Blog Post No. 575
Last year I reached the milestone of ten years of weekly posts. It felt a little weighty in a personal, not very important achievement kind of way. For some reason, eleven years feels a little like a new beginning. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s a little daunting. The stakes of my weekly posts are very low and if I ever miss one or stop posting so often, very little in my life would change. It’s not even that big of a challenge to write a post (that I hope is interesting and worth your small investment of time). The hardest part is coming up with the topics every week. I somehow managed it for eleven years.
2022 was a bit of a rocky year for writing since it was my first year without a novella in the Synthetic Albatross Series for five years, it was the first year getting back out into the world for writing sessions since the lockdowns, and I was working more than ever at the day job. Things weren’t insurmountable, but I did struggle a little with my productivity.
It’s hard to not think of most of 2023 as a write-off. For 8 months I was in my new position at the day job trying to get a handle on things and keeping all the balls in the air. I had even started doing some of the work before I officially got the job.
At the beginning of the year, I was working on a novella for an anthology with the Writing Wrecking Crew and that ended up going completly off the rails. Eventually I finished it and my delay wasn’t the only reason the book didn’t end up happening, but what should have taken me a couple of months took half the year. After that, I focused on the edits for the Invasion Novel, which was also finished, but then it took me months to get around to sending out the first query.
It wasn’t all bad. In the middle of the chaos, I managed to write a couple of short stories (they are really short, but that’s kind of the point) and, at the end of the day, while I still have a lot of work to do querying, I did send the Invasion Novel out to at least a hand full of agents.
While I’m still not going out much, I have been meeting with Christian at the library a couple times a week. It’s nothing compared to the writing sessions I used to do in a week, but I’m working a lot more now and I haven’t rebuilt a regular routine, yet. Plus, it’s really easy to choose sleeping in the one day a week I can over dragging my butt to the library. I hope to get better at that this year, since it’s really the best way for me to keep writing.
At the start of the year, I went to the CKExpo, my first time at that event and my first event in years. It was nice to see some familiar faces and I sold a few books which is always fun. I thought I’d make it out to a few other events, maybe even a writing retreat, but I just couldn’t manage it. I’m not going to make any promises this year, but I hope I get the chance to do an event soon.
As for the statistics for the blog (a topic I know you’re all interested in) 2023 was the highest year ever. Thanks (I suspect) to a bunch of bots, I had more views and visitors that ever before and almost more than double some of my less stellar years. I’ve continued to try and come up with interesting topics that aren’t all about me being stressed out at the day job, exhausted, and not writing enough. I hope I managed that part and a good chunk of the readers are real people interested what I have to say (some weeks).
If not, I mostly do this blog for myself at this point, so I’m likely to keep it going for at least a twelfth year. I’m sure that eventually I’ll get more efficient at my job and will have more time and energy to keep the writing and editing going. Or I’ll have some kind of mental break and writing will be the least of my worries. The person who was last in the office where I work managed to weather plenty of storms, big upheavals, and constant changes and he still managed to write a lot.
I’m sure I’ll figure it out one way or another. The central focus of 2023 was the day job (whether I liked it or not) and that’s likely to continue for a while, so adapting to it is the only option. I’ve said it a few times, in the middle of the chaos, writing is like breathing, so I’m not stopping. I’m just managing my expectations a little better and refocusing my efforts. I have a pretty good foundation from the last eleven years, so I’m not starting from scratch. I have a lot of amazing people in my life who have been immensely supportive, too.
If you’ve just started reading this blog, thanks for stopping by. I hope you found something you like. If you’ve been here for a while, I appreciate you making me feel like I’m not alone in this venture. If you’ve been here from the start, hi mum and dad. Lets shake off the old year and decide to make 2024 a good one. The least we can say is that we tried.
Ben Van Dongen 