Resolutions: 2024 Edition

It’s that time of year again – let’s look at what I did this year, what I didn’t do, and what I want to achieve next year. In writing, I mean. Not just life. You don’t need me to ramble about that.

It’s been a pretty good year, all things considered. After an empty 2022, I had four short stories published this year, and two more picked up for publication next year into the bargain. In particular, A Vintage Atmosphere is a big feather in my cap. I’m in Analog – a magazine approaching 100 years old, one of the biggest in the SF&F industry. I’m not resting on my laurels by any means but it shows that I’ve come a lot further in the last year and a bit – my time as a ‘proper’ author, as I’ve been thinking of it – than I first thought. So that’s good.

In the long-form arena… yeah. Writing – well, concluding – a trilogy is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Boiling Seas 3 is not, as I had hoped, published.

But I have finished… the first draft.

Spoilers.

I got to the end. And it’s a long, messy manuscript, meandering, mad, but it’s done. It feels very strange. Even though I know I’ve got a lot more work to do, even though it’ll look very different when it’s really done… I’ve finished the story. I’ve been working with Tal, Max and Lily for about 7 years, all told. It’s weird, knowing that this huge story of theirs is finished.

But it’s a good ending. That, I can promise.

And, of course, there’s The Singer, which I did publish, and seems to be going down well. So that’s alright. In terms of actually selling books, I did well! More than 600 people bought one of my books, and some of those weren’t even for free! It’s my best-selling year so far, so onwards and upwards, with a bit of luck.

Number Go Up.

A pretty good year, on the face of it. But this time last year I made 4 resolutions, so let’s see how I did at those.

1 – Do Another Book

Well. I did publish another book, it just wasn’t the one I planned to publish. The Singer is doing fairly well in its first month or so of existence, and while I didn’t publish Boiling Seas 3, I did at least finish the first draft. So half a point, I’d say.

2 – Write Reviews

I didn’t do as many of these as I’d like, outside the big Riftwar Re-Read, but I did do a few indie reviews – I just did shorter ones than I’d post on here for Goodreads and Amazon. Those are the places they need to go, after all!

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

Editing? Yes, I think so, if I’m remembering which stories I had in the pipeline a year ago correctly. Submitting? Always. Writing? Less productive – I was quite busy with Boiling Seas 3, in fairness. But I reworked The Scar for its publication in The Pinch, I got one of those unedited stories polished and accepted for future publication, and there’s another one out in the world under consideration. But the submission tracker is looking a little empty lately (though that’s because I had to remove the published stories from the ‘Accepted’ column to make space, which is a very nice problem to have).

Dash Justice is also here now. Yes, that really is his name.4 – Agents

Yep, still plugging away at manuscript submissions, and chasing the various people to whom I submitted many months ago and still haven’t gotten back to me. Such is the querying life, unfortunately.

So what about this year’s resolutions? Well, they may be predictable, but here they are:

1 – Boiling Seas 3

Not allowing myself any leeway here. Boiling Seas 3 comes out next year. I’m going to let the finished draft sit for a couple of months just to cleanse my creative palate, and then I’m right into editing. I will try to ignore the voice in my head that’s been saying ‘but the draft is so long, you might as well release it as 2 parts’, and actually cut the damn book down. I suspect that even so it’ll be a much beefier volume than I’d originally intended. But it’ll come out.

2 – Write More Shorts

As part of that creative palate-cleansing, I’ll get some more short pieces down. My quiver is almost empty, and the challenge of writing good, concise stories is always a welcome one. I have various ideas – let’s see how we go.

3 – Marketing

I am not very good at marketing my own work. I post, I share stuff… that’s about it. I need to get better, if I’m actually going to make any kind of name for myself. There are indie authors much better at publicity than me – it’s time to properly take a leaf out of their books.

4 – Agents

Can’t give up now. I will keep plugging away.

5 – Something New

I’ve been writing the Boiling Seas for a while. It’s time to dive into a new world for the next novel after BS3. Again, I have ideas. Let’s see where they take me.

There we are, then. Nothing too excessive. Just writing short stories, starting another novel, actually getting good at publicity, and editing down a 150k+ manuscript and actually publishing it, and all the associated formatting, cover art and title…

It’d be really handy if I’d done some of that already, wouldn’t it?