So, a year ago I put out my goals for 2012, for which I can say: some came to pass, some not so much. I still don’t have a book deal, for Thorn, Holver Alley or Maradaine Constabulary. However, I can honestly say I feel like I’m a lot closer on those. All three of those were re-drafted or fine-tuned, so this year I have finished-until-a-paying-editor-tells-me-otherwise levels of drafts for all three. I got a really excellent rejection letter for Thorn. So for the first three goals, I’m still a bit short of the line.
Number 4: Finish Rough Draft of Way of the Shield, did not come together. I see now that my initial outline for it was woefully flawed. In outline, it was a politically-themed murder mystery, but that was far too thin. It needed scope, grandeur, and more antagonists who had a clue. I need to get back in there and work out the details. I’ve had recent epiphanies that made things gel in my head. Now I need to get them onto the page.
I did do more outlining and worldbuilding– and some scene writing– for what Banshee has morphed into. I feel good about how this is coming together. The bits that I have written, I really like. But I need to solidify the outline before it really starts to live and breathe as a novel. The finale is still something of a mystery to me.
Also, had Out of Ink produce one short play, wrote another for this year’s. I wrote an actual short story that I feel pretty good about. ArmadilloCon and the Writers’ Workshop went very well.
All in all, 2012 went strongly. Not as well as I would have liked, but still: progression on the writers’ path. That’s good, though. It serves as a humbling reminder that I can always do better.