For my final act of 2023—if you’ll excuse the artistic licence; I’m writing this during the afternoon of 30 December—I read Neil Gaiman’s Art Matters. With its subtitle of Because Your Imagination Can Change the World, the book’s 102 pages of minimalistic text accentuated by Chris Riddell’s art gave me the perfect inspiration before jumping into 2024. The book isn’t a how-to, it isn’t a guide to writing—and I have plenty of those to read in the new year—but a series of Gaiman’s essays collated into a friendly book about the importance of creating. I’d include some pertinent quotes, but that would risk me quoting the entire book. It’s that good, and one I’ll return to whenever I need that extra bit of inspiration. If you create anything—whether it’s through writing, or any other means—it’s worth picking up and reading. It’s something I’ll be rereading when in need.
You see, 2023 didn’t exactly go to plan.
What started as a productive year fell apart on me after winning Camp NaNoWriMo in July. I smashed the target with over 70,000 words against the 50,000 I was aiming for, but I didn’t finish the draft of Luminary I was writing. I never expected to, but I did expect to wrap it up in August. September at the latest. Here we are, at the end of the year, and I still haven’t returned to it. Sure, I’m penning this piece a day before year’s end, but I guarantee I won’t look at it before this goes live at the beginning of the year.
If you’ve been following this website, you may recall that I don’t post in January. That will remain largely the case in 2024, though I’m hoping to pepper in some blog posts, so stay tuned for those. While I like to take an annual sabbatical, I’ll be using this year’s to recalibrate. To get that focus back. Sure, I wrote over 270 thousand words and spent about 220 hours editing them, but as 2023 drew to a close, each word and every edit was a struggle.
For my first act of 2024—to once again use artistic licence, although it will definitely be during the first week, before my return to my day job—will be to recalibrate my writing space. I have some new monitors and shelves, so I’ll add these to my office, and shift the furniture around. It’s a comfortable space, but one I can make more comfortable, and more conducive to productivity.
Subsequent acts will include expanding my reach on social media, now that Elon Musk is slowly destroying Twitter, and, since it’s been a couple of years since I refreshed this website, refreshing its look and feel again. I also have Mortal Kombat 1 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom waiting to be played, not to mention a stack of games that have been waiting for years.
You could argue that the above is just me stalling from the writing, and you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. So, let’s just agree it’s part of my artistic process.
Before touching upon my actual writing plans, I’ll touch upon what I accomplished last year:
- Completed Till Death Do Us Party draft 4.2
- Made it through about two thirds of Luminary draft 2
- Wrote 29 blog posts, most of which were updates
- Wrote 87 book reviews (it would have been two more if I was able to say good things about those ones)
- Wrote 0 short stories. None
It’s a decent amount of output, but following July, I felt as though I was drowning in book reviews. Scrambling to read them and write my thoughts, then jumping into the next one in a bid to keep my head above water. There are reviews where I don’t feel I paid those books their due. And the benefit to me was not having the space to focus on my upcoming novels.
So, in 2024, you can expect fewer reviews. I still take great delight in independently published books, and love shedding light on them. There are so many wonderful books that don’t have the support of massive publishing houses. I’ll still be reading them, and I’ll certainly review them. Just not quite so many.
If I’m not reviewing as many books, then what am I aiming to accomplish?
- Finish this draft of Luminary, and maybe another
- Complete the next draft of Till Death Do Us Party and get it closer to a publishable state
- Get a new book that’s been living in my head drafted
- Two new books if I’m lucky
- Three new books if I’m losing my grip on reality
- More blog posts; some about writing, others about anything else
- And maybe getting back into writing some short stories
Will I accomplish everything? Probably not.
And that’s okay. Even if I have to tell myself that throughout the year.
To be honest, I have no idea what 2024 will bring, and that’s okay, too. It’s a mystery.
Hopefully, 2024 brings wonderful things. Not just for me, but for you. I wish you happiness, I wish you success, I wish you all your greatest desires. 2023 is dead (unless the new year hasn’t yet ticked over in your time zone), and may 2024 completely rock your world. In the best way possible.
TTFN,
wastanley.com 