It seems like this year was at once an eon and an eyeblink. So much got done, so much changed, and at the same time everything somehow feels as if it’s always been this way. I guess this is what getting older feels like.
I’d like to start a habit here of taking the time to remember what I accomplished during a year as it comes to a close. For me, it’s easy to forget what I’ve achieved and to focus on all the things I didn’t have time for, but doing so sells myself short and generally isn’t good for my mental health. At the same time, setting goals for the coming year has been a productive use of time in years past. What better time to do both of these things than just after the start of a new year?
So let’s get into it.
Reflection
I started 2022 not knowing I’d be going back to school. I made the decision in early January that I should try and make progress in my day job/career, and took the steps to begin classes in the Spring semester—less than two weeks after making that decision. It was a big adjustment to my sense of time and scheduling (and the fact that most of the other students are a full ten years my junior), but I’ve really enjoyed being back at it after all these years. School was always a place that I thrived, and I feel that one of my best qualities as a writer (and in life) is my constant desire to learn new things.
During the same month, I began drafting my most ambitious novel to date, tentatively called The Marrowknife which will serve as the first book in the steampunk epic fantasy series that I’ve been meaning to write for over half a decade. It took me until nearly the end of June to finish the draft, which amounted to over 160,000 words. (For reference, Bittersouls is only about 100,000 words). It was the first time I’ve drafted a novel with multiple POVs, which presented a host of new challenges and opportunities. I’d say without a doubt that it is the project that I am most excited about for the upcoming few years. If all goes according to plan, the first book should be released sometime in late 2024 (I know, an awful long time to wait).
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may know that my family moved in August of this year. In addition to this being a massive upheaval of our social and work situations, it also meant me changing schools only one semester after returning to school. While this was a huge adjustment, we’ve since settled in and are really enjoying our new house and being closer to my family. My dear sister is a fellow writer, and we’ve had a number of fantastic conversations about the craft since our arrival. She also has children of a similar age to my own, who have wasted no time in becoming best friends with Griffin and Tiber. The new school has been great, despite the long train commute to get there (which I’ve been taking full advantage of for writing purposes). Christmas was also a real treat this year, as it was the first time that all my siblings and I were together for it in 8 years.
Then, of course, my debut novel Bittersouls released at the end of 2022. The decision to go indie for publishing happened this year, along with all the work in hiring an editor, getting the cover designed, and preparing for the launch. This represents a huge milestone for me as a writer, and if I have my way, 2022 will be but the first in a long string of years that will include the release of one of my books.
Resolution
This brings me to the new year. Here we are, like it or not. 2023. It’s a common tradition to make plans for the year in the first weeks of January, then to abandon them promptly during the first weeks of February (if they even make it that far). Well, if 2022 was any indication, then I think I’ve proven that I can make things happen if I go in with a plan, a will, and enough time to achieve them. So let’s talk about what I hope to get done in 2023.
In January, I hope to finish my draft of the The Morren Heist, a novella that essentially encompasses one of the POVs of The Marrowknife and is my currents strategy for tricking myself into thinking revision isn’t so hard. I’ll be writing against the deadline of my 3rd child’s birth, which is due at the end of the month. So, depending on if my wife goes late again, that goal might be totally attainable or totally unreasonable. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
I’ve slated 4 months of the year as having no writing-related requirement. I know from experience that the sleep deprivation and stress of the first few months of a baby’s life are too much for me to manage much writing on the side, so I’ve decided not to put myself through the anxiety of expecting anything else. A likely guess is that the months of February-May will be the ones knocked out by this, but it may be longer or shorter than that, depending, and some light projects might be able to fit in (assuming I’m not overwhelmed by school).
In the interest of releasing my next book before the end of 2023, it will take priority as the next project following my return to writing around the middle of the year. The book is a sci-fi post-apocalypse novel called The Damned Earth, which centers around a lone explorer trying to make an alien world habitable enough for the last remnants of humanity to settle there. It is the first installment of what I’m calling The Lost Empyrean, which I am planning to be a chain of loosely connected sci-fi novels (and maybe short stories) that occupy the same universe/timeline.
Things get fuzzier the further out you try to plan, but let’s say optimistically that I will have a 2-3 months at the end of 2023 to work on something else. In all likelihood, this will be a revision pass on The Marrowknife, but I may end up drafting an unrelated novel instead. The important thing for this period is that I set myself up for success in 2024 and beyond by making sure enough is getting done to enable my book-a-year release schedule. As we reach Q3 of 2023, the best use of this time (and whether or not the time exists at all) should become apparent.
Well, I think that’s everything. Thanks for reading, and I wish you an enjoyable and productive 2023.
Sincerely,
L.A. Morton-Yates
So so glad you are here. ❤️