More 2013 Wrap-Up Stuff... The It's All About Me Edition!

So, the last post of the year is another wrap up list. The one where I list my failures and triumphs during the year. Mostly it’s about failures.

Given my love of lists, I’ve decided to turn my year of writing into a list. So, yay for me. Boo for how short it is, only two items. 2012 was actually a pretty productive year, I suppose. Not really productive, but it at least appeared that way when compared to 2013, a year in which I accomplished almost nothing. Let’s review.

First, I worked on Total Depravity. I wrote the first draft of this story back in 2011. Very early in 2011, actually , it might have been late in 2010. Needless to say, I’ve been working on it a long time. This story started as an experiment, as I wanted to do an epistolary story. Then, I decided that it didn’t work that way, so I rewrote it from scratch. Sent it to some beta readers, then made revisional changes and thought it was, more or less, ready.

But something was nagging me about, something I dismissed. But when I sent it out for some edits, Andrew Leon wrote back a short critique and mentioned that he had a hard time connecting with the lead character.

And I’ve been in a downward spiral of self-doubt and pity ever since.

I’m kidding, but I did immediately see what he meant, after thinking about it some, I decided I needed a better opening, so I tossed what I’d written and started over.

From scratch. I reworked the beginning, then realized that some of those changes really alters the continuity of the story as I’d plotted it, so I had to replot as a result. I’m approximately halfway through the story concerning this. I’ve tried to add more emotionally resonant matter, and smooth out a lot of the continuity errors I introduced during my rewrites.

My hope is that the later portions of the story can stand, more or less, unchanged, as the payoff shouldn’t be altered too much. But I have taken my sweet time as a result. Currently, it’s only about 35k words long, but it’s been my wip for, more or less, 3 years now. Imagine if it were a full novel!

So, I’m pushing the completion date of this story back to Spring of 2014. Honestly, I’m thinking of selling it for $8 a pop, just because it’s been such a damned chore. Sheesh.

Second, I did write a first draft of a novel with demon hunters and demons. I was convinced that it was the most brilliant thing a human has ever conceived when I began, and was pretty sure it was derivative, childish, naïve, poorly written and all around a waste of my, and everyone else’s, time by the time I’d finished out November.

An excerpt of that is readable on this is available, btw, which is really just a way for me to fish for compliments, as I need external validation on such a repeated basis that I tend to want to smack myself.

I’m not 100% sure I’m going to continue with it. I think I will. Because I realize that the years are zipping on by at a furious pace and I don’t have much of anything complete enough to shop around to would-be agents, publishers, or fans.

Aside from that, I did, for the most part, nothing. A very quiet year for me, and one so unfulfilling creatively, that I ended up being pouty and annoyed for much of the time.

Damn, this isn’t even an IWSG post. Who knows what sort of self-pitying rant I could go on next time.