2015 & 2016

I’ve been reading thesmallhobbit and okapi1895’s posts about their writing in 2015 and their plans for 2016, so I thought I’d have a go at something similar myself.

My total word count for 2015 (including my DeviantArt stuff and my big bang fic which won’t be posted until the spring) isn’t terribly impressive—about 74,500 words. But as Okapi pointed out, I am concentrating on microfiction. So for 2016, I’m not going to worry too much about the final word count. But I do want to write more often and produce more individual works—both fanfiction and original pieces. One thing I’m going to do is go back to writing for fan_flashworks. I rather let that slide due to work and other writing projects.

And I want to continue to try new things. One thing I definitely want to try this year is writing a novel—something 50,000 words or more. Writing at length is not something that comes naturally to me, but I’ve been greatly heartened by how relatively straightforward writing my fic for smallfandombang has been. That’s only 16,000 words but a couple of years ago I would have found that impossible. I’m not sure I’ll try NaNoWriMo. Simply because I’m such a slow writer—I’m not sure I could keep up. Though I don’t know—if it was just a case of getting a very rough first draft out... But I think for me it’s something better spread out over several months. And anyway, I shouldn’t really put off starting—if I want to try, I should just get on with it.

Another important thing I want to try is selling my original work. I’ve come a long way in the last five years or so, and I’m confident about the standard of my work. I get a good reaction from people I don’t know and have no reason to flatter me. And I think I’m also realistic about rejection now—I’m not going to be crushed if a piece isn’t considered suitable. I can’t see myself ever being a full-time professional writer but it would be wonderful if I could get some additional income out of something I’m good at and proud of doing.