Resolutions: 2023 Edition

It’s been an interesting year for me creatively.

I didn’t really start it in a great place. I was working 6 days a week, 5 of them in documentary writing and filming – which, while fascinating work that took me around the world, was exhausting, both physically and creatively. I was in a position where the last thing I wanted to do was write and edit more, and where that was exactly what I needed to do.

So I dealt with that problem by doing some career restructuring – namely leaving said job (except for a bit of freelancing) and trying to do this writing thing properly. (And also building LEGO with children.) And so far, that’s been going great. I’ve done a lot more writing, I’ve done a lot more submissions, and generally I feel better. My creative brain is clearer and cleverer than it’s been in years.

But because I’d been burning out for the first half of the year, I had a lot of catching up to do. I started with big intentions – edit down a seriously chunky manuscript and publish it this year, submit to many agents, get some shorts published. And obviously those plans didn’t quite survive contact with the enemy that is Life. But I still did alright, I think.

So let’s look at last year’s creative resolutions and see how I did.

1 – Do Another Book

I managed this one, just about. It was a shorter book than normal and it was for a different audience, but I’m very proud of The Fire Within. As mentioned above, I didn’t have that much time and headspace this year to really get stuck into a longer manuscript, so a kids’ book turned out to be the perfect solution.

2 – Write Reviews

If you count the Riftwar Re-Read, then I’ve smashed this one. Even if you don’t, I have been writing more reviews – I’ve just not been posting all of them on here, but on the Goodreads/Amazon pages of the books themselves. I’m determined to read through the rest of my group in the SPSFC – which I entered again, and haven’t yet been eliminated from, which is another achievement I mustn’t forget  – I’ve done The Engineer and The Pono Way so far – so maybe I’ll do a big post on this site with all my thoughts once I’ve read the lot.

3 – Write Short Stories

I managed this too – you just haven’t seen any of them yet. I wrote 3 short (or not so short) stories this year. 2 of them need editing before they see the light of day, but I’m pretty happy with the concepts overall – they’re both sci-fi ideas of varying daftness. The third (also SF), is submitted, and actually sitting happily on a shortlist waiting for further review. So that might be some future good news. And I’ve had a lot of other short stories flying around the place to various magazines and anthologies, too.

4 – Agents

This goal obviously hasn’t had much progress, because I’d have been shouting it from the rooftops if it had! I have submitted to several agents this year, just to no avail. I guess I just need to do more.

So while I didn’t achieve my 2022 goals to the degree that I originally wanted, I didn’t actually fail any of them – which is good enough as a start. So let’s refine them a bit for 2023.

 1 – Do Another Book

It’s going to be Boiling Seas 3, and I’m going to try and get it done well before the end of the year. I’m over 20,000 words into the first draft already, for once I’ve got a proper outline of the plot to work from (and I’m actually sticking to it, mostly!) and it’s all coming along nicely. I will also be continuing the edit of Unrelated Big Manuscript for future usage… and once BS3’s first draft is written, I think I’ll have to think about a sequel to The Fire Within…

Ambitious, I know, but I think I can do it.

2 – Write Reviews

Reviews are seriously important for indie authors. For any authors, really, but especially for we happy many whose publicity is entirely our own affair. So apart from finishing my Riftwar Re-Read I’m going to write more of these, and read more indie books that I can write about. We’ll start with the SPSFC group and go from there.

3 – Write Short Stories – and Edit Them. And Submit Them.

I’ve got 2 in the pipeline in need of editing and I’m going to get them ready for submission. And I’ve been scrawling down many ideas that I’ll be writing up. My brain is free and clear for all sorts of random concepts to germinate, and I intend to take full advantage of that. The trick, of course, is that I need to actually make them short stories instead of 10,000-word behemoths…

4 – Agents

Keep submitting and do more of it. It’s hard work, but I’ve got to do it. So I will. Not much more to say here really.

I’m thinking of this first 6 months of ‘proper’ author-ing as a warm-up. I did, after all, change a lot about my working and writing situation all at once, and if nothing else I’ve been getting used to the new status quo. So this coming year is the ‘real’ start of this author malarkey. Let’s see how we go.

Happy New Year, everyone. I’ll see you in 2023.

Oh, and there’s one last thing coming this year (i.e. tomorrow), just as a little treat. Enjoy.