A Writing Year in Review
What a great year 2024 was for me on the writing front! Looking back, I am so proud and pleased with everything I accomplished.
In January of last year I set myself three writing goals for 2024: the first was to finish the first draft of a story, the second was to attend the Surrey International Writers’ Conference (again), and the third was to buy a domain name for my author website. Fairly straightforward.
Goal 1: Finish the first draft of a story.
Up until this year, my modus operandi for writing stories has been to start them and not finish them. At anywhere from 20,000 words upwards I would either get discouraged because I didn’t know where the story was going, or I would get distracted by a new story idea and start on that instead. But NOT THIS YEAR! (This year, WE FIGHT!)
I thought this would be a pretty straightforward goal to achieve because one of my stories (Project Nordangard) was already at 63,000 words. Get that to 90,000-120,000 words by the end of the year? Pas de problème.
But ha! I sure fooled myself. Instead, in February I started a brand new story (Project Muligul) and wrote 50,000 in two weeks. And that is what I have spent the majority of 2024 drafting and revising.
So, yes, I did finish the first draft of a story. And that is a big achievement for me and one I am very proud of.
Goal 2: Attend the Surrey International Writers’ Conference
In October 2023 I attended the Surrey International Writers’ Conference (SIWC) in Surrey, BC and loved it. I had such a good time and learned so much and met some great people and generally carpe diem-ed the heck out of the weekend. I still read through the copious notes I took that weekend and have implemented things I learned there in my writing life.
However, as 2024 went along and I became more interested in self-publishing, I realized I was going to need some capital to invest in that. And looking at the schedule for SIWC when it was posted, I realized there weren’t any sessions I was dying to attend like there had been the previous year. So instead I decided to take the money I would have spent on the conference and put it into my writing account for Future Expenses.
So no, I did not attend SIWC in 2024, however I did attend a number of free online writing workshops that were on par with SIWC where I also took copious notes.
Goal 3: Buy a domain name for my author website.
Yes! I did it! In fact, I not only bought the domain, but I created the whole website too! Have I mentioned how proud I am of this website? I love the look and feel of it, I love how it’s me it is. I love that I have a place where I can share my blog-ish thoughts and where people can come when they want to see what I’m up to. Yes, I absolutely crushed this goal.
One other amazing writing-related thing happened last year, and that was that I got to meet Mary Robinette Kowal, co-host of the Writing Excuses podcast and author of The Calculating Stars (among others). I was so excited for this and had a great time chatting with her as she signed my book. Meeting other writers and authors is so much fun as you instantly have something to bond over, particularly if you write in the same genre.
Here’s to 2025! Onward and upward!
