The legacy characters I’m dealing with are mercenaries who have been serving together for about 27 years (up to 2016, when my story is set). Karen’s villa is basically a Special Forces retirement home. For now my plan is to convey that Karen ceased recruiting new mercenaries around 1999 / 2000, because she would not be able to trust them like her original group (or deal with the trauma of their loss), the mercenaries now act like advisors / instructors rarely fighting by themselves (officially), and they’re the contemporary counterpart of Terry Pratchett’s Silver Horde.
With a few exceptions, the aging mercenaries continue to fight because they’d be hopeless in any other profession, there’s no shortage of battles in their neighbourhood, and they haven’t met an opponent that can defeat them.
Warriors aren’t trained to retire. ~ The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
well, I’m hoping to finish writing the second book of my duology and finish the fist two books of a trilogy LOL. So basically, I just want to finish writing 3 books in total this year. I hope I get more exposure and more people read my stuff.
Oh and I want to improve. Everyday I want to learn something new, no matter how small it is, or if it’s just a new word.
I’m around 63,000 words so far, and somewhere within the second act. I still have a lot more to write, but I’m hoping I finish the book sometime around the end of spring or summer. My word count goal is about 110,000 words which means I have under 50,000 words left to go… but it took me two years to get this far.
Write a novella for Wattpad.
I haven’t been active on Wattpad for about two years (I go there every once in a while but to check notifications). I really want to write something for my now non-existent readers.
Self-publish a novella.
Writing a novel takes a long time, for me, so I wouldn’t mind writing a couple novellas and possibly self-publishing (for profit) a small series online. I just want to get my stories out there and see if I can make some sort of profit (a penny, even) off them. My main struggle isn’t writing the dang thing, but coming up with the money to self-publish it. I’d like to be hybrid published, but I don’t see myself self-publishing the current novel I’m working on. I want to see if I can get that traditionally published… if it’s possible.
My writing goals (and associated sub-goals) for 2022 are:
Have at least one of my poetry collections featured by the Wattpad Poetry profile. I know it’s a big dream since I’ve only started writing poetry more seriously about half a year ago, but I’d really like to give it a shot.
Have at least two stories with 2K reads. I already have a story at 2.6K reads. Another story is at 1.9K reads right now. I have other books that also have more than 1K reads. Hopefully one of them will be able to reach that 2K milestone.
Crack 200 votes. This one’s gonna be hard. My record is 167 votes, and I’m not sure if I’ll ever surpass that. I can always dream, though.
Finish “Blood Will Tell” by the end of 2022. I only have 80,000 words to go. It’s doable, but looking at my schedule for next semester, I don’t think I’ll be updating for a while for the next five months or so
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A sub-goal of this is to submit it to Wattys. That’s only if I’m able to finish it in time. I might be able to, but if not, then that’s fine.
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Another sub-goal is to submit it for Editors’ Choice. Is it that good? Probably not. But I’d like to try Out of all the books I have on Wattpad right now, I think this book has the biggest shot, even though it’s probably not going to make the cut.
Frankly, I won’t be surprised if I only achieve one of these goals, or none at all, but at least I have things to work toward.
Can’t say I haven’t done it, I stayed up all night once to finish a Harry Potter book once. I did read the Stand in a week… Not sure I could keep up that pace in the long run though, my brain is flighty at times.
KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) can cost as little as $0 to publish. (If you can create your own cover, and don’t take an editing service) And they do have a new program they just started where you can publish a serial story a chapter at a time.
As for novels, I know the struggle there. I’ve written a novel in as little as eight months, but it’s also taken me up to 13 years, so it depends upon how solid the story idea is.
I’m taking the year off from publishing and have 2 main goals (with mini-goals within them lol) that I’m hoping will set me up for good things next year:
Finish 3 books and get at least 1 through developmental edits (I have like 14 projects right now so I’d be happy with any combination but I’m hoping for Rise, Shelter, and either Tell, Serpent in the Shadows, or the untitled book 1 of a new series)
Keep a consistent social media and marketing schedule and build my following
I’d like to be hybrid published, but I don’t see myself self-publishing the current novel I’m working on. I want to see if I can get that traditionally published… if it’s possible.
Out of all the books I have on Wattpad right now, I think this book has the biggest shot, even though it’s probably not going to make the cut.
