So, 2020 … a great year all around, amirite?
Muse: Go sit down.
Yeah, it was a rough year for a lot of reasons. But since my better half is always (rightly) encouraging me to be more positive and not such a pessimist, I thought I’d pick out something positive, so here it is: I wrote 505 thousand words this year. Half a million words.
I suspect to some writers, that’s not a big deal—that they do that and more every year. For me, it was an accomplishment. I’d never even remotely written this much in a year and I have to say … it feels pretty damn good.
So what does it mean for next year? Hell if I know. Since there’s one day left in 2020 (as of this writing), I am just going to bask in the glow for the remainder of the year, so I can hit the ground running on 1 Jan and get back to work for 2021.
Here’s a breakdown of how the words went this year:
The Holly Sisters
- Added about 20K words to the early drafts of The Mauler (book 2) before it was published in Sep
- On the second draft of Sylvan Valley Aflame, to the tune of 114K words. I have my beta feedback now, so going back to polish it up, with a hopeful publication date of late March.
The Sentinel
This is the new series I am working on, which will be quite a different in tone than The Holly Sisters. Maybe four book before it’s over.
- Completed the first draft of the first book, with a tentative title of She Who Fights Monsters at around 116K words
- Began the first draft of the second book (no title yet), with 38K words drafted
Romance books, with—
Muse: Wait, what?
I’ve been working on my interconnected romance book series. Not published yet, as I want to have 4-6 of the books ready to rapid-release.
Romance
- Book 1, added 17K words to the 2nd/3rd drafts, so it’s almost publication-ready (oh, and did the cover myself, too, and it’s not bad)
- Book 3, got to 36K words in it before I stalled out
- Book 4, completed first draft of 54K words
(Book 2 was drafted in 2019 and I haven’t gone back to it yet)
Smut Stories (Yeah, I write smut too. Shut up!)
Total of about 89K words in seven different stories. They are getting some good ratings on websites where they’re posted.
Other
I do some writer prompts with friends and some other short stories, which came out to about a total of 21K this year
Whew.
Okay, so 2020 is about in the bag. Now what? What lies ahead for 2021? Well, here are the goals:
- 1) Publish the last book in the The Holly Sisters, Sylvan Valley Aflame, around 31 Mar.
- 2) Write the sequel to Pilgrimage to Skara, with a planned publication sometime in Nov.
- 3) Revise Sentinel book 1, finish book 2 first draft, start book 3
- 4) Finish romance book 3, revise book 2 & 4, draft book 5.
No real goal for the smut. I’ll just tackle that as the ideas come … err, arrive.
You all have a happy, wonderful holiday, and let’s kick off the next year on the right foot! Cheers!
Seriously impressive….and I’m struggling to get that 2500 words a month….
Looking forward to Sylvan Valley Aflame!!
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