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1Q24 Update

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What can I say about the first quarter of 2024, except that it’s over? That’s not true. Well, it’s true that the quarter is over, but there is plenty to say. The mid-Atlantic actually saw snow this year for a change. Of course, gone are the days of the office closing, so you can play a little in the snow and maybe write a little with a warm beverage in hand. With modern technology, as long as the power and internet are flowing, so should the work. Let’s look at my first quarter numbers anyway.

  • Words written = 8,203
  • Submissions = 16
  • Rejections = 11
  • Acceptances = 1
  • Shortlists = 0
  • Publications = 2
  • Rewrites = 0
  • Withdrawals = 0

As always, it’s a mixed bag but the opposite of my usual mixed bag. Normally, my submissions and rejections are well on track to reach 100 for the year and my number of words written is sad. For 1Q24, I wrote more than I have in any first quarter since 2019, but my submissions are about 10-15 less than normal. I suspected my submissions would fall after taking a lot of stories out of circulation last year to include in my first short story collection, We’re Here to Help… Ourselves: Short Tales of Time, Space, Aliens, and Paperwork. 

The number of words written was encouraging. I finished The Hitchhiker’s Guide series of books last year and wanted to write a humorous sci fi story in that vein. I also wanted that story to be on the long side to anchor and fill out my next short story collection, which will consist of funny and terrifying tales (though not necessarily both at the same time).  Those 8200 words all went to the resulting story. I’m pleased with the outcome, and I hope others find it funny. Now I must decide if this collection is long enough at 49650 words, or if I should write one more story to put the collection over 50k words. 

I did reach my goal of one acceptance for the quarter, which was published right away. I wrote about the acceptance of “Fair Winds Travel” here and what that story meant to me. My other story published during the quarter, “Grenada Lake,” had been accepted just over a year prior. I wrote about that saga here. (For those paying attention, it’s the same link.) I don’t have anything scheduled to be published this quarter, but maybe I’ll get lucky with an acceptance soon.  

My goals for 2Q24 pretty much relate to my second short story collection. I need to decide whether to include one more short story and then write it if I do. Then I need to start the process I followed last year. First, hire an editor. The one I used last year is willing to work with me again. Once the manuscript is edited, I’ll need to format it, likely purchasing another pre-designed format, and locate another interesting graphic to use as a section break. Then it’s figuring out the cover design and uploading the manuscript to KDP to start working on the formatting issues… because there are always formatting issues.

That was my reverse mixed bag quarter of writing, submitting, and publishing. How did your first three months of 2024 work out?

4Q23 Update and 2024 Goals

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Holy frijoles, it’s 2024! Looking back at my 2022 recap last year, I noticed two big differences. First, I’m barely on The Platform Formerly Known as Twitter any more. Maybe a goal for 2024 is deciding on an alternative social medial platform. Second, I didn’t receive a hold request on NYE. That would have been amazing but probably unreasonable to expect two years in a row. Also, while that hold request turned into an acceptance, that publication was delayed and still hasn’t been released yet. It’s supposed to be issued this month. In the meantime, the full numbers for 4Q23 are below.

  • Words written = 3,475
  • Submissions = 20
  • Rejections = 19
  • Acceptances = 0
  • Shortlists = 0
  • Publications = 1
  • Rewrites = 0
  • Withdrawals = 0

Those quarterly numbers are pretty ‘eh,’ except in one regard.

The submissions and rejections got me to my 2023 goals. That’s great but not the exception to my “eh” year.

The words written were terrible, so that wasn’t the exception. For the last several years, I’ve done NaNoWriMo, which has contributed a bunch of words to the fourth quarter. Not this year. I had a more significant project to finish.

Those 3500ish words represent one new 2300 word horror story, a few additional words to an existing story, and the first chapter of a new piece that I’m not sure where it is headed. All I know is it’s in the vein of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so it’s solidly sci fi comedy. I just finished that series, and it’s firmly wormed itself into my brain.

The sole publication is what redeemed this quarter because that was my first short story collection, We’re Here to Help Ourselves… Short Tales of Time, Space, Aliens, and Paperwork. More on that below. I debated counting that as 14 publications since the collection includes 14 short stories. In the end, I felt that was cheating and simply counted the collection as one publication… one super, awesome, fantastic publication!

Now, let’s look at how 2023 went down.

  • Words written = 11,168
  • Submissions = 106
  • Rejections = 111
  • Acceptances = 6
  • Shortlists = 1
  • Publications = 5
  • Rewrites = 0
  • Withdrawals = 1

Again, the words written are terrible. That is my lowest in a year since I started tracking my writing. That is no where near the 36k goal I set. The number of submissions and rejections hit the mark. I aimed for 100 of both and made it. Looking back, I don’t see that I set a goal for number of acceptances, but presumably I would have gone with four. I met that, thankfully.

I was so/so on my larger goals. I made it through one editing pass in the final manuscript in my middle grade near future sci fi trilogy. I didn’t make it through another draft of the entire trilogy. However, I started something better. I joined a critique group that is working its way through those manuscripts. A goal for 2024 is to have the critique group finish reviewing all three (it’s already finished the first), and then I will do a massive edit of all three incorporating the collected comments.

More importantly, I published my first short story collection. That was the overarching goal for the entire year, and it took almost the entire year. I started the process in February and published around Thanksgiving. That was a lot of work, but I also had a lot of help.

Time to figure out what to aim for in 2024. Let’s start big. I’d like to publish a second short story collection. I already have the theme: humor and horror. I also already have about 40k words worth of stories to include. I’d like that to be 50k though, so the collection has some heft. I guess my first goal really should be to write another 10k words worth of material. Maybe that’s where this new story I’m working on will go.

Speaking of words, I’ll set those at 36k again for the year. Why not? I don’t plan to work on anything too long, so I would think 3k words a month is doable. Of course, I said that last year too.

I’ll also set my usual goal of 100 submissions and 100 rejections. I’ve consistently reached that goal, but this year may be more difficult. I took a lot of stories out of circulation with my first collection, and I’ll take even more out if I proceed with a second collection. Maybe that will motivate me to write more. More writing = more stories = more submissions.

That’s my 2024 in a nut shell. How did your writing adventure progress last year?

NaNoWriMo Fail but Still Winning

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For the past five years, I’ve participated in National Novel Writing Month and provided an update afterward. The first two years I worked on the same novel. That one has kind of died. I realized that I don’t have time currently to conduct the research necessary to do that manuscript justice. At the moment, it’s novella length. I may plug a few holes and leave it there. I actually pulled out the first chapter of that work as a standalone short story and submitted it to an anthology with a very specific theme that fit. The editor rejected it but said he liked it. He had simply decided to take the anthology in a even more specific direction that my story didn’t fit as well in.

Each of the next three years I wrote a manuscript in what turned out to be a middle grade near future sci fi trilogy. The critique group I joined this year just finished reviewing the first in that trilogy and provided a lot of valuable feedback. I’m hoping the group will get through the second and third manuscripts in 2024. That will put me in a good position to revise all three and get them edited and published in 2025.

For NaNoWriMo this year I intended to start a new, possibly YA sci fi trilogy. I already have the general idea for each of the three books. The plan was, beforehand, to map out the plot of the first one using one of the generally accepted story structures. That didn’t happen. Also, NaNoWriMo didn’t happen. I wrote a total of zero words in November.

I like NaNoWriMo. I like the structure and motivation it provides. It has been a useful and fruitful experience. It just wasn’t happening this year.

But all was not lost! I instead focused on publishing my first short story collection, We’re Here to Help… Ourselves: Short Tales of Time, Space, Aliens, and Paperwork. I enjoyed that experience too. I had the help of several great people to guide me along and the support of the Northern Virginia Writers Club. I’m thinking about releasing another collection in 2024. I certainly have the stories, and releasing another collection will keep my publishing momentum going while the critique group works on my middle grade trilogy.

That was my 2023 NaNoWriMo.  How’d yours go?

3Q23 Update and Book Launch Forthcoming

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The third quarter of 2023 has run its course, and there is good news and bad news. Read on for both, but first, let’s look at the writing statistics.

  • Words written = 350
  • Submissions = 20
  • Rejections = 25
  • Acceptances = 1
  • Shortlists = 0
  • Publications = 1
  • Rewrites = 0
  • Withdrawals = 0

The amount of writing I did last quarter was terrible. That’s the bad news. My only solace is that I did other writing activities. Those 350 words went to a story that I wrote the prior quarter. I joined a critique group, which kindly critiqued that same story immediately. Now, I need to incorporate those critiques. The same critique group also started reviewing the first book in my middle grade trilogy. I hope the critique group will work through all three of those manuscripts.

The submissions number is a little low, but I’m well on my way to 100 for the year. I’ve already sent another eight submissions in October and currently sit at 94 for the year. Rejections are at 93 at the moment.

I only received one acceptance in the quarter, and I’m not supposed to announce that one yet on social media. A prior acceptance was scheduled to be published soon, but I can’t find an update on that. I hope that market hasn’t folded. I’ve already been paid for the story, but I’d like to see the anthology published. It sounded like a fun one, and I’d like to read the stories of the other contributors.

Now the good news. I wasn’t sure if the stars would align (read: whether I’d get my act together enough to put all of the pieces in place), but it looks like it will happen. Assuming everything continues to go well, I should publish my first collection of short stories at the November meeting of the Northern Virginia Writers Club. The manuscript is compiled, edited, and formatted. The front cover is done. The spine and back cover are in process for the paperback version. ISBNs are purchased. Author bio is finalized. The piece just finished was selecting the all important author photo. That may have been the hardest part of the entire process.

More details about the launching of this collection will come in a separate post, really series of posts. I’ve got to promote this thing after all. Stay tuned!

That was my third quarter. How was yours?

2Q23 Update

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Wow, is the second quarter done already? That one flew by. There was a spring break trip. There was a last minute Memorial Day weekend trip at a place I found on Airbnb (that I really wanted to be haunted). There was the family’s summer vacation. And I caught COVID in the middle of the quarter just for fun. Let’s see how that all impacted my writing productivity.

  • Words written = 6365
  • Submissions = 31
  • Rejections = 25
  • Acceptances = 2
  • Shortlists = 1
  • Publications = 2
  • Rewrites = 0
  • Withdrawals = 0

That’s a fairly standard quarter for me. The words written equate to one long short story and small additions to two existing stories. It’s still not a ton of writing, but I’m happy with it.

The submissions (and rejections) are on track for my 100 goal. I shouldn’t have any problem meeting that.

The acceptances and publications are doing better than expected. I’ve already exceeded my acceptances goal for the year. I may need to set that one higher next year. Let’s see if the second half of the year is as fruitful.

I’ve also progressed nicely on my goal to publish a collection of short stories. I have the story content and title nailed down, and I’ve worked with an editor to get the manuscript into tip top shape.

Now I need to format the thing. Conveniently, the speaker for the August meeting of the Northern Virginia Writers Club will discuss book formatting. Once I have it formatted (and therefore have the final dimensions), I plan to put the cover art out for bid. In the interim, I’ll put together the front and back matter and buy some ISBN numbers. I plan to get at least 10 of those to be able to have one each for physical and ebooks for this collection, another short story collection I hope to put together in the future, and the middle grade trilogy that desperately needs editing. I also want to get to that this year, as well as edit the short story I wrote last quarter. Then the later can start making the submission rounds.

I’ve come up with a stretch goal for the year too. For the last three years, I’ve worked on a middle grade novel during each NaNoWriMo. That series is complete, at least the first drafts (see above). I have an idea for another middle grade or possibly YA trilogy.

If you’ve followed this blog, you know I’m a plotter. However, my plotting is not overly detailed. It usually consists of a sentence or two per scene. I map out the scenes this way before I start each November, but not much more.

For the first book in this new trilogy, I’d like to try my hand at a more detailed outline. I recently read The Mercenary Guide to Story Structure by Kevin Ikenberry. He goes through several different types of story structures. There’s the original three act play from Aristotle’s time. There’s the “hero’s journey” structure, described by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which we see often in fantasy and sci-fi stories. There’s the well-known seven-point story structure, and then there is an even more detailed structure laid out in Jeffrey Alan Schecter’s My Story Can Beat Up Your Story. I’d like to see if I can use the seven-point story structure and map out all of those plot points before starting this November. I’ve never plotted with this much detail. I’ve always simply developed scenes in my head and decided when one or more needed to be added. I’m wondering (hoping?) this approach will make my books longer and more entertaining. Even for middle grade, each of the books in my WIP trilogy are on the short side.

That’s the second quarter of 2023. How’d yours go?