The 2020 Writerly Recap

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these end-of-the-year round up posts on here. In fact, it’s been . . .

*checks date of last writerly recap*

Ok, so maybe only 6 years. But after 2020, it sure as hell feels like 84.

Despite the steaming pile of donkey balls that has been 2020, I managed to stay productive on the writing front. In large part because I’m fortunate to be in a position where the pandemic hasn’t upended my life anywhere near as much as it has many other people’s lives. Not to say it hasn’t been stressful or depressing. (Being a singer during a pandemic suuuuuucks, especially when most of your singing had been with choirs.)

We all have different ways of dealing with these things, and my way is to keep busy. I did hit an emotionally difficult patch back in the early fall where everything felt So. Damn. Hard. The thing that eventually pulled me out of my funk? Cataloging my book collection. Because I am a nerd and organization is my super power and so that’s what made me feel better.

But enough about that. Here’s what happened on the writing front this year:

Published in 2020

• “The Dragon Queen of the Suffix County Public Library” in Daily Science Fiction (July 2020)
• “This Is the Way the Prayer Ends” in Mysterion (December 2020)

Written in 2020

I finished my steampunk fantasy novel, The Ashdowners—woo hoo! And I started querying agents—less woo hoo. Soul crushing process is soul crushing! But for now, at least, the search continues.

I started a new play—a comedy that, in a departure from my usual stuff, is actually not fantastical in nature. I worked on it in fits and starts early in the year, but sadly haven’t touched it since June. I’ll get back to it . . . eventually. With the pandemic-inflicted challenges live theater is facing right now, I just haven’t been able to keep myself in the right head space for the project.

And finally, I wrote lots of new short fiction this year: one brand-spanking new flash fiction piece that I’ll start submitting soon, one formerly 5,000-word story pared down to flash length (the aforementioned “The Dragon Queen of the Suffix County Public Library”), and four new short stories (or technically, three short stories and a novelette). Of those four, one is out on submission, two need some revisions, and one is likely going to be trunked unless I have a sudden burst of inspiration for how to make it something more than competent-but-predictable.

2021 To-Do List

Continue the agent search for The Ashdowners.

Revise those two short stories that I said need revising.

Maybe get back to that play.

Tackle more of the short story ideas darting around my brain like over-caffeinated squirrels.

Keep flinging my finished stories at magazines.

Do some preliminary research for a novel idea I’ve had on the back burner, then start outlining and writing.

More than anything, though, I look forward to tossing 2020 out the nearest window.