Ripples in Speculative Fiction

Happy New Year! I meant to get this posted in January, but this is close enough.

I spelled out my 2024 targets in this post where I also looked back at 2023. They were:

1. Edit character arc in the second half of MK1.
2. Edit first act of MK2.
3. Write 2-3 short stories exploring off camera events to better understand them.
4. Write first half of the second act of MK2.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that I did pretty good. Once I write down my yearly targets, I rarely, if ever, go back and revisit them. I never find myself in a limbo moment with writing where I am wondering what I should work on and how that fits into my overall goals, so I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising that I normally hit pretty close to the targets I laid out.

I accomplished all but #3. I did not write any short stories set in the series world to flush out more detail–although, I still like that idea. I did, however, participate in Codex’s 2024 Weekend Warrior contest where I ended up writing 6 new flash fiction pieces and even sold and had one published. So, that’s at least tangentially related.

In truth, 1, 2, & 4 took up the majority of my time. Particularly #4. I didn’t think that was going to happen, but the writing sped up quite a bit in the fall and I made it!

I also read 25 fictions books and 10 non-fiction books in 2024. Hmm … looking over the list of both, I didn’t have any that stood out to me as particularly notable. I think that’s the first time that’s ever happened. It could be because 6 of the fiction books were in one series and 12 were in another so that didn’t leave a lot of room for broad sampling.

For 2025, the target is simple: Finish MK2. Stretch goal would be by July and then edit and write some of those short stories. But I need to get a move on on these novels so I can start pushing them out there in the world so the focus has to be on: Finish. The. Novel.

I have started drafting again on MK2. I am not quite matching the drafting speed of last fall, but I’m not that far off either. I even have a clear picture of what needs to happen and some sequencing, but as is often the case this time of year, writing time is hard to come by with one-off tasks that pop up around the new year, but more on that later. For now, I am going to go try and wrap up a chapter on the novel before heading to bed.