Writing Resolutions for 2022

2021 Recap
After the major highlights of 2020 (and you know, the bitter dregs of a global pandemic), I'll readily admit that 2021 had big shoes to fill in terms of life achievements and the highs/lows really cancelled one another out so it was neither the best nor the worst year of my life. It was definitely a catalyst to a whole mess of needed change. 

You'll see how that unfolds over the next few months. ;) 

Spring 2021 saw the publication of the final book in the Metal Heart trilogy, Iron Curtain. It died a quiet death and I'm guessing from the lack of response from those who did read it, that it didn't quite hit the mark in terms of wrapping up the trilogy. I guess, eventually, I will go back to the books and re-edit/re-release them. 

Mostly, I got to a point where I just wanted the trilogy DONE so I could move on to something else. Which didn't end up being Astrid vs. the Asteroid like I'd predicted and hoped. 

Actually, 2021 sort of sucked in the first half, not gonna lie. I FINALLY got vaxxed (whee!), self-published a book (whee!), got fired from a job I hated (whee?), moped around on unemployment and DID NOT write ANYTHING (wait, what?), got another job that paid more than my last one (well, alright!), started my editing side hustle in earnest (Okay then!), was invited to a writing group (yay creative friends!), wrote 60k words of a NEW book (well, that's more like it!), and got a puppy (omg! A PUPPY!). 

By the end of the year things were definitely looking up but also REALLY chaotic and the first half of 2022 is going to be sorting through some amount of mess. But, that's an entirely different story...

So, what's on the writing docket for 2022?

Resolution #1: Finish Drafting Rosita Ruins the Heist (Winter 2022), Revise (Spring/Summer 2022)
My lovely little heist book about a memory stealing bank robber. I'm sitting pretty at 60k words at the moment, with plans to hit 90k by the end of January 2022 and keep on rolling until the book is finished. I've already made notes about what to chop (cut, cut, cut, and SAVE THOSE SCENES), and what to alter (SO MUCH), and I'm feeling pretty good. 

Not gonna lie, it's a whole lot easier to write a single stand-alone book than to try and plot out three books and do I regret writing a freaking trilogy my first time out the gate? A little bit, yeah. But it also means that I'm hitting a way better stride and feeling more confident in my storytelling abilities for everything else that has come after. 

Perhaps it's false confidence. How the hell am I supposed to know? I just feel the drive/pull to create.

Resolution #2: Finish and MAYBE Publish Astrid vs. the Asteroid (Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall 2022??)
Or maybe shop this one around to an agent/publisher? I'm sort of on the fence with the best approach to Astrid. I was asked to submit a whole MS way back in 2019 at a writing conference, but it's been SO LONG, and I just don't really feel like I know where the publishing industry is at anymore, as a whole. I've read rumors on the Twitters it's steering away from YA in general and unless someone is gushingly enthusiastic about it--I'm not sure I want anyone else to have it. I am very selfish that way. 

I'm excited by the prospects of writing two endings (the good and the bad), and I've been considering doing some blind tests on beta readers to see which one really resonates. That could be fun! Who wants to sign up to beta read?

But first, it does need to be completed, which is the goal for Winter/Spring 2022. Then revised. Then beta read (blind testing both good and bad endings, tho). AND THEN, once I've decided it's fate, I will be hiring a DE/Copyeditor before self-publishing. I might even hold off on self-publishing if I decide to submit to the Library Writers Project for 2023. Who knows?

Resolution #3: Draft Untitled Horror Novel (Fall/Nanowrimo 2022)
I have a handful of different horror novel ideas, and it's about time one of them floated to the surface and saw the light of day. My biggest beef with most haunted house stories is that they take place in these GIANT labyrinthine mansions with endless spooky corridors with doors that open to giant dusty rooms. They're almost always situated on huge sprawling estates with tunnels and trapdoors and haunted greenhouses or something. I say thee nay! Give me seedy, creepy little houses in a neighborhood littered with needles and condom wrappers and graffiti and poverty. I want a story set where the bus line ends and drug dealers hang out on the street corners and everything smells like weed.

Those are all the writing goals fit to print at the moment. As always, they are probably loftier than their practical and realistic application. I will be lucky if I can finish Rosita, finish and polish (and publish?) Astrid, and maybe draft another MS in late fall. I'm still committed to my goal of publishing at least one book a year. 

Rosita is destined for 2023. 

Horror novel is destined for 2024 (with a possible horror anthology sprinkled somewhere before or after). 

And that's, of course, not counting any of the other goals I have for my editing gigs and we can't forget the writing workshops and critiques and social media marketing, blog posts, eventually putting out that newsletter I keep teasing/talking about, plus thinking about converting some of the books to audio... 

There is always a lot to do. But without the writing first... none of that other stuff matters as much.