December 2016 and year end wrap up

Well, 2016, I hope you're happy with yourself. What a year. Everybody knows what I mean so we won't get into that because I don't want to and you can't make me.

So let's talk about writing! On January 1 of this year, I talked about my goals for 2016. I did not do the Book Riot Read Harder challenge, and actually only read 14 books this year. Lots of short stories, though. So I've got a goal related to that for 2017 that I'll squeeze another blog post out of.

In 2016, I wanted to write at least one short story a month. So how did that go? I wrote 15 complete works of fiction this year. I'm using "complete" as in "completed first draft", not "written and rewritten and polished", though I have done editing and rewrites on some of those things.

Two of those 15 works of fiction were novellas (one written for April Camp NaNoWriMo), two of those works of fiction were novels (written for July Camp NaNoWriMo and November's NaNoWriMo) and the remaining 11 were short stories. I just finished the first draft of my December story about an hour ago, actually.

For 2017, I'd like to keep that up. I think I've heard somewhere (or even read it in his book on writing?) that Ray Bradbury wrote one story a week, and I'm not really sure I can consistently accomplish that sort of pace. So I'll maintain one story a month, which will occasionally edge into one novella or one novel, and be happy with it. And that's important, as a writer, to find your groove and be happy with it.

A bunch of my October submissions are still pending, which is both frustrating and thrilling. I obviously want to FIND OUT NOW about my story, but.....if they've got it this long, it isn't a no yet. Schrodinger's submission, you remember.

And, to round everything out, I had two stories published in 2016! "The Lion and the Dragonslayer" was in Mosaics 2: a Collection of Independent Women and "Sugar and Spice" was published in the Summer 2016 issue of The Sockdolager. I hope, in 2017, to keep that streak up and continue to have my short fiction accepted places.

Regarding my novels, I still have to rewrite The Last Song and continue querying it. I also would like to do a rewrite on my first cyberpunk novel (I wrote it in July) and maybe start querying that one? The novel I wrote in November was a sequel to it, and I feel like it's a series I can keep going on, really. These characters are fun and the cyberpunk future I've roughly devised is really interesting to explore.

So Happy New Year, folks! Square your shoulders, eyes forward. 2017 awaits.