2024 - Lots of Writing, Just Not Lots of Publishing

Well, the end of another year is nearing (that wording makes it sound like there's an echo - damned editor side of my brain), so it's time for me to reflect on all I accomplished. And freak out over how the last 12 months flew by so quickly. Like seriously, time messes with my head.

I got to say, even though I didn't publish a novel or short story, I'm quite proud with my output. Now to take a closer look!

2024 Publications

❦ Magic Morsel - I finished the first serial. Unfortunately, it now needs to move to series status, as Kindle Vella is closing its doors. You have until February 2025 to read it on Vella!

2024 Progress

If you'd like to compare the goals I posted at the beginning of the year, head over to the 2024 - Just Chill post.

❦ Drafted to the end of the first Magic Morsel novel, Leave No Dragon Stone Unturned, and halfway through revisions!

❦ Started drafting Intricate Agony (Fortunes of Fate, 8), but paused to figure out some issues with the story.

❦ Gemini's Echo (Zodiac Aegis, 1) - Are you surprised I haven't worked on this? My priorities are shifting as well, so it's definitely on hold for at least another year.

❦ I sent out 8 newsletters, though one was just an announcement about SPFBOX, and only 4 SHU-WPF Spotlights.

❦ This will be the 9th post on Born to Write for the year. Not one post monthly, but still a decent amount!

❦ As for social media & networking... Went to Capricon, but ignored social media most of the year. I also posted mostly about my crochet projects and new Etsy shop, Speculative Stitches. Eh.

❦ I also entered Dead As Dreams into the SPFBOX contest. Unfortunately, it's been eliminated.

❦ Facebook Ads - I've used them on and off. I still feel like I'm throwing money away, though. It's a rough road getting my writing in front of new eyeballs!

2024 Numbers

Like Lila in Magic Morsel, I love numbers! However, unlike her, they typically don't love me. Let's see what I ended up with this year.

❦ I drafted 42,807 words.

❦ I revised 44,943 words.

❦ That's a total of 87,750 words, which is more than the previous year, and super close to my just for fun goal of 100k!

❦ No editing, but a lot of reading through my writing and working on world bibles. Oops, no number for this one.

❦ 136 hours spent drafting & revising. Less than last year, but that's mostly because of the lack of editing.

❦ Only 4 hours of cover art, formatting, and publishing. This is what happens when I don't publish something - lol.

❦ The grand total of time spent on writing and writing-related tasks this year was 227 hours. For a Just Chill year, not too shabby.

Was it my best year for productivity? No. But I still feel like I made nice progress. Especially since I had a whole month off in there to deal with the mind-numbing project of organizing Youngest's stuff (this doesn't just encompass her room, as she has a bunch of things downstairs, too).

Here's hoping 2025 will require a lot less organizing and cleaning. ;)