2021 Writing Update

2020 was a great year for writing. I should’ve written more but I did get a good amount done that I hadn’t been able to do in previous years. I only wrote about 37k words for 2020, which isn’t a lot I know, but I write for fun, and I find it relaxing and productive. This is up from the normal 20k-a-year that I usually get down on paper. The difference for 2020 was that I had a goal in mind: to write a set of short stories and compile them into a collection.

Short stories are insanely fun. I’m finding my niche, but I think that with my desire for instant gratification, I should hone in on short fiction writing. I have an attention span for certain stories that lasts months or mere weeks, sometimes even days! Finding the drive to complete a full novel based on one story idea has been one of my major downfalls. So the idea of writing short stories intrigued me and allowed me to shift between several settings and characters so that I didn’t get bored, and the stories were fresh and compelling. This does come with its own set of complications and hurdles, but I’m learning as I go.

I think that was one of the major takeaways for me in terms of writing. I discovered that I needed to approach it more as a hobby since that’s how I unconsciously treat it. If I wanted it to be a career, then I would sit down and work on it like one, but I don’t think I can, or want to for that matter. I write to escape and to come up with silly, fun ideas. If I someday get paid to do that, then great! For now, I will enjoy it as much as I can regardless.

I do have my eye on a potential publisher that I hope to reach out to this year. They are local and I find their stories to be exactly in my ballpark/realm of interest and genres. I’ll update more if any developments come along on that front.

Also, I’ve stepped away from Wattpad for now. I want to like that platform but it is simply either too big or the algorithm doesn’t support certain writers or genres. It’s a great place to connect and network when it works, but I personally haven’t found much success there and to be frank, it could simply be that I haven’t written something truly engaging that would find success there. Who knows? But I figured I need to stop worrying about votes and views and worry more about completing content. Likes and views will either come or they won’t.

So that’s where this website comes in. I’m revamping stormfallennovel.com in order to post my content here and not on a 3rd party site. I want to be able to generate traffic via my own means (with the help of WordPress, of course), and WordPress has been a good service during the 5 or so years that I’ve used it. We’ll see!

I’ll end it here by saying that I look forward to posting my written content here, and I hope the readers find it thought-provoking and engaging. The site isn’t fully-optimized for what is to come this year but I hope to get it up to speed soon. Tales of Havek: Volume One will be completed this year, I believe. I’ll update as that progresses. Thanks again! Have a great new year! ~ WM