It’s time once again for my annual year-in-review post. Let’s get to it:
The Raw Data
New Fiction: 54,252
Other Verbiage (blog entries, crits, etc.): 16,560
Total New Words: 70,812
Rewrites: 43,122
Submissions: 27
Rejections: 29 (includes withdrawn manuscripts)
Sales: 0 (sigh)
Publications: 1
Conventions/Workshops Attended: Launch Pad, WorldCon, MileHiCon
Assessment
1. Write at least 100K of new fiction.
Missed this by rather a lot, obviously. But I did finish the first draft of a new novel in Apocalypse Pictures Presents. And I really didn’t have any other novel projects ready to go. Late in the year, I tried to force Escaping Canaan, but it just wouldn’t be forced.
2. Write at least 100K in rewrites.
Also missed by a lot, but the number is up from 2011. This is due to significant revisions of “From Earth I Have Arisen” and “Spectator Sport,” two projects that had been languishing.
3. Improve submission statistics, including novel queries.
Submission stats were slightly down. I can attribute this at least partly to having fewer stories in inventory.
4. Continue critiquing.
Met this one by participating in the WorldCon Writers Workshop.
5. Continue weekly progress reports.
Yep. I keep chugging on.
I suppose I should be down about the diminished productivity and the lack of sales, but I’m just not in the mood for self-pity at the moment. To put it in football terms, I guess I can consider 2012 a rebuilding year. The rewrites of “From Earth” and “Spectator Sport” took longer than I would have liked, but in fairness to myself, they were pretty major revisions. The latter story was rewritten from the ground up, and I lopped off a huge chunk of the former, which resulted a great deal of surgical repair.
In addition, I had my mind expanded at Launch Pad (in addition to making some new friends), and I learned from the abortive attempt at Escaping Canaan not to push on a project when my heart’s not in it. So while there might not have been productivity, there was growth.
Seen in that light, 2012 wasn’t too shabby.
Looking ahead . . .
Goals for 2013
1. Write at least 100K of new fiction.
2. Write at least 100K in rewrites. Most of this will come from Apocalypse Pictures Presents
3. Improve submission statistics, including novel queries.
4. Continue critiquing.
5. Continue weekly progress reports.
Basically, the same goals as 2012. No point in raising the bar when I haven’t met the previous one yet. Emphasis on yet.
Onward.
