2023 Writing Goals/Intentions

Since I started this site a few years back, I’ve posted my goals for the new year and gone back through them to update my progress as the year progresses. Here are my goals and updates for 2020, 2021, and 2022 for interested people.

As always, I hope this provides any writer a roadmap and inspiration to design their careers. It also bears noting that I am a full-time writer with no other job but writing and editing!

Last Updated: October 2023

2023 Intention: Build community and strengthen craft

1. Apply to MFA program
   • All I want to do is deepen my craft and strengthen my writing. All I do feeds into this, which is why for the past couple of years, I’ve been prepping to apply to MFA programs with the hope of landing a spot in one and spending 2-3 years becoming a writer that terrifies and breaks hearts. I have my schools picked out, references picked, and my samples all written and edited. I’ll be spending most of the year writing and editing my personal essays for each of the schools.
   • April Update: I’ve finished 2 applications and am waiting on recommendation letter stuff to finish them up and mark them as complete. I’ve also finished writing 2 of my personal essays and am starting on the 3rd.
   • July Update: I’ve drafted my 3rd essay and am brainstorming the accompanying craft analysis essay. A part of me wants to revisit a topic I’ve written about before for Writer’s Digest or another writing mag, but I want to step outside of what I’ve done in the past and aim to write an analysis essay on a topic and scene I’ve wanted to write about and explore for a while now.
   • October Update: I’ve applied to all the school’s I planned on doing this year and just need to wait to hear back. So far, I’ve gotten into one grad school program!
2. Study history, science, and psychology
   • I like to study subjects outside of my regular writing-related work to help influence my stories and for general interest. This year, I’ve picked history, science, and psychology as my broad fields of study. I’ll be reading books, articles, papers, reports, studies, watching movies, documentaries, series, shows, and doing anything else I can to learn the ways of the world, both soft and hard.
   • April Update: I’ve been exploring some web series, documentaries, and podcasts, but mainly I’ve been focusing on reading books. The books I’ve read so far this year are:
     • More Than Words by John Howard
     • Over My Dead Body by Greg Melville
     • The Oracle of Night by Sidarta Ribeiro
     • The Milky Way by Moiya McTier
     • City of Omens by Dan Werb
     • No Bad Parts by Richard C. Schwartz
   • July Update: Like before, I’ve done a combination of watching, reading, and listening to talks or books, or documentaries about these subjects. I spent more time building out my reading lists over the last few months, but I did read a few books.
     • The Urge: Our History of Addiction by Carl Erik Fisher
     • The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature
     • Born of Lakes and Plains: Mixed-Descent Peoples and the Making of the American West
   • October Update: I feel like I’ve fallen behind somewhat in this in order to focus on other reading and projects but I did read a few books and watch a couple documentaries and YouTube videos.
     • A Brief History of Earth by Andrew H. Knoll
     • This is What it Sounds Like by Susan Rogers
3. Study world-building setting and description. I don’t know what happened, but at some point, my study went from being about world-building and description to being about setting and description.
   • Last year, I spent my dedicated craft learning time studying voice and syntax, which was so amazing for my craft and writing! This year, I’m focusing on world-building and description. Like last year, I’ll read books, take classes, participate in workshops, and perform a lot of deliberate practice.
   • April Update: I’m still working through my copywork of SGJ Mongrels and using that as a deep dive into how he creates his descriptions and builds his settings in a clear and striking way. I’m also slowly reading through Setting and Description and spending a lot of time exploring the exercises in that book while doing generative exercises every morning to brainstorm specific details and how to describe them. Like with my study of history, science, and psychology, I’m also spending a lot of time reading to learn how authors tackle description and setting. The books I’ve read so far this year for this are:
     • Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
     • All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
     • Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar
     • Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
     • Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr.
     • Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen
   • July Update: I’ve switched to reading as my main form of study into these topics, though I do have some plans to do more exercises once I’ve finished my reading pile. The books I’ve read so far from my setting and description reading list:
     • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
     • Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
     • Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
     • Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
     • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
   • October Update: I’ve been reading through my books on setting and description and examining what makes each work. I’m currently reading through Harlem Shuffle and doing a copywork of The Matrix script
4. Write 2 new stories a month
   • It’s been a very long time since I’ve done a slow write of a short story that I wanted to dedicate this year to crafting some stories that aren’t a part of my August story-a-day challenge but have a bit more foresight and planning. I’ll also be basing each story on a personal memory or experience and blending it with a larger theme. I hope to make these stories top-tier literary speculative fiction of the kind you’d hold dear, no matter how dark.
   • April Update: I’ve only written 2 new stories so far, but I’m still doing what I wanted to do, which was draft stories at a slower, more careful pace. I’ve been spending a lot of my writing time, exploring the world and areas around me that relate to my story in ways to deepen their descriptions and craft a more real fictional world for my readers.
   • July Update: In the past three months, I’ve written three new stories. I still think I’ll end the year with an average of two new stories. a month.
   • October Update: I’m sticking with going slow over going fast but have written one new story in the past three months and am currently working on another. I probably won’t end up with 20+ new stories this year like I normally do, but I will have a handful of knockout stories that have really pushed me beyond what I normally write.
5. Apply for or approach a publisher about editing an anthology
   • I’ve been an editor for a few years now and have had stories on award recommend lists and getting reviewed in places like Tor.com and Locus Magazine. While I’ve guest-edited whole issues and been with Strange Horizons for a few years, I’d love to break into the anthology game and work on a themed anthology with a publisher.
   • April Update: I am in the process of working with a team on building a Best of Anthology. More news on this as I can share!
6. Query and send my horror novella out till September
   • Last year I wrote and edited a horror novella that’s been out on query and with some publishers since October 2022. I plan to keep sending it out to publishers and agents until September. Then I’ll take another look at it and serialize it on this blog or make another blog for it. There’s a small chance I’ll self-publish it like my other books.
   • April Update: I’ve revamped my query and selected a new round of agents and publishers to send the book out to. So far, I’ve gotten good rejections but nothing else.
   • July Update: I haven’t sent out any new queries but whenever publisher opens up for submissions that fit my novella, I’ve sent it out. I’m really just thinking about how to serialize or self-published it with some success.
   • October Update: I’ve queried and subbed this book as much as I can and am now in the process of turning it into a book magnet that I’ll give away for free for email subscribers or a serialized novel I self-publish on this site or my author newsletter.
7. Rough draft Outline and design horror thriller novel
   • I have been working on my next novel and plan to draft it in the fall after much research, planning, and preparation. I won’t be editing or querying it this year but will save that for 2024 to give the manuscript room to breathe. I’ve mapped out my research and reading materials and even have some loos plans for road trips to the desert to do some real-world research.
   • April Update: I’m considering that I may push the rough drafting of my novel back to 2024, so I can use this year as a big deep dive into pre-planning and research. I’ve already drafted up the rough 67-chapter outline that charts the course of the story and will finish drafting the other subplots by October. I’m confident in my fast drafting skills to complete the 100K draft in three months, but also, I’m in no rush and want to really explore my world and develop my craft to knock this novel out of the park.
   • July Update: I’ve outlined the main plot, killer plot, and lover plotlines and my novel is coming together in surprising and terrifying ways. I’m still on track to start drafting at the end of the year or beginning of next year.
   • October Update: My outline is about at 30K words and I am halfway through my final character outline. The book is coming together well and I’m spending the last few months of 2023 designing the characters, setting, and finishing up the plot outline. I’ll also be building out my research plans for certain aspects of the novel.
8. Get more involved in the speculative fiction writing community
   • Community is so important, and I feel that even though I write reviews, edit for a prominent magazine, teach classes, offer free advice, and moderate a speculative fiction writing group in my community, there are more ways I can help out. Instead of trying to spread myself too thin by adding more to my plate, I’ll just deepen my intentions and efforts in those areas throughout the year.
   • April Update: I’ve been volunteering as a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer Association mentor for the past three months and have already applied to do another session in a few months! I’ve also been trying to get more people involved in my local speculative fiction writing group, so have been networking and doing outreach around that.
   • July Update: I just joined up with the Seattle chapter of the HWA and am hoping/prepping to get more involved with that group over the next few months and build more of a connection with the horror community around where I live.
   • October Update: I feel so very involved in the HWA, SFWA, and South Sound Speculative Fiction Writers communities that I am happy to check this item off my list!