Welcome to 2024
Hello and Happy New Year!
2023 was certainly a year and truthfully I’m glad it is over. There were some highs to the last year, but it was also an exhausting year. Some of that exhaustion will carry over into 2024. (Personally I’m dreading the upcoming US Presidential election and its aftermath). But I truly hope 2024 is a better year than the previous years.
Before I talk about my plans for this year, I want to recap some of my personal news from the latter half of 2023. In October, I was invited to a Proxima Arcanum reading in Baltimore. It was a great time, I met some amazing people and debuted a new short story (which turned into an idea for a novel, but more on that in a bit). I started a NaNoWriMo project, but abandoned it after the first week. I also finished my penultimate semester of graduate school! (This was a bit of a surprise. I expected to graduate in the summer of this year. But my advisor said I can graduate a semester early. So next Monday I will begin my last semester of graduate school!) And just before 2023 ended, I received some promising work-related news. But I will share more details once there are concrete details.
In December, I spent a lot of time reflecting on my ambitions and dreams. I’m a recovering people pleaser and that behavior often manifested in me limiting the goals I pursued. For many years, I experienced this pressure (mostly from family or family friends) to follow a certain path: go to school, find a reliable job, chase the ghost of the American Dream like everyone else. Their intentions for forcing me down a certain path weren’t malicious, but they also weren’t helpful. Being a creative person in a family of non-creatives is hard because people never take my creative pursuits seriously until there is a tangible achievement or reward attached to it. So I felt compelled to only follow paths that led to an award, money or another marker of success that proved my worth.
It was only in the last few months, back in October or November I think, where someone told me that I did not have to prove myself to others. That resonated with me and I’m still chewing on it now. But that comment shaped my goals and resolutions for 2024. This year, I want to break that cycle and instead focus on my interests and desires. That desire influenced my resolutions for 2024.
I won’t share all of my resolutions here, mostly because some are deeply personal. But here is a glimpse at my plans for 2024:
Design 1 TTRPG: For those who don’t know, TTRPG stands for table-top role-playing game. The most popular TTRPG now is Dungeons & Dragons which I am a fan of, though I own several other games. There is a thriving indie TTRPG community and I would love to contribute. I was part of LivelyGold’s safe & sound zine several years ago and hopefully we will collaborate again this year or in the future. Look forward to some updates about this project and my experiences learning how to create a game. (Teaser: the game will be about libraries)
Publish in an anthology: A few years ago, one of my short stories was nearly selected for a YA anthology. The editors didn’t pick my story and eventually it was published in another magazine. But since then, I’ve wanted to see one of my stories land in an anthology. My top choice is the annual Best American Sci-Fi and Fantasy collection, but there are other options out there. I think this would be a neat opportunity and that is why I want to reach for it this year.
Publish 3 short stories: I will mostly focus on my novels this year, but I want to spend some time with the short story form. I have some story ideas and some stories may serve as practice or world-building for my novels. But I want to return to the habit of submitting my work, especially if I pursue traditional publication in 2025 or later.
Complete 1st draft of Greene Witches: This was originally my project for last year’s NaNo and something that began as a short story. I like the characters and the premise, but I didn’t do enough pre-NaNo planning before the challenge began. This year, I plan to spend February and some of March planning out the novel and outlining the chapters. Since it is a dual-POV novel, the outline will keep me from straying too far and keep a tight pace. I believe this novel will be a compelling story and I am excited to return to this world and characters soon.
Complete 1st draft of Project Golden Sea: This originally began as world-building practice; something private for me to tinker with and not share with others. I have an account with World Anvil and when I created this project, I wanted to learn how to navigate the site and use it effectively. I started this project in November and since then I’m just shy of 2,000 words out of my goal of 20,000 words. I did not expect to grow attached to this world or make a larger project out of it. But here I am in 2024 making plans to draft a fantasy series based on it. I don’t have solid plans yet. I think/hope a premise won’t take shape until summer once I’m finished with school. For now, I want to continue with my world-building/exploration. If you would like to follow along, the project’s page is public (and should be accessible without creating a World Anvil account). Here is the world’s homepage and if you want to track the development of the world, here is the development log that will be regularly updated. I’m excited for this project, mostly because I have no idea what it will become.
My theme for 2024 is playfulness. Since 2017, I directed my time and energy to the traditional career path. I worked beyond the point of exhaustion to land in a “respectable” job to make others happy. And as much as I love working in a library and look forward to landing my first librarian position soon, I never prioritized my creative outlets. I treated writing as a side hobby and not as a serious, viable career path where I could flourish. Despite the small achievements I earned, it seemed that some people in my life didn’t see the point of writing if I wasn’t swimming in money. In 2024 I’m shaking off the expectations of others and doing what I want, when I want and not for the purpose of making others happy.
If my novels and games live only as documents on my laptop, that is fine. If I earn no money from publishing this year, that is okay. If I only receive three views on my World Anvil page or these writing blogs, I’m okay. What is most important to me is that I have fun this year, that I follow my creativity wherever it leads and that I stay connected with myself.
My hope for you, my reader, is that you listen to and follow your own heart this year. I hope you define what joy, fun and love me to you and that you remain adamant that you deserve your definition of those things. I am truly praying that this year is a better year for all of us. Stay safe, take care of your neighbors and yourself and let’s try to have a decent year.
