writing progress

2020 in Review

What a year! I wanted to get this posted at the beginning of January but a few things cropped up. At least this post will still show up in January, albeit the last day.

The beginning held great promise with going to Maui, gaining a bonus-mom, and spending six weeks outside of Breckenridge, Colorado. Then along came co-vid 19 and a job layoff. Since our life had gotten shaken up (as was the case with many people), we decided to throw in a move from Wisconsin to Idaho. There’s a long story behind that decision, but I want to keep this post short.

Despite the upheaval riddled with much uncertainty, I still progressed in my writing.

What I Accomplished

I wrote four novels.
My goal was to write more than this, but life had a few other plans. I learned to roll with what life threw at us.
I published two novels.
Typing that makes me smile. The other two from the four that I wrote will be published in 2021.

I completed Dean Wesley Smith’s challenge of writing one short story each week for a year in mid-April.
Thanks Dean. This one taught me a lot about sticking to my goal and finishing no matter what. I managed to keep the streak going through travels, co-vid, the job loss, and getting the house ready for sale. I wrote a few more short stories throughout the year, giving me a total of 20 short stories for 2020.

I entered the Writers of the Future contest every quarter.
I received three honorable mentions and a semi-finalist award. If you love to write speculative fiction, I encourage you to enter Writers of the Future. It’s free, it gives you practice on finishing stories on a deadline, and it’s fun.

I had fun.
Typing this is a bit strange considering the weirdness of the year, but I can’t say that the co-vid challenges made it the worse year ever. I’ve had years way worse than this. I took advantage of things not happening to focus on improving my craft, exploring a new area (I love the outdoors), and really digging in to write.

With all the things happening so far at the beginning of 2021, I’m optimistic that things will get better. It’s the only way I can keep moving forward. In the meantime, I plan to keep writing, publishing, and creating art.

Here’s to an improved year.

2019 in Review

2019 was fun. I learned so much about writing, telling stories, and publishing. I challenged myself in new ways. Many times I found myself energized by the pleasure of jumping in and figuring out things as I went.

What I accomplished:

I published four novels.
If there was a word for the super, huge, mongo smiley face that is on my face right now, it would be here. All of my current books are available in any e-book format or in print.

I wrote thirty-seven short stories.
I love the format of short stories. In April, I entered Dean Wesley Smith’s Short Story Challenge. The goal is to write one story every week for a year. As of today, January 28, 2020, I am finishing short story number #42.

I submitted twenty short stories to magazines; multiple times.
Submitting is something I tend to procrastinate on because I love to write more. So my submissions go in bursts (something I plan to adjust in 2020). I’ve received quite a few “try again” letters and have noticed over the last few months many of the letters I receive are more personal in responses. I figure I’m getting close to getting something accepted and published.

I received two honorable mentions for the Writer’s of the Future contest.
So far I have entered three short stories. The third one I won’t hear the results for until sometime in March 2020. The Writer’s of the Future contest is a quarterly contest open to amateur writers. If you love writing science-fiction, fantasy, and/or horror you should enter too.

I graduated my oldest from homeschooling.
While I can’t take full credit for this one, since homeschooling is a team effort, my teaching duties for our oldest shifted from making sure the checklist was checked, to advisor for navigating the adult world. The high school years are a bit more challenging because their interests are different than mine (almost complete opposites) and the way I taught had to change.

I finished a couple of paintings.
Writing took most of my focus for the year, but I found I felt more balanced when I gave myself a break to play with my paintbrush. I will post pictures of my favorites soon.

I had fun.
This one should maybe be at the top. I had fun navigating the waters as a writer. I learned how to format books, design covers, and use some graphic programs that I always meant to master when I worked as a web designer. I also experimented with many genres of writing.

Those were the highlights for the 2019. At the beginning of February I will post my goals for 2020. One of my goals is to keep my blog updated more regularly.

I hope your year went well and that 2020 is filled with fun.

Writing Update

The more I write, the more I discover how much I don’t know.

I thought I’d try something new with my blog by posting updates on my writing and what I’m up to more frequently. I’m hoping this will help me get more comfortable with blogging, hold me accountable for my writing, and give me more practice writing what is in my head. I haven’t decided on how frequently I’ll post, but I figure I need to start somewhere.

Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Katherine Rusch offered a challenge of writing one short story per week for a year. I decided to join because I enjoy a challenge and wanted to practice some writing techniques I learned. Not to mention, I’d get a few more classes to learn more and short stories are a great spot to practice.

In addition to writing the short story each week, I added the challenge of sending each story off to market as a way to practice Heinlein’s rules. Robert J. Sawyer has a great post written which explains the rules well.

What I’ve found, besides the rejection count accumulates faster with more stories out, is that I’m getting used to the rejections. Yes, I feel disappointed, but I have the next possible market lined up and I send the story off as soon as I can.

Sending things off to market reminds me of cold calling when I worked in sales. Some days, I’d go through a list of 100 names and each person would say ‘no’. After a few calls, I’d shrug off the ‘no’ and dial the next number on my list. It was just business and how I had to make my living. Sometimes the list had so many yeses my appointment calendar filled quickly.

Writing, I’m discovering, shares many similarities to sales.

I’m having fun with the challenge. There are some stories I like and others I’m not a huge fan of, but I’ve sent them all out.

My second novel for the year is just about done. I’m at 65,000 words. My goal is to finish it up this week.

That’s where things stand at the moment.

Becoming a Writer 2019

This year I promised myself that I would do whatever it took to make fiction writing my profession. As I progress, I hope this website will grow and evolve to showcase my work, my learning, and my passions. Writing fiction is a fun business and one I hope to learn the ins and outs of over the years to come.

With that in mind, I set my first quarter plan at the beginning of January to be:

Write two novels
Send one novel to the copyeditor. (As of 2/6/19 – This has been completed and my adjustments to the manuscript has been made.)
Publish at least one of the novels I wrote in 2018. (This one I learned has many moving parts.)
Adjust my website to showcase my writing.
Have fun.