2023 and The Future · 4:10pm January 4th
Hello everypony, and welcome to 2024.
I certainly had a productive 2023, at least in terms of writing. I released seven stories totalling >161k words. According to my wordcount spreadsheet I wrote a total of 400k words. At least some of that is for editing, but a lot of it went into stories that have yet to be released, including my horror-lite idea Absentia and the Guppy Love originalfication. Both of those are still in the works, although I’ve put the former on hiatus until I’ve finished the latter due to GL closing in on being finished.
It’s been a good year for reviews too. With my (relatively) new two-week schedule I’ve released 26 dedicated review blogs. You’d think at ten reviews apiece that would amount to 260 reviews, but bonus reviews and side projects give the total a slight boost to 265. Look for more of those original fiction side-reviews in the future, as I’ve taken more and more to collecting actual, physical books lately (you young whippersnappers know what those are, right?). I’m thinking about modifying my archives to include the wordcounts of the stories I read, just so I can make a note of exactly how many words I’ve gone through in a year. If I wanted to do that now I’d have to go through all 260 stories one at a time and mark down their wordcounts before posting this blog and, frankly, I ain’t doing that today.
Looking forward, I want to increase my writing a bit for 2024. The end goal is 500,000 words. It sounds like a lot, but I ran the numbers and considering what I pulled off in 2023? It’s not. It’s really not. I just need to keep the momentum I built up last year. Granted I didn’t write hardly at all in December (total wordcount: ~18,000), but in my defense I spent most of the month being on vacation and entertaining an energetic and talkative five-year-old who loves the spotlight. She goes back to Japan tomorrow, but we’ll get her back in May.
Another goal, though one I’m not so gung-ho about, is to release more stories in general. Seven is a decent showing, but imagine if I could do a story a month? I don’t think that’s realistic, but you know what they say about aiming high. Considering I want to make a serious go at releasing original fiction (aside from GL), a good chunk of my wordcount will no doubt go to that instead of FIMFiction. I have a great many stories in my head that could make great material for either MLP or original writing and very little that would be dependent on the MLP setting, so a lot of my coming choices will be which stories go which direction. If Guppy Love has taught me anything, it’s that it’s much better to just write something as one or the other rather than both, if only for the sake of saving time.
That’s all I’ve got for today. I thought about talking about my year in gaming, but nah, that can be its own thing later should I feel like it. Stay tuned next week for earth pony mechanics, survival in the world of changelings, and Trixie getting inspiration from a less-than-friendly source.
Need some editing done? Working on a story and not sure how it’s shaping up? I’m now doing editing and critique commissions! Check here for more information and PM me if interested.
Glad you had a productive year. Here is a detailed list of every new story I published in 2023:
There, that was easy. (although to be fair, I've got a number of chapters in ongoing projects out there so....)
Most of this isn't strictly news (my memory where it comes to your blurbs, least once I started reading these weekly, is not flawless, but pretty strong), but the ambitions for publishing something on the monthly? Whatever balance that takes between fanfic and original, I wish you the best with it. I do agree with it being better to not try and make a story that can be both going forward, though.
A number after my own heart (267 last year)!
Happy to see it.
Did that myself halfway through last year. It was an effort, at over 400 stories though one I'm glad for, even if the slight off count of the Fimfic bookshelf bothered me. Even if you have no interest in end-of-year stats roundup posts, though, it'll be worth it.
Glad you got a good year :D also congrats on you setting up your own editing service!
Sounds like a satisfying year. Here's to more of the same for you!
Woot! Good job! I've pretty much retired from writing myself but I still lurk around to read everyone else's efforts. Looking forward to seeing what's in store.
Glad to hear that 2023 was so productive for you. I'm looking forward to what comes this year.
A story a month, huh? Is that like, blank page to complete work in 30 days? if so, good luck my dude. Sounds like a solid ton of work, but if you actually manage that 500k for the year, then pumping out an 42k story every month might just do it. My own total for last year is only about half of your new goal.
It takes so much effort to actually sit down and read something that I could never. Too much crap in my little Japanese apartment as it is.
Hope your year gets off to a better start than mine has.
Here's to 2024.
5762271
Hey, productivity is productivity, regardless of what form it takes. I hardly think that 240k words of work amounts to nothing just because none of it actually got published yet.
5762289
Yeah, but again, I don't seriously expect it to happen. I think most of my work will go to longer stories (as is my MO), so I'll probably focus more on actual wordcounts than publications. Still, it would be nice to release something relatively tiny – say, 5k? – on a regular basis.
I've been gradually fixing the links in my archive for a couple years now at a rate of five a week so that they'll work with my search function. I'll probably do similar with the wordcounts, adding the words a few at a time every week (and all new ones going forward) until it's done. Yeah, it'll take forever, but I've always preferred to do things that way rather than blow a few hours in a single day getting it done.
5762295
Thanks! Maybe this year I can set it up in more places than just FIMFiction.
5762297
Likewise!
5762332
Retired? This is a thing that you can do? From writing? I am perplexed.
5762351
That makes two of us!
5762366
Nah, not likely. I mean, I could, but I'm pretty sure some of the stuff I have in mind will take more than that. I hate to say it, but I think Absentia will break my "no more long stories" rule.
One of my problems is that I've got three bookshelves and two of them are mostly empty. Thus do I need more physical books to read so that I can fill them up! I wouldn't be opposed to getting more bookshelves after that too. I've already got two "bonus reviews" lined up for the next two review blogs.
5762405
Unless an idea so good and profound hits and I just have to write it, then I'm pretty content with what I've done.
5762407
This, big time. I wanted to put out a short Christmas story based in my Bionic titan series, and I start this and end up with the beginning of something seriously huge thanks to all the research I put into it. Instead, I'm revamping another story (or finishing it really) that I plan to release by the middle of the month. The other story has genuine potential to be something huge though, so it may be an 'Original Fiction' Bionic Titan since it effectively doesn't take place on earth.
If you need real book recommendations, off the top of my head:
5762417 Welcome fellow Corriea fan. I got to meet him in Salt Lake City at the Writer's Cantina meetup, and even got to speak with him ("Who are you? How did you get in here? Security!") He's a great guy and I listen to his writing podcasts with Steve Diamond. Check out Servants of War they wrote together.
5762425
Nice. I actually read most of the Monster Hunter International series he did as well.