I apologize for not posting for the past two weeks. My
schedule has been filled up with more client projects than before and I’m just
learning the details of a new platform I’m doing freelance blogging for (not my
own blogging, but clients’). I’m trying to get things settled with these
projects so I can go back to posting here once a week again.
The first month of a new year has just flown by! Can you
believe it? I said in my last blog post that I would have a list of my New
Year’s resolutions for writing and so you’ll find it below. But I think I would
like to look back on key points from last year before looking ahead, which is partly
what New Year’s is about: looking back so you can look ahead to see what you
can do better. And so it goes along with the Roman myth of Janus, the god with
two faces: one face looks forward while the other looks back.
Looking Back At 2014
2014 was a great year. Besides selling several copies of The Fool’s Illusion, I sold my first one
to be displayed in a brick-and-mortar bookstore, the Avid Reader in downtown
Davis. I started my first novel ever. It’s actually a novella but my longest fiction project yet. I don’t count Fool’s Illusion because that’s an
anthology and so consists of several short stories I did as separate projects
to begin with. I also don’t count a 90 minute screenplay I wrote with a friend
several years ago (that I don’t think ever got filmed, at least not yet) since
screenplays are not primarily made to be read by a mass audience.
I didn’t quite keep this resolution from last year: to write
a new short story at least every two weeks. However, I think I did write more
short stories in 2014 than in any other year. I plan to make that resolution follow
through completely this year.
Looking Ahead to 2015: New Year’s Resolutions
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| Looking A Head. Photo Credit: OpenClipart.org |
My first resolution is to make precise deadlines for my
writing projects, and this includes both fiction and non-fiction but more so
fiction. When I’m writing fiction I’m doing it more for myself than when I’m writing
my non-fiction journalism projects (which I’m doing for specific clients or
sources such as Examiner.com), so I don’t feel as rushed. But when I take
advantage of that luxury of flexibility it means less books written and
published in a life time. As a creative writing instructor told me during my
junior college years, your writing will be as successful as your self-discipline.
So I’m going to not only set deadlines on a calendar but
also break up each project into, what one source I write for calls, milestones.
Therefore I’m going to set deadlines for aspects of a project. For example, I’ve
set an August deadline for the completion of my next book of short stories but I’ve also set up early deadlines
for phases of the production. Therefore I have deadlines for phases such as the
final revision of each story and for the cover illustration. Within the cover
illustration project, I’ve set deadlines when to have particular concept
sketches done such as a February 20th deadline for the final concept
sketch. I’ll probably post that sketch here.
My second resolution is to make a blog for topics other than
those of writing and literature. Yes, you will likely see a new blog of mine
this year sometime. (I don’t know when yet. I still have to apply my first resolution
to that one.) I’ve noticed that the Fantastic Site has been getting visitations
to posts on writing and reading fiction more than posts on other topics. So to accommodate
for those visitors who are more into the other blog posts--which are mostly on
topics of other types of pop culture such as movies, TV and video games--I’m
going to create a new blog for those topics.
Bear in mind, those of you who are into other types of
popular culture such as movies and anime, that, because writing and genre
literature are my main subjects, I probably won’t be posting at the second blog
as frequently. But at least there will
be a place where you know you will find posts on those topics you enjoy most. If
you have any ideas for the new blog then please let me know in the comments box.
I want to make sure you’re getting your time’s and bite’s worth!
My third and final resolution for this new year is to finish
at least the first draft of my novella, a space opera. I don’t like leaving
projects unfinished unless they are totally not going anywhere. But because I
have had so much on my hands since December, I’ve put the novella on hiatus, a
hiatus I’ll have to end soon if I want to keep that resolution. I’ll keep you
updated on that.
The Now
I just got done with an oral proofreading of my current
short story that I’m sending off for critiquing. One of the best ways to search
out mistakes or short comings in your stories is to read them aloud. If it
sounds good out loud as well as when you read it silently (in mind) to yourself,
you most likely have a winner. Maybe not a bestseller, but a winner of some
sort. In my opinion, the best stories are those that can be read both silently
as well as verbally. After all, the very first tales were told out loud and so
a story should read good both silently to the reader as well as orally to an
audience.
And so now I am going forward into this new year to work
these projects that you’ll hear more about. It will be a very busy year for me.
Again, have a Happy Year of 2015 and . . .
Until next time.
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