2019 Writing Year in Review

Here’s my review of my 2019 writing year. It was a mixed bag of positive (publishing) and negative (writing). Time for the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good:

Here are numbers:

I wrote 152,220 words in 2019 among nine projects.

My highest writing month was November (NaNoWriMo time!), with my second highest writing month in April at 17,233 words and March at 17,089 words in the final throes of finishing Matrix Trigger. My least productive month is actually October at 2,748 words, followed by December (3,912) and February (7,652). This is about 90,000 less than what I wrote in 2018, though a lot of 2018 was devoted to writing and rewriting Matrix Trigger and drafting Invisible Enemy.

I maintained a goal of 150 words per day, which is low and I didn’t challenge myself as much as should have in 2019. I averaged 417 words per day, 278% more than I set as a goal, but less than the 671 words/day average I set in 2018. That was unimpressive for me and far, far short of what I wanted for the year.

This year I spread my writing into multiple projects, with 4 taking up the bulk—Matrix Trigger and Invisible Enemy revisions, final series novel drafting, and submission and revision of my first short story—Echoes of Sonya. I also wrote four more short stories, one as a deleted scene from Matrix Trigger, titled Burning Sun, and a companion short story for Invisible Enemy titled Tidings From the Deep. There are two more unpublished short stories, but they may remain on the shelf for now.

The good news is that I published 3 works this year—Matrix Trigger, Invisible Enemy, and Echoes of Sonya. I also released the aforementioned short stories. It was a reaping year for all the writing I’d done in 2018.

The Bad:

I fell far, far short of my writing goal this year. I had planned to hold my pace at 250,000 words per year, but I was way off the mark. I averaged fewer words per day and didn’t stretch far enough.

The Ugly:

It’s been an even better year for sales, again doubling what I achieved in 2018. With the publishing of Matrix Trigger, I’m able to achieve a reasonable average monthly sales with very little ad spend. I have yet to achieve positive ROI, but that’s turning the corner soon into profitability. I learned I could draft, revise, edit, and publish a novel with much less overhead than before. I’ve come far enough in my writing journey that developmental editing is less of a need.

I focused my writing to finish projects, but I went down the rabbit hole with short stories that, while creatively challenging me, did not move the goalposts for me.

I also had a challenging year at work, doubling my workload. I won’t get into that as my day job is something I keep separate from my writing endeavor. It had an impact but I could have challenged myself to rise to the occasion.

I have a personal goal and I will work to track this better here on my blog. So here’s to planning that 2020 will be a stronger writing year! I look forward to completing my first series and beginning the next phase of my writing journey.