Where My Writing Is Headed in 2024 — A Time for Courage

“2024” …it has a certain ominous ring to it, doesn’t it?

Well, before you get too down, just a wee reminder: Humanity has been here a loooong time, and we’ve always found a way to survive. No doubt we’ll be here in 2025. Still fighting, still digging in, but still here.

Anyway….

What does this have to do with my fiction writing? Everything and nothing. It’s going pretty well, but there are a few things I want to tweak and mix up this year. But staying on the theme of last year’s “Be Bolder,” here are a few things I’m trying to do differently with my writing in 2024.

Courage

I think the one virtue we will all need in 2024 is courage. In English, that comes from the French word for “heart.” I think that’s fitting.

There is, as your probably are aware, a lot of turbulence in the world right now. To navigate it, as we must, it’s going to take courage. Courage to get out and vote, to have our voices heard, and to stand up for what we think is right. (Apparently, approximately 4 billion people will be voting across the globe this year!). I hope you all respectfully participate in this process with your fellow humans this year . I know it can be tempting to go the other way and fall into the traps of disrespect and even loathing for those we disagree with, but I also think it’s important to fight back against our own worst impulses…A maybe think a little bit about the other person’s point of view (within limits, of course) and where they’re coming from…

So what about courage in writing? It’s the same thing: Taking those (reasonable, calculated) risks I might not have taken a year ago. Doing, saying, and writing what I really feel–which always takes courage.

Focus

Having courage is a more strategic and vague goal…I admit it! So, what about some things that are a bit more concrete?

That’s where focus comes in. I want to focus less on certain things: social media (Twitter, IG, etc.,), writing commitments that aren’t paying off, and even blogging. It also means refocusing on things that are going well: the critique groups I’m in for prose writing and poetry, the writing clubs I’m part of where I can share and learn.

But most of all I want to focus on what I like to write: Longer form pieces and poetry. By that, I mean books/novels for my prose writing and my new interest (love?) of poetry. It’s always been novelists and poets that I’ve admired most, so that’s what I want to spend my time writing.

That means, of course, my short stories/Podcast output may lessen. So be it.

Send Out 100 Pieces

Here’s another very simple, actionable goal: Send out 100 pieces this year to magazines/agents. I missed this by 16 submissions last year…and I don’t want to the 100 mark this year.

That’s a Wrap

That’s it. That’s what I’m trying to do in 2024 with my writing. I also plan to attend at least one writing Con…But more on that next time!

Until then…Keep reading, keep writing!

Darius