2014 was only the second year in which I have felt like I could legitimately call myself a professional author. Inspired by Lynn’s far more impressive year in review post, I decided to do my own.
This year I wrote four new short stories and edited a story from 2012 that’s been sitting on my hard drive.
- Choices is in Other Days, edited by Jessica Augustsson (new)
- Love is a Virus is in Coming Together: Among the Stars, edited by Lynn Townsend (new) which benefits Still’s Disease
- New on the Naughty List is in Coming Together: For the Holidays, edited by Alessia Brio (2012 story, edited 2014) which benefits Stand Up for Kids
- A story I wrote this year has been accepted, but I have no information about what’s happening with that anthology at this time so I’m not comfortable identifying it by name or editor at this time.
- Plunder has been submitted, but I won’t have any information about it until early 2015.
Two stories that had been accepted in 2013 were published this year
- O for Effort is part of Nine-To-Five Fantasies, edited by Alison Tyler
- Baby it’s Cold Outside is part of Summer Loving, edited by Alison Tyler for the lovely Sommer Marsden.
I created my official Goodreads author page and added my books to it.
Ghost Novel Progress (aka That Damn Novel I STILL haven’t finished yet)
I’m pretty disappointed that in 2014 I only made it through chapters 3-6 (and I hope to update this at the end of December with several more chapters–7 is mostly written, and I have outlines for most of the novel’s chapters).
My goal had been to finish the entire first draft and it didn’t happen. Part of this is that my time management sucks and I own that. I’ve also been afraid to suck, which I talked about in this post. I’m starting to work past that anxiety so I can make forward progress. I’m also learning that it’s okay if the story doesn’t always get written in perfect order. These may seem like obvious things, but they’ve become personal hang-ups.
The ghost novel was first written for a Literotica Halloween short story contest over a decade ago. (Sidenote-Delilah Night wasn’t the name I used there, and I have since deleted that account and the related stories from Lit.) The characters have been haunting me since–no pun intended. This is the third or fourth time I’ve tried to write it as a novel in the past 10+ years. I always seem to hit a point where I (a) am frustrated with my slow progress (b) freeze because I refuse to move on until I’m completely happy with the existing chapter or (c) I write myself into a corner and can’t figure my way out. So I put down the metaphorical pen and move on with other projects both writing and otherwise.
I’ve wondered if this is the wrong first novel to try to write professionally–perhaps there’s too much baggage associated with it? However, I’ve let some people read what I’ve written thus far in this attempt and they’ve encouraged me to keep going. At this point, I’m my own biggest obstacle. Part of me feels like finishing this book in particular—regardless of whether in the end the book is publishable, or ever sells a copy, or needs to be burned because it sucks—the act of successfully taking a novel from writing to publication once will allow me to do it again without needing a multi-year process. Also, this book needs to get out of my head so I can focus on the other books I’m dreaming up.
When I see writers like Lynn, Alison, Sommer, etc doing as many projects in a year as they do I feel intimidated. Just how do they do that? I’m sure, though, that the answer is experience will bring improvement.
How do I think I did?
I had hoped to write more stories this year, but I am really happy with where my skills are today versus a year ago. I’m learning to identify and short circuit some bad habits (ex.–characters begin to do things instead of just doing them). My start to finish speed on short stories has improved. I’ve made a number of friends online this year within the community.
Overall, I’m pleased with 2014.
Goals for 2015
I said it before, but I’m saying it again–by the end of 2015, I want AT MINIMUM a full first draft of the Ghost Novel
I would like to write around 10 short stories. I haven’t been good about writing stories without a specific call in mind, but I’m hoping to do so even when there’s no call out that speaks to me.
I want to look at where I am a year from now and to know viscerally that I am better at my craft then than I am today.
Filed under: acceptance, In Progress, novel, process, Published, Submitted, Writing | Tagged: 2014 year in review, 2015 goals, Alessia Brio, Alison Tyler, Among the Stars, baby it's hot outside, Choices, Coming Together: Among the Stars, Coming Together: For the Holidays, delilah night, Doctor's Orders, For the Holidays, Ghost Novel, Jessica Augustsson, Just for Him, Love is a Virus, Lynn Townsend, New On the Naughty List, nine to five fantasies, other days, Plunder, sommer marsden, Sucking, writing |
delilahnight.com 
This is a really good thing to do – to take stock of the year gone by and set out goals for the next one – a great way to assess progress year on year… So good luck for 2015.
xxx
Thanks. I’m really looking forward to your upcoming 2015 series Alchemy!
I agree, what a great idea! I fear my own will be a little bit depressing, but I’m going to do it anyway, even if only for myself this time around. It makes a great yardstick for later! Oh, speaking of yardsticks… hmm, bet I could work one into a story… 😉
I’d read your yardstick story!
Looking forward to your post 🙂
Sounds like you’ve had quite the year! It’s easy to get intimidated by other people’s seemingly limitless productivity (I’d kill for a list of publications even half as long as yours :P) but the important thing is that we keep working.
I have two questions, if you don’t mind me being nosy. First, that anthology you’d rather not mention. Does it happen to start with a “B” and end in “5”? I ask because I, too, am waiting to hear back about an accepted submission and was starting to think that something might’ve gone awry. Knowing I’m not the only one biting my nails over it might make me feel better 😉
Second, if you don’t mind me asking, what ultimately made you decide to leave Literotica? I’m on the fence as to whether or not I should cut ties sooner rather than later. I’d love to hear your perspective.
Anyway, sorry for the long-winded comment. Congratulations on a great year. Here’s to an even steamier and more productive 2015!
Thanks for the comment and the compliment. To be honest, one of the hardest lessons I’ve learned is that the turn around from acceptance from publication is sometimes months and other times more than a year, which means you can go a year without a publication and then cluster them. I think that’s less common when the books are your solitary work, but anthologies are luck of the draw.
The anthology is not the one you’re thinking of. But I wish it were! I wish you the best of luck–fingers crossed for you!
My reason for leaving Literotica was that I wanted to draw a line between my amateur and professional work. While I was proud of those stories at the time, I find a lot of them embarrassing now (check out my post Oh. My. God. for a notable example of why).
I think Lit is an amazing place to start. There’s community, like the author boards.. When I wrote for Lit, they didn’t have the comments section, so you got emailed feedback, and people almost never made the effort to be negative. The positive feedback encouraged me to keep writing.
That said, at this point I don’t know what I’d use the account for. Everything I write now–whether for a specific call or not–is (hopefully) for professional publication. Their willingness to publish pretty much everything is a strength and a weakness–writing for Lit didn’t force me to strengthen my editorial skills the way that submitting to anthologies has.
Sorry for the the lengthy reply on that. I do love them, and I think they’re a great resource.
Oh, no need to apologize for the lengthy reply. Lace Winter can vouch, I’m very verbose in the comment threads 😛
Thanks for the congratulations! I’m quickly (and slowly) learning that no news isn’t necessarily bad news.
I went and listened to your Oh. My. God. post and Ouch! That’s definitely a learning experience, while still being an entertaining story. So many words of wisdom in there for fledgling authors. I have one story on Lit and my blog that I’m thinking of pulling because it’s more taboo than my usual stuff. I like it and have received great feedback on it, but it’s not the sort of direction I really want to go in. The decision is proving harder than I thought it would be. Anyway, thanks for sharing your admittedly painful story.
One more thing. Did you ever have your blog and your Lit profile active at the same time, with links to each? I’m curious to know if you ever found a correlation between Lit readers and blog followers. I’ve noticed a spike in viewers after posting a new story, but no effect w/ regard to followers.
Thanks for taking the time to answer my (nosy) questions! 🙂
Sorry to take so long to reply–I was out of town.
I had a link to my old (deactivated) blog that shared a name with my Lit profile. I found that most of my following came from being included in sex blog round-ups.
I’d encourage you to not get too fussed with the blog follows, @’s, or amount of likes/comments each post gets. I use wordpress and it gives me all those stats on a day by day basis, and it is *so* easy to start to let those numbers get to you. But what I’ve learned over the years is that you need to write for yourself first. I’d love more interaction than this blog has gotten, but I’m hoping that over time I can build an audience. The thing to know is that it *does* take a LOT of time.
If you do want to build an audience my best tips are to write solid content and to write frequently. I fail at the latter regularly here, and at the former more than I want to. It’s difficult because a blog post takes up time you might use for other writing. Balance is not something I’ve mastered.
I can imagine how having access to all of those stats would be useful to a professional blogger trying to establish a non-fiction platform, but as an pre-published fiction writer, I find them overwhelming. It was really off-putting at first, but I’ve come to a much more comfortable place with it.
You’re absolutely right in that it’s best to write for oneself, rather than get caught up in the number of views and likes and comments, etc. I’ve come to the conclusion that the majority of non-writing readers aren’t the ones perusing blogs on WordPress. Rather, it’s other writers, which is great because it helps build community, but if someone is blogging in the hopes of establishing a massive readership, they may end up disappointed. The only way to do that is to either blog about writing itself, which will then attract other aspiring writers, or to publish books that readers can find at their retail outlet of choice. Capturing a niche is another option. Regardless, it’s so easy to get caught up in the marketing before there’s even a product to push.
Ah, yes, balance. I’m with you, there. The blog definitely takes up time that could be spent working on fiction, which is why I’ve made the conscious choice to not blog more than once per week unless I’m *really* inspired and can spare the time. Most of the published author blogs I follow are updated sparingly because their owners are busy, you know, writing books. I think it’s also important to determine what kind of content is best posted on the blog and what might be better utilized elsewhere, i.e. flash fiction garners a decent reception, but anything longer than 2K words would require more time and attention than most people can spend (because they, too, are writers and creative-types).
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to write such thorough responses to my comments! Congratulations on getting to hold that anthology in your hands. I can only imagine how amazing that must feel. 🙂
I think if I were more comfortable with sharing my IRL identity, I’d combine my expat and author blogs. The most interesting thing about me is that I’m an American living in Singapore–a country that a lot of people don’t know much about or only know about the gum and canings. However, I write a lot about parenting and my kids there, so I’m not comfortable combining them.
That’s totally understandable. Plus, there’s also the issue of branding and potentially alienating readers from either camp, though I think readers are generally curious about their favorite authors as people, not just creators of beloved fiction. Some people go so far as to have multiple pen names within the same genre, but that’s WAY more than I can personally juggle!
Lol, yes, I can vouch for Rachel’s famously lengthy replies, but I don’t need to, because the examples are here! 🙂 Personally, though, I love them, because they’re always thoughtful and considered and with high quality content.
And this comment thread is diverging into a fairly important topic area, which is — who are you blogging for, anyway? I’ve been reading Kristen Lamb’s book ‘Rise of the Machines,’ which is all about how authors can effectively market themselves on social media, and this is a point she hammers home quite a bit (perhaps a bit repetitively): most authors are blogging and tweeting about things that are only of interest to other authors, and while that’s a great support community to build up (and we’re doing that here, right now!), it isn’t the fat part of the bell curve of who will be (presumably) buying your books. You will be selling to the general reading public, not other writers who don’t have any more money than you do (though we probably, as a group, spend more money on books than most other people). So, engage with readers on social media in ways that are of interest to them, to non-writers as well as other writers.
Not that I have any actual idea how to do that, though.
John Green and Maureen Johnson have awesome blogs. They don’t really write about writing though, but they do a lot of stuff aimed at/voice appropriate for the target YA audience. JG and his brother did vlogbrothers and they do tons of great vlogs. His twitter is also great. Maureen’s tumblr and twitter are also great. Both of them post about things they’re passionate about, and their voices are distinct and pretty hilarious.
But that said, I don’t know that I spend a lot of time reading websites/blogs of authors I like–nora roberts, anne bishop, etc–apart to see when their next book is coming out. But they also aren’t terribly committed to blogging or social media presence and are big enough names that they don’t have to be.