2008 in Review

Let’s see how I did on my 2008 goals originally posted Jan 2.

1. Write every day. This is tricky, because not every day is going to yield new words, even if I’m working really hard on a story. That’s okay. When I’m in draft mode, I want 1K a day. Otherwise, I’ll be doing some part of writing every day, whether it’s career related (updating the website, requesting reviews) or revisions.

This is pretty much a given.  Even when I was supposed to take a vacation, I ended up re-reading my own work and making revision notes. 

2. Write 300K. I didn’t keep a spreadsheet this year, so I’m not 100% sure of wordcounts, so this is estimated.

Road to Shanhasson:  113,500

Return to Shanhasson: 104,900

Letters Revision (from 49K to 72K):  23,000

Night Sun Rising (hard revisions): 39,000

Prometheus Unbound:  2,000

RHP Revisions (unfinished): 6,000

Total:  roughly 288,400 words.  Not bad.

3. Write another draft of Arcana (formerly RHP), polish in first quarter 2008, and query. Started in January, but it wasn’t going well at all.  More research and planning is needed.

4. Write another draft of Night Sun Rising (the NaNoWriMo novel), polish in second quarter 2008, and query. Planning is complete; Revision Xibalba was in progress in Oct but not yet finished.  My first priority in 2009 will be to finish this.

5. Editor revisions (completed the third pass 12/31/2007, so this one’s close!) and promotion on The Fire Within.  Done.

6. Editor revisions and promotion on The Rose of Shanhasson.  Done.

7. Editor revisions and promotion on Beautiful Death.  Done.

8. Develop a revision plan to extend Letters to An English Professor from long novella to single title length.  Done, revisions completed, project queries floating about and continuing into 2009.

9. Finish a first draft of ANTs (may get bumped to the bottom of the list, but it bugs me because this story is 75% finished).  Not started.  No sense in working on this unless I sell Letters.  (The hero of ANTs is Conn’s brother, Victor.)

10. Write The Road to Shanhasson (not sure of timing yet).  Done!

11. Write at least one short story to give away as a free read.  Done! 

12. Revise the website for quicker downloads and easier maintenance.  Done again, including transferring my domain off yahell.

13. Read 52 books.  Ugh, failed miserably on this.  I didn’t keep a careful list this year, but I’d be surprised if I hit 25 books.  Must read more next year.

14. Finished Return to Shanhasson as my NaNo project.

15. Continued the Great Agent Hunt near the end of 2008 with no luck yet.  My prey is proving rather ellusive, which only makes the hunt more thrilling.