect: Andromeda fic
- Horizon Forbidden West fic
- Victoria
- Top Shelf Librarians
(Please note that these are all working titles and no I am not taking criticism at this time.)
Sanura Trine: This is another story I wrote during Nanowrimo 2020. And honestly…? I don’t really remember much about it. I mean, I remember what happens in it, but I don’t really remember the writing. I remember being frustrated by it and feeling like I was treading water when I wrote it. I felt lost and disconnected from the piece and really struggled with it. I don’t know if it’s good. I do know it’s entirely too long (like 7k words or something ridiculous like that). So, I’ll take a look at it see what needs to happen. I remember liking the intro which was very sarcastic and anti-corporation but that tone vanished once the characters started interacting, sooo… We’ll see where it ends up. I’ve got it printed out and ready to read this weekend!
Twins and the Haunted House: Another of the Nanowrimo 2020 projects. This thing is a beast. A horror story (obvs), this one plays with overlapping First Person POVs and unreliable narrators. An unreliable narrator is something I’ve ALWAYS wanted to write, but it’s so damn hard! I have some more experience under my belt now when it comes to weaving pieces of narrative together, as opposed to telling the story straight through so I’m looking forward to finishing this piece later this year. As it’s set in the dead of winter, summer sunshine just doesn’t seem like a great time to hammer it out. Winter break, I’m looking at you!
The Shadowboxer: This is another weirdo story, and the last remaining of my Nanowrimo 2020 projects. It’s a story that asks what evil is, how does it manifest? It’s a story about women, victimhood, and taking their power back. It’s also non-linear, features a POV from a floating cloud of sentient evil mist a la Lost, and a HUGE gap in time. Again. As a discovery writer, this is VERY HARD. There are three POVs: one distant past, one near past, and one present. In theory, they all will intertwine to tell the story. That’s the goal. I wrote last summer that I felt I needed to level up a bit to finish this piece. I’m hopeful that, with Victoria under my belt, I have level up enough to try again with this story.
Mass Effect: Andromeda fic: I’ve had the last installment of a giant fic series looming over me for years now. I’m tentatively planning to finish it during Nanowimo this year.
Horizon Forbidden West fic: I started this back in March after finishing the game. I’m still working on it, slowly, in the background. But now that the majority of my big projects are finished, I’m going to spend much of the summer working on it a bit more actively.
Notice that I didn’t mention my Dragon Age fic? That’s because I finished it last week and I have A LOT of feelings about that. I’ll be posting two chapters a week for it until it is all available on AO3.
Victoria: It’s crazy to think that this project didn’t exist this time last year. It feels like I’ve lived with it for a very long time. It was my Nanowrimo project for 2021, haunted me through into this spring, and wound up complete on the solstice. It is… an ambitious novella. Complete at ~29k words, it is completely Epistolary (meaning it is told entirely through documents of some kind), and is a Non-Linear, near future, gender-bent retelling of Frankenstein. I’ve had an indie publisher tell me I should submit it in the fall, so I’m toying with the thought of revising it sooner than later… but I also know it needs to breathe. I need to breathe. We’ll see how I feel about this in a couple of weeks.
Top Shelf Librarians: Yes. The show still exists. We are behind on scheduling recording sessions because it has been one hell of a summer for your hosts. Between COVID, birthdays, ER visits, we’re all a bit busy right now. But don’t worry. We’ll get caught up. Eventually.
Are you caught up? Listen here!
Stories Currently on Submission
- A Lullaby for Mattie Barker
- In the Librarian’s Garden
- Human, Still (x2)
- Lifelike (x2)
- The Finest Creation of an Artful God
I don’t super duper want to get into the nuts and bolts of all of these stories. Suffice it to say, I have five stories out at the moment, two of them at multiple markets. Let’s take a closer look at the stats.
Well, I am definitely on track to submit more this year than last year. But what’s really encouraging is seeing the statistic that I sold at least one story each year I’ve submitted, other than 2018 which was my first year back to writing and submitting short stories. Notice the five year gap? I was writing novels, moving across country, starting a new life in a new place, getting married, buying a house. All of those life things that seem to get in the way, but are actually fodder for stories.
Also, publishing is slow. Some markets (read: magazines, online or otherwise) can take upwards of 150 days just to read and respond to your submission. And many of them don’t allow for simultaneous submissions (meaning you could submit to multiple places at once). A lot of the higher paying, professional markets don’t allow simultaneous submissions, so writers play this weird sort of waiting game. I often forget I even have stories out until I get the rejection email.
Couple these long response times with markets with narrow submission windows (when they’re open to receiving stories) and navigating short story submissions is a delicate balancing act of timing, payment, and fit.
I’m happy with the progress I’ve made so far, and hopeful for the remainder of the year.
What Else?
I’m at a sort of weird spot, writing-wise. The only projects I have at the moment are fanfic. My biggest goal, honestly, is reading. As I wrote in yesterday’s post, I am adrift and at peace. I’m just doing whatever feels satisfying in any given moment.
For the remainder of the summer, writing Horizon Forbidden West fanfic is my main writing priority. In a couple weeks, I’ll start reading Victoria and see if it needs to sit longer, or if I can start revising it. I want to work on Santa Sarita for Nanowrimo, and start 2023 free and clear of fanfiction projects. I think that’s a very optimistic goal, but one worth striving for.
It’s looking increasingly likely that the new Dragon Age game is set to release sometime in 2023, and I need to have absolutely ZERO fandom responsibilities when that game comes out. Because it will consume my entire soul.
As for the next novel… I don’t know. Something Sulfurous has a sequel I can start whenever. Hunting Dr. Squatch needs some more revision and cook time. I have a half finished Epic Fantasy that still calls to me. There are options, but none of them feel pressing yet.
We’ll just have to wait and see how I feel in the fall.
I’ll be back on Monday with the goals summary. Until then, Bloggarts.
BZ
