It’s hard to believe there are only three days left in 2023.
As I normally do during this dead time between Christmas and New Year’s, where we typically lounge around in pajamas eating shredded cheese and time has lost all meaning, I take stock of where I’ve been and where I want to go in the coming year.
I fell far short of my writing goals, but I remain undeterred. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold yadda yadda yadda. I won’t cite reasons or make excuses, merely endeavor to do better on my next trip around the sun. I did manage to pull off some pretty cool things. A story I wrote got an honorable mention in the 3rd quarter 2023 L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. I put together the League of Monsters anthology, featuring some amazing authors and a bangin’ cover by the monstrous Mark Maddox. The Kickstarter for the book raised $3,416 from 104 backers. I also placed a story in It Came from the Trailer Park Volume 3, an off-color little ditty called “Jiggle Joint of the Damned.” The protagonist is based on a guy I used to work with, right down to his glass eye, and I am quite proud of it.
And right before Christmas, I published Probable Claus, the latest installment in my Kris Kringle: Monster Hunter series. Oh what fun.
Three Kickstarters: Southern Fried Cthulhu anthology, Impossible Monsters short story collection, and the complete Kris Kringle: Monster Hunter stories.
Three conventions: Monsterama, Dragon Con, and DeepSouthCon 62: ConToberFest. I have applied for Dragon and DSC. Haven’t heard back yet. I have a hotel booked for Dragon Con. Those are a lot harder to acquire than a guest pass. This year’s DSC is in Helen, Georgia, which is practically in my backyard. That’ll be an easy one to attend so it’s a no-brainer. I’m sticking to local shows for 2024. Anything else will be too much of a cash outlay. That reminds me, I need to purchase my vendor table for Monsterama!
A vacation trip to Disney/Universal in April. We’re going to see some friends and their new baby that will have arrived by then, and take our daughter to Harry Potter World. It’ll be a fun and much-needed respite. My wife plans these, and they always sneak up on me. So I’ve added it to next year’s production calendar, as it will impact my writing time.
Anthologies. I’m still striving toward writing and placing more stories in anthologies. I have a list of anthologies coming in 2024 I’d like to hit. Even if I don’t, they’ll make great fodder for Free Fiction Monday, which is still a thing over here on this very blog.
Ramping up my writing. This is an absolute must going forward. I’m getting to the point in my business where I need to be working on something all the time, preferably several somethings. all the time. This includes short stories, novels, and paying client work.
On the fiction front, I want to write at least one trilogy of humorous fantasy novels. They’re still in the planning stages. More on that as things coalesce. The big space opera series is still in development as well, but it’s going to be at least 2025 before I have enough put together to start actually writing anything. The world-building for this one is immense. I also have ideas for a couple of novels about pirates. We’ll see what transpires. I see 2024 as being more of a production year, writing stuff that I can run Kickstarters for and publish in 2025.
Increasing and Improving Cashflow. One thing 2023 taught me is the need for ongoing cash flow in my business. Writing income comes intermittently, if at all, but it takes money to run things. Covers. Conventions. Marketing. It all costs money, and money has been in short supply. So to that end, I am going to spend the first quarter of 2024 trying to scare up some content marketing clients. No more small stuff, either. Bigger projects. White papers. Case studies. Books. We’ll see what happens.
Now, with that out of the way, let’s look at a couple of general strategies I’ve learned that have helped me in the past and will help me in the coming year. I think they might help you too.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race. All things being equal, it’s generally better to do a series of small things consistently every day or week than to do one ginormous thing all at once. It’s about cultivating habits rather than finishing big projects. I’ve never been a binge writer, for example, though I know folks who are and it works quite well for them. I’m trying to read every day, get some walking in every day, and some plotting every day. It helps me develop good habits and keeps me from languishing in laziness between large projects.
Taking the Long View. I am planning ahead in the new year. It’s the ass-end of December and I’m already thinking about August. I have written out a detailed 2024 quarterly production calendar, with everything I want to hit and when I need to hit it in order to be ready for the next thing. It will keep me focused and keep me from backsliding into complacency. My wife and I are thinking about retirement, and we’re getting all of our financial ducks in a row to prepare for that. I’m not letting the day job grind me down (it’s a lot better than it was two years ago), and I’m giving up on finding something else. The job market is a shitshow, even for people a lot younger than me. I’m better off staying put and retiring in a few years. This strategy keeps me thinking ahead to better times, rather than getting bogged down and wallowing in self-pity when an immediate thing doesn’t go as planned.
Everything Sucks, and Not All of It Is Your Fault. We are all just one small crisis away from everything turning to shit. No matter how driven and successful we are, there are things that will be outside our control. The system is broken and corrupt, and the people who say that’s just the way it is the loudest are the ones who made it that way. It’s a feature, not a bug. And we must fight to change some things from the top down as much as we can. No matter how successful I get I will never stop demanding that my fellow humans get a liveable wage and affordable healthcare. The way is tough and the road is long. Right now climate change represents an existential threat to our survival as a species, while Christian Nationalism remains a threat to our democracy. Right now we’re living in an era of stupidity unrivaled in human history, where people think the Earth is six thousand years old and flat, and two groups of people are fighting over a tiny strip of scrub desert taint because both sides insist an invisible man in the sky said they could have it. That’s a lot of crap to counteract, and we can’t do all of it on our own. They say hell is other people, and I definitely think that is true. You won’t be able to do everything you set out to do in large part because of those people. But don’t let them tell you it’s your fault when they trip you and make you fall on your face. They’ll tell you it’s your moral failing that is keeping you broke, or that you’re a piece of shit because you didn’t have parents who could hand you a million dollars in startup capital. Don’t believe them. Instead, dance a jig when a killer whale sinks one of their four yachts. Then roll up your sleeves, put your head down, and get back to work.
That’s all I got. Have a safe, happy, and successful (as possible) New Year.