2015 plans
Pretty soon I'll be posting up my list of things I read and things I wrote this year (and I'll also have to throw in some reviews I wrote aaaaages ago for some books I read!) so I suppose it's time to talk about things I want to get done in 2015! I've already mentioned upcoming stuff and most of it is that same stuff, but here are some specific goals for this year.
1. Finish the Tenebrism rewrites
Yeah, this should have happened forever ago. There's really really no reason for this to not be done yet, other than I just stacked too many projects on myself. There's only a few more chapters left, like 2-3, so once I'm done with all the stories I'm submitting for publishing, this is first priority.
2. Finish the Skiagraphia draft
Same exact thing as #1, there's no reason for this not to be finished already. There were two years in a row where I only posted one chapter a year. This story started in 2009. It's seriously time for it to be done.
3. Finish Broken Guns and self-pub with CreateSpace
This only has one chapter left and won't take much editing to get it into a decent form. It's not a popular story so I imagine publishing it in any form other than self-pubbing would be a pretty fruitless endeavor. I think it would be a good experiment to see how self-publishing works and the whole process and everything. I have NaNo winner CreateSpace codes or something to use with this so that's why I'll use that, also it links over to Amazon I think. Not that I expect it to sell, it's just an experiment.
4. Finish the rewrites of Pretty Shade of Grey (now A Revolution Kind)
This one I wold love to get completed because I think it's the most likely to be published by a press like Dreamspinner or something - a fluffy contemporary romance. Either way, I would just like it to not be sitting there with four missing chapters. However, not all of the rewrites will be public. Just because of the chance of publication I don't want the entire thing available online. It has a much greater chance of being 100% available on Patreon.
These are the 100% main goals for 2015. I'm still keeping the Patreon for the moment, so all these things will show up there first and have extra features and such like they already have been. I'm also always trying to figure out some other things I could add to the Patreon so if anyone has any suggestions of things they'd like to see I am always open.
Secondary goals for this upcoming year, where I'd LIKE to get them done but they aren't a huge priority:
5. Finish and post the second PSoG/ARK story
I already have about 6k words of it, a companion story to Home Free where Saul meets Vaan's parents instead. This is definitely possible to get done but is not a priority like the other things are. Also Home Free itself has a few extra scenes I've written and added to it that I'm going to drop into it at some point (like Vaan having a one-on-one conversation with Saul's mom) and I'll let everyone know when it's been updated.
5. Start posting the Chiaroscuro rewrites
All the ensuing Light and Shadow books are going to go way faster than rewriting Tenebrism did. Tenebrism was heavily restructured and basically entirely rewritten, the others won't be (and I've already started on the rewrites too). I'm happy with events in the 2-4 books and though things will be changed, altered, and otherwise shifted around to make the story better, I'm not tearing them down and rebuilding them entirely. Mostly it's focusing on making Alan's voice more stable and just details, continuity, etc. Also Skiagraphia is going to be split into two books, I've decided. It's just too long and has too many arcs in it to be one, even if I cut out the ~40k words I plan to. But starting to at least post the rewrites for Chiaroscuro, even if it's just one or two chapters, is doable but won't happen until after the Tenebrism rewrites are done; hence it can't be a priority yet.
6. Finish one of the unfinished NaNo novels
This either means Lodestar from 2013 or The Cold Lamp from this year. Neither are finished though both have far more done in them than has been posted, so this is actually less work than it sounds like. The response to The Cold Lamp (which is only available on Patreon) was really good, which surprised me seeing as it's a very different story than I usually do, and I do plan on finishing both NaNos but again it's just a question of finding the time.
7. Start Rysa's story
Technically, I already have, just none of it's posted. I tried to do Camp NaNo back in April or something and just couldn't because of health issues, but I got a couple thousand words out. But I really want to write her story (especially every time I go into a bookstore and look at the fantasy section full of rugged white men doing rugged white things while being secret nobility or assassins, or modern women in skin-tight tanktops and jeans holding guns suggestively with their stylishly mussed windswept hair that is clearly not a book I want to read because none of them look badass they look posed and sexualized) and it could actually be a book that could be mainstream published. Because no main characters are gay. Obviously Keyd is part of it and Keyd is a big part of Rysa's life eventually, but he's for sure not obviously gay in the section of time the story would take place in because it's early in both their lives. It's almost entirely focused on Rysa's transition from one race to another and adapting between cultures and dealing with her whole race and family and friends turning on her and not being accepted in her new home either. This would be something that would only be available on Patreon, as well.
8. His Password is Also Derek
Yes. It's not dead. I SWEAR. But you can see how much stuff is piled on top of it. It's fanfiction, so it's the lowest of the low priorities, however I DO work on it from time to time and it's not dead and I am going to finish it someday. Truly.
So yes, this looks like a ridiculous amount of plans. But only the first four are the things I'll be really really really really working on. If those get done I will slowly start moving to the other things lower down on the list!
1. Finish the Tenebrism rewrites
Yeah, this should have happened forever ago. There's really really no reason for this to not be done yet, other than I just stacked too many projects on myself. There's only a few more chapters left, like 2-3, so once I'm done with all the stories I'm submitting for publishing, this is first priority.
2. Finish the Skiagraphia draft
Same exact thing as #1, there's no reason for this not to be finished already. There were two years in a row where I only posted one chapter a year. This story started in 2009. It's seriously time for it to be done.
3. Finish Broken Guns and self-pub with CreateSpace
This only has one chapter left and won't take much editing to get it into a decent form. It's not a popular story so I imagine publishing it in any form other than self-pubbing would be a pretty fruitless endeavor. I think it would be a good experiment to see how self-publishing works and the whole process and everything. I have NaNo winner CreateSpace codes or something to use with this so that's why I'll use that, also it links over to Amazon I think. Not that I expect it to sell, it's just an experiment.
4. Finish the rewrites of Pretty Shade of Grey (now A Revolution Kind)
This one I wold love to get completed because I think it's the most likely to be published by a press like Dreamspinner or something - a fluffy contemporary romance. Either way, I would just like it to not be sitting there with four missing chapters. However, not all of the rewrites will be public. Just because of the chance of publication I don't want the entire thing available online. It has a much greater chance of being 100% available on Patreon.
These are the 100% main goals for 2015. I'm still keeping the Patreon for the moment, so all these things will show up there first and have extra features and such like they already have been. I'm also always trying to figure out some other things I could add to the Patreon so if anyone has any suggestions of things they'd like to see I am always open.
Secondary goals for this upcoming year, where I'd LIKE to get them done but they aren't a huge priority:
5. Finish and post the second PSoG/ARK story
I already have about 6k words of it, a companion story to Home Free where Saul meets Vaan's parents instead. This is definitely possible to get done but is not a priority like the other things are. Also Home Free itself has a few extra scenes I've written and added to it that I'm going to drop into it at some point (like Vaan having a one-on-one conversation with Saul's mom) and I'll let everyone know when it's been updated.
5. Start posting the Chiaroscuro rewrites
All the ensuing Light and Shadow books are going to go way faster than rewriting Tenebrism did. Tenebrism was heavily restructured and basically entirely rewritten, the others won't be (and I've already started on the rewrites too). I'm happy with events in the 2-4 books and though things will be changed, altered, and otherwise shifted around to make the story better, I'm not tearing them down and rebuilding them entirely. Mostly it's focusing on making Alan's voice more stable and just details, continuity, etc. Also Skiagraphia is going to be split into two books, I've decided. It's just too long and has too many arcs in it to be one, even if I cut out the ~40k words I plan to. But starting to at least post the rewrites for Chiaroscuro, even if it's just one or two chapters, is doable but won't happen until after the Tenebrism rewrites are done; hence it can't be a priority yet.
6. Finish one of the unfinished NaNo novels
This either means Lodestar from 2013 or The Cold Lamp from this year. Neither are finished though both have far more done in them than has been posted, so this is actually less work than it sounds like. The response to The Cold Lamp (which is only available on Patreon) was really good, which surprised me seeing as it's a very different story than I usually do, and I do plan on finishing both NaNos but again it's just a question of finding the time.
7. Start Rysa's story
Technically, I already have, just none of it's posted. I tried to do Camp NaNo back in April or something and just couldn't because of health issues, but I got a couple thousand words out. But I really want to write her story (especially every time I go into a bookstore and look at the fantasy section full of rugged white men doing rugged white things while being secret nobility or assassins, or modern women in skin-tight tanktops and jeans holding guns suggestively with their stylishly mussed windswept hair that is clearly not a book I want to read because none of them look badass they look posed and sexualized) and it could actually be a book that could be mainstream published. Because no main characters are gay. Obviously Keyd is part of it and Keyd is a big part of Rysa's life eventually, but he's for sure not obviously gay in the section of time the story would take place in because it's early in both their lives. It's almost entirely focused on Rysa's transition from one race to another and adapting between cultures and dealing with her whole race and family and friends turning on her and not being accepted in her new home either. This would be something that would only be available on Patreon, as well.
8. His Password is Also Derek
Yes. It's not dead. I SWEAR. But you can see how much stuff is piled on top of it. It's fanfiction, so it's the lowest of the low priorities, however I DO work on it from time to time and it's not dead and I am going to finish it someday. Truly.
So yes, this looks like a ridiculous amount of plans. But only the first four are the things I'll be really really really really working on. If those get done I will slowly start moving to the other things lower down on the list!