In a now an annual tradition, I want to pause on this first post of January to look back at my resolutions from last year and mark some new ones for 2024. This is going to be super informal. Ready? Let’s get to it.
Look back at 2023:
Last Year’s Reading Goals
Let’s see… wow, I thought I would get through 40 books this year. That feels ambitious, given the depth of the fantasy chonkers we read around here. At the same time, I find it mildly ironic that I post a weekly book review blog without managing to read a book every week. Anyway, I ended up reading 28 books this year as of this writing, and I think I’m on pace for at least two, possibly three more, so we’ll just pencil in 30 books read and reviewed in 2023. Short of the mark, but not bad, and up from the average of 25 the previous two years.
I told myself I was going to finish the series I had started and tackle some of the modern classics, specifically calling out Pat Rothfuss and Brandon Sanderson. That…. sort of happened. I didn’t read The Name of the Wind or any Cosmere novels, but I did start widely loved 00’s classics The Gentleman Bastards and Powdermage. I made progress in the Green Bone Saga and The Broken Earth (working on it as I write this!), but alas, I think both of those will have to wrap up in 2024. I have come to realize I am savoring these series, perhaps a bit too much. It’s time to find out how they end. Past time. (But I don’t want them to end! The story goes on forever if I don’t finish the trilogy, right? That’s how this works?!?).
Last Year’s Writing Goals:
Last year, I set what we’ll call a very attainable goal after cranking out a (trunk)novel each of the previous three years. I wanted to write six short stories in a connected universe that I could be proud of. I’m happy to say that goal was blown out of the water. As of this writing, that universe is 10 stories and 2 epigraphs deep, totaling nearly 60,000 words. They’re mostly rough words, although I did bog myself down in the spring falling into the “edit as you go” trap. Don’t do it, fellow writers. I know it sucks when you’ve just finished your 20th revision of a manuscript you’ve lost all perspective on, and it’s tempting to think you will avoid that grind by polishing as you go… but 1) You’ll end up wasting time revising deleted scenes, and 2) it totally throws your rhythm off. No groove. No joy.
Looking Forward to 2024:
Reading Goals, 2024:
I think I’ll compromise with 2024 and aim to read 35 books this year. As a new father, I’m finding more time for audiobooks lately, which is pushing my ‘reading’ along at a nice pace this winter. Hopefully I can keep that up
As for the content, I do still want to get to Pat and Brando, and finish the series I just mentioned. Just roll those ’23 goals on forward.
But, also, I find an egregious gap in my reading history I must remedy. Although I’m writing a cozy-fantasy-mystery hybrid, I’ve only read significantly in 2/3 of those genres. Although several books have had a mysterious subplot or element, I think the only three true, pure mysteries I have reviewed in this space are The Girl on the Train, A Master of Djinn, and The Spare Man. I need a little more mystery in my life. I picked up some cheap used copies of what various listicles and aggregate scorekeepers assured me were pillars of the genre, and have them ready and waiting as soon as I finish reading The Stone Sky.
Writing Goals, 2024:
If you’re a fellow writer, first, how are you doing? You hanging in there? Good. Thanks for chilling in this decidedly old-school space (who reads blogs anymore, right?). Second, I hope you will join me in following what I consider some of the best advice I’ve heard for keeping my chin up for the long grind: set goals you can control.
I can’t directly control whether specific people like my writing. I can’t control whether I get requests for additional material, land an agent, go on submission, get published, or strike lightening publishing independently. I can only control my writing, and whether I have created something I enjoy, something I am proud of.
To that end, my goal is that by the time you read this in the first week of 2024, I have finished the rough draft of the fantasy mystery collection. By the first of March, I hope to have finished the first rounds of editing and revising so I can send a project to beta readers for the first time since late 2021. I hope my friends haven’t forgotten me (he said, nervously). I hope to get feedback returned and finish final revisions by July 1, which would mark the longest single project I’ve undertaken so far… and that’s ok. My plan with this project was always to slow down.
I want to find more joy in the process. In an episode of Writing Excuses earlier today, one of the hosts said something that stuck with me: frame everything with a “get-to” attitude. I get to re-read. I get to edit. I get to revise. I have the privilege of having people read my pre-successful work. I have the opportunity to revise again. And again.
Because ultimately, all of this is for fun, right? Whether it’s always “just” a hobby, or I find some mild success, or hit the publishing lottery, I keep doing this because I enjoy it. I love using my imagination to craft stories with heart and depth. I hope that comes through in the work. If it doesn’t, then I had fun along the way.
What About You?
I never do this part, but why not? We’re all friends, here. How do you feel about your 2023 goals? What do you hope to accomplish in 2024? Let us know in the comments, or over on ye olde Facebook page, Murray’s Bookshelf.
Happy reading, happy writing, and happy New Year, folks.
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