2015 Recap
So I intentionally waited until after Dec. 31, 2015 to write the 2015 wrap up blog post. It was coming down to the wire and I wanted to give every extra moment to writing to try and hit my 2015 targets. My 2015 goals are detailed here, but to recap, 2015 was declared to be the year of the series for me.
The 2015 targets were to write only in series, and to write 3 novels. I’m really excited to say that I am came very close to hitting both targets. I had one workshop in April that made it impossible to not write in a series, but other than that, the first objective was met.
As for 3 novels–I just have to go into some details because of how awesome nearly hitting this target was. Before 2015 the most words I had written in a year was a ~100k, and all of that spread over short stories, novelettes and novellas. The longest piece I had written came out to about ~33k. A novel by definition is 60k+. I knew the novels I wanted to write and thought they would come out to be about 80k, 60k, and 80k again, for about 220k on the year, more than twice my previous yearly word count. It felt a little crazy to set those targets, and set the goal of writing not your first full-length novel in a year, but three.
I can proudly write: I wrote 2.95 novels. Pretty dang close. I should need only another week or two to finish up that third novel. The first novel came in at 109k and took me two months longer than I anticipated (mostly because the beefed up word count). I went right into writing novel number two and thought I could finish (and publish it) before the end of the year. I finished it in September and there was a push to try and publish one of those novels by December. But ultimately I decided to wait on that rather than rush it. Then NaNoWrimo hit.
Thanks to NaNoWrimo, I started novel number three a few days before Nov. 1, and of last night, I have over 60k in the manuscript (and two-thirds already edited). I think another 2-4k should wrap it up. Since I wasn’t sure this third novel was even going to happen, I’m super pleased to almost be done with it. Feels like a bonus.
2015 stats: 250,626 words written, 4 short stories completed, 2 novels completed, 1 novel 95% done, self-published 3 titles, 1 short story published in a short fiction market. Not too shabby.
2015 was a fantastic year for other reasons that I’m recording here for posterity:
1. Second child born! I was prepared for a nose-dive in productivity, but she’s such a sweetheart it never happened.
2. In-laws moved to town (see 1.). They are an amazing help, that make a lot things possible that wouldn’t otherwise be.
3. I lost 30 lbs. I feel a lot healthier and a large part of my wardrobe is opened back up to me (cheaper than buying new clothes). This wasn’t a goal at the start of the year, but kinda snuck in halfway through the year.
4. I won an award at the day job. I’ve never won anything before, so I’m still pretty stoked about this.
5. I got to spend an amazing two week vacation in England. It’s already influenced my writing. I love traveling for this reason.
2015 was my best year yet for all these reasons. I’m excited to see what happens in 2016. Next blog post, I’ll write about my 2016 targets (once I flush them out in more detail).