seldnei | state of the laura: end of the year writing edition

All right, so writing-wise, what did I accomplish this year?

All together--fiction, critique, and blog--I wrote 91,817 words, give or take. About 33,000 of those words were on the novel (I think? I have a vague idea of how many words it was this time last year, but I’m not going hunting for a hard number there).

Stories
- I wrote four short stories, one of which I’d been noodling with for a couple of years and finally came together in 2015; two of which are entirely the fault of Jason and Scott. I also wrote three sketch-type things that aren’t exactly stories but are too detailed to be character notes.

- I began two short stories: one went back into the files because a) I think this is a poly romance, but I’m not sure how it happens or is structured, and b) it needs an actual plot. I suppose we can look for it in 2017, if my history is anything to go by. :) The other story is still in progress, but needs some serious restructuring once I have a draft (this one is getting finished for sure because Jason wants it to exist).

Poetry
- I wrote a poem called “I Am Old” that, like most of my poems, will never see the light of day. :)

Everything else
- I wrote blog posts and did critique on BYL and for Jason.
- I joined Codex but have yet to actually log on (I’m not sure why I thought I’d have time this week, but whatever).
- I also finally figured out how to effectively track my submissions, markets, what I’ve written, where to send things to next--basically, I gave in and made Drive my cloud writing hub. I can access it from anywhere, it doesn’t have the funky ‘save limits’ that Evernote has, and after iCloud blocked access to my files during the lag time between OS and iOS upgrades, I have no desire to use it. Yes, stuff is backed up on my laptop.

On the down side, I sold nothing this year. That said, I got some very encouraging rejections. And, as Jason will no doubt remind me, I am writing a novel. But there’s stuff out. We’ll see what finds a home.

So goals for 2016:

- I write so freaking slowly, but goddammit, I am going to pin that Lin-Manuel Miranda quote on my forehead--We write slow because I build 'em like cathedrals--and stop beating myself up about it. Six years for Hamilton; chill the hell out, brain.

I’d like to figure out a good way to save the one-off submission calls I come across.

Oh, and the boy wants to write a book. He chose ‘The Marvelous Cat,’ so I would like to encourage him in this endeavor.