Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Mel's Year in Review: 2017 and Plans for 2018

Overall, I think I did worse than I had in 2015, making 2017 my officially worst year in fiction writing ever. It also happened to be a very good year for my music company, Melkim Publishing, in which I successfully reached hundreds if not thousands of future customers. So, at least I can report that I wasn't lazy.

Well, except for the last couple of months, when I got hit by a couple of big things that helped me not want to do anything at all.

Now I have a great opportunity to reboot my fiction writing. I'll be starting in January -- this month.

2017 wasn't a complete waste. I did complete and submit "The Last Actuary" in January. It didn't win any prizes, but at least one person liked it.

Including that submission, I submitted a total of 7 short stories in 2017, which is actually one better than I did in 2016.

"When Time Flows West" received Honorable Mention in the Writers of the Future contest (which should be announced more officially in the next few weeks). So, even if I didn't do too much writing, I still have this new feather in my cap.

General stats for 2017:

For 2018, my goal is to reboot the writing machine. I'd be happy to meet a few reasonable goals rather than crazy audacious goals. So here we go:
  • Novel writing:
    • If I have enough funds, I will have "Justice" edited and then put out for sale on Amazon
    • If no funds (most likely the case this year), I will finish the first draft of "Space Cadets"
  • Short stories - complete 4:
    • "The Jesse Flag" (flash fiction)
    • "The Rainbow Flush" (flash fiction)
    • "Godspring" (longer story)
    • "Descendent History" (longer story)
    • bonus: if I feel like it, work on another actuarial story
  • 26 short story submissions
Good luck in your writing, and have a good 2018!

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