My 2015: Writing Plus
New stuff I released in 2015
This blog is already a recap of my year, so based on that, I can say that I did stuff. Was not lazy. Kept myself busy. The way I work, I’m never just focused on one thing, so I’m all over the place with new projects, new collaborations, crazy experiments. At the same time though, I reminded myself that I had to actually write, so this year I did allocate more hours to writing. The titles above are actually projects I released or finished in 2015, but half of them were started before 2015. And I started writing projects this year that’ll only see the world in 2016. A pipeline! That’s what it is.
Though my writing goals were met and exceeded, my “other” goals were not. Because I had set rather lofty ones at the beginning of the year, and frankly did not know how to get to point Z and apparently some things can’t be learned in a couple of months. I won’t go into all of that now, but I’m the type who moves on and kicks open windows when doors close anyway.
Cool things can happen too, by the way, and maybe even cooler things when you allow yourself to change, even the goals that you set. Not that I’m saying you should wander around goal-less, and only let things happen to you. Rather…spend time doing stuff, defining yourself, and then find the people who appreciate that. Right? I’m still talking about writing and publishing. And maybe other things.
Because I think about too many things, I also think about how to reach more readers, and not just producing books. I’m a reader too, so I need to put that hat on. What do I want? What makes me feel happy to read? So far, the answers I’ve found: Forming communities around good books and authors, and filling them with interesting people. Readers, writers, and attractive actors, all of that. And make it not about the books all the time, but the satisfaction we get from them.
This is not a comprehensive recap. If you want to know how my year really went, go through this blog’s archives instead. But if that’s too long, and you don’t have time, I guess this is the short version: I focused on writing, but I also wanted us to do more than that. What happens to our books when readers don’t know about them? You could say that you already did your part in the writing, and that the universe should do its job and get that book to the reader. But maybe the universe receives a million new stories a day. Maybe we need to help the universe out by doing something. Maybe we’re the universe.
