2010: What I Did and What I Didn't
Jan. 2nd, 2011 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keyan_bowesIt's been a confused kind of year. After many years of having my family distributed over four cities on two continents, everyone came home this year for separate but excellent reasons. Suddenly, I have a full house. We're integrating four adults, each accustomed to living alone. And an adorable-but-allergenic cat. It's been delightful but chaotic.
I also got involved with a community issue where I live, which demanded more mind-share and time than I'd expected going in.
So, to the writing world:
I did write some stories, and send out some stories (those are not identical sets). Six of my short stories/ flash were published in 2010, one of which was a reprint in an anthology. A seventh (also a reprint) was published yesterday, a nice New Year pop.
One of my critique groups went completely dormant (its prime mover himself moved to Michigan for an MFA); but I'm still an active member of two active groups. Written in Blood is online; Second Draft is face-to-face. They are Amazing. Note the capital A. Through them, I've met a lot of great people and superb writers. I've come to understand my own writing a lot better. It was all undreamt-of ten years ago.
My big fail in 2010 was with my novels. I'd hoped to do a major revision of both my YA Fantasy novels, and start sending them out. I haven't done either. I'd also hoped to write a third novel, and perhaps a non-fic book. None of that happened.
Part of it was the aforementioned chaos. Part of it was allowing the ideas to percolate. Part of it was procrastination.
What do I expect for 2011?
Hmm. The first half is already spoken for on the personal front. I'll have to be very efficient, not just about how I use time, but about how I use mind-share. Even though I'm a mom, I find my multi-tasking skills are getting overwhelmed. (However, I am much inspired by other writers, many of whom are LJ friends, much more beleaguered than I am -- and yet enormously productive. Two of them got married and had books come out in the same year...)
I don't plan to write short stories but they happen to me. I have a couple written in recent months that may be the basis for developing others like them, and maybe eventually giving the whole thing enough depth for a book. We'll see.
I'm also getting rather inspired by the self-publishing model. Times are changing. But that's for another post, another time.
I also got involved with a community issue where I live, which demanded more mind-share and time than I'd expected going in.
So, to the writing world:
I did write some stories, and send out some stories (those are not identical sets). Six of my short stories/ flash were published in 2010, one of which was a reprint in an anthology. A seventh (also a reprint) was published yesterday, a nice New Year pop.
One of my critique groups went completely dormant (its prime mover himself moved to Michigan for an MFA); but I'm still an active member of two active groups. Written in Blood is online; Second Draft is face-to-face. They are Amazing. Note the capital A. Through them, I've met a lot of great people and superb writers. I've come to understand my own writing a lot better. It was all undreamt-of ten years ago.
My big fail in 2010 was with my novels. I'd hoped to do a major revision of both my YA Fantasy novels, and start sending them out. I haven't done either. I'd also hoped to write a third novel, and perhaps a non-fic book. None of that happened.
Part of it was the aforementioned chaos. Part of it was allowing the ideas to percolate. Part of it was procrastination.
What do I expect for 2011?
Hmm. The first half is already spoken for on the personal front. I'll have to be very efficient, not just about how I use time, but about how I use mind-share. Even though I'm a mom, I find my multi-tasking skills are getting overwhelmed. (However, I am much inspired by other writers, many of whom are LJ friends, much more beleaguered than I am -- and yet enormously productive. Two of them got married and had books come out in the same year...)
I don't plan to write short stories but they happen to me. I have a couple written in recent months that may be the basis for developing others like them, and maybe eventually giving the whole thing enough depth for a book. We'll see.
I'm also getting rather inspired by the self-publishing model. Times are changing. But that's for another post, another time.
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-03 08:44 pm (UTC)Good luck with the novels--2011 has got to be the year you take over!
(as a data point, though, you'll notice that I didn't actually write and revise a full novel the year I got married... I drafted 60% of Harbinger in 2009, and did a lot of work on it during the two weeks in Vietnam in January, which were holidays for everybody. The drafting for book 3 then happened after the wedding had already taken place.
Also, I was very very lucky my mom did 90% of the wedding work for me, which freed me up a lot)