Year In Review 2024

For the last two years in December, I have written a ‘Year in Review’ post, and here is this year’s. The main purpose of the original post was to convince myself that although I had not published my first novel, nor even got an agent, I had achieved something in the sphere of writing. This activity forces me to recognize all the work that I have done that doesn’t reap a tangible reward and inspires me to reach for new heights, and if you haven’t done it yourself I highly recommend the activity. I find this helps me review the direction I am headed and also kicks the new year off on the right foot!

Novels:

The above being said my work on novels has been thin to non-existent this year. But that’s part of the point of this exercise is to type such facts out and see how I feel about it so that, if I don’t like that as a fact, I know in the new year I have to change what I’m doing.

My last novel a 96k word adult epic fantasy novel was sent to just two competitions, but no agents this year. I never heard back from the agents that requested partials or fulls last year, which is an aspect of this industry I’ve never understood. Perhaps when things were sent by mail I understand they didn’t have time for a reply, but a templated “Thank you but no thank you” so authors can at least close the book/stop waiting and hoping is I think basic kindness and courtesy and is literally a single push of a button in the days of email and QueryTracker.

I did start a new novel which is outlined but the actual zero draft rests at 1.5 chapters at this point. There’s something wrong in the voice and I can’t put my finger on it.

Short Stories:

I’ve written 23 short stories (six less than last year) from as short as drabble (100 words) to as long as 14,500 words, which is technically novelette length, not a short story. Though I’ve written less it’s not because I’ve spent less time writing. I’ve actually spent more. But I’ve been using critique partners more and my stories have been through much more rigorous editing passes this year and I think the quality is overall better.

I have submitted a total of 53 times and for that gained six acceptances for fiction and two for non-fiction on writing craft.

I also made my first pro-rate sale for fiction.

Social Media:

I haven’t invested much time in social media this year.

After trying to build a twitter presence two years ago, twitter, or X, as we all know, somewhat imploded. I still use the platform but have recently joined BlueSky and am trying to explore the writers/readers communities there.

My main social media activity has continued to be updating this webpage and posting to my blog. It’s been really nice to hear from people who enjoyed a post or reached out individually.

Other SciFi/Fantasy Writing:

Mentorships/Networking

I applied to the SFWA mentorship program. Didn’t match (third time). I say this not as a “poor me” but because I think it’s important to be honest about your failures/disappointments too so that any other writers reading this (especially beginning or struggling ones) see the struggle is universal.

I attended Boskone, and Readercon, and several online cons (including WriteHive Lite and Flights of Foundry amongst others).

Specifically, the Flights of Foundry online con was especially a personal stretch for me as I not only attended I actually spoke on several panels (Dabbling in Drabbles along with Kai Delmas and Dawn Vogel and Oh no, I need a title! along with Stephen Granades, Jo Miles, and Crystal Kirkham) and I even moderated one panel Slush Tales with panelists Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas, Kai Delmas, Rebecca Bennett, and Myna Chang. It was not only really interesting to be on the other side, but working with all of these people you remember quite how lucky you are to get to be amongst writers as every single one of these people were wonderful!

Beta-reading and Critique Partnering

I joined a new critique group the Knight Club (led by writer TJ Knight, thus the name, there’s no strobing lights or dancing required!) which has been great. A distillation of really fantastic people from a larger online writing community I belong to but the smaller format has made it more personal and the critique exchanges more productive.

With the pro-rate sale I was also able to join Codex writers, which seems interesting but I am so recent a member I am still feeling that out.

Learning the Craft and the Business

I didn’t do Clarion West 6 week Flash Fiction online workshop in 2024, even though I really enjoyed it in 2023, as I just didn’t have the bandwidth and it was a choice between that and focussing on the goals I had made for myself.

I also started reading slush for Diabolical Plots and it has been eye opening how differently each magazine does their slush (I had also since 2022 been reading slush for a different magazine).

I read less novels this year – a mere 6 novels – but again have read far, far more short stories from a much broader range of online magazines and one online group I participate in we have been trying to analyze/characterize what each of the different markets are looking for and if they publish debut authors like us. That has made reading particularly fun and with that added lens I think quite productive. Sadly that group seems to be dissolving – at least, they have made plans to switch from short stories to novellas and I am unsure I have bandwidth to read a whole novella per month when I found a couple of short stories specific to this group on top of all the slush reading etc, quite challenging.

I have continued attending the Odyssey Writers salon.

I attended a lot of craft talks at Readercon and Boskone, and in the online cons and had my latest novel query letter critiqued at one of them.

I continued listening to Writing Excuses Pod cast and have been exploring some others.

I read 8 different books on the craft which is less than last year, but I’ve been spending more time with podcasts etc as above.

The Future

And looking to the future for 2025? Well, I have better quality short stories this year and I plan to continue submitting them. As with last year, I don’t think all will end up published. I’m confident about some.

I think it’s time to start seriously thinking about writing another novel, but I’m so wrapped up in learning through the medium of short stories right now that may have to wait.

I plan to apply (third time) to the Odyssey writing workshop.

And I’m planning heading to Boskone 62 in February – I take my kids each year and they love it – so if you see me there, or are going, feel free to say ‘Hi’!