Writerly resolutions for 2024: the post-mortem

I had modest goals for 2024:

  1. Get final draft of the novel finished
  2. Query query query
  3. Get six new stories workshopped and into submissions
  4. Maybe start a new novel?

Of these, I completed 1, 2 and 4, and partially finished 3: I only got three new stories into submissions, but I did also get two older stories revised and workshopped and out into the world and right now I have no more previously workshopped stories that need revision before going out. 

Querying is going, well, badly. Nothing but form rejections on the query even after some major work on the opening chapters and query letter. I think it’s a good book, and I’ve got three excerpts published as stories as evidence, but nobody seems to want to represent it so barring some unexpected change of fortunes in the next couple-three months, it’s going to end up in the trunk.

The new novel is feeling pretty good to me though. I had a couple other possibilities on deck for what I might write but instead something else called to me and demanded my attention so I’m writing that instead. Initial progress doesn’t look too bad.

Graph of progresss on the novel. There’s a pair of steep slopes in the word count graph in October corresponding to a pair of writing retreats. A complete draft of the first chatper is then marked by steady progress in November rewriting the chapter and a fairly quick revision period. The second chapter tended to go in first and starts including a brief period where my word count went down before I finished a complete draft in December. I’ve been making regular, if inconsistent progress on the chapter two rewrite.


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