meeting 2022’s writing goals & writing goals for 2023

Let’s take a look at how I did with 2022’s writing goals, and what I am hoping to do in 2023.

I have to admit 2022 was my weakest writing year since 2015.  Of course, it wasn’t some great mystery as to why this happened, and nor was it from any one thing. It was the cumulative effect of a lot of different things. Specifically (and not limited to), traveling a long way for a funeral, a whole lot of home repair (including teaching myself how to do numerous things I had never done before but really, really needed to do this year), a hailstorm, a new roof, and considerably more travel than 2020 and 2021 combined. I know some people find travel energizing and even relaxing, but I sure don’t – I’ll travel for family and professional reasons, but usually come home out of gas and it takes a couple of days before I feel like myself again.

The most humorous of my many home repair adventures was the squirrel. I’ve had squirrels get into the walls before, and once they’re in, getting them out is an ordeal. Around September, the squirrels start looking for places to nest for the winter, and one squirrel in particular zeroed in on the front porch. Somehow the thing could sense every weak point on the porch and started gnawing a tunnel into them, and because of the age of my house if a squirrel gets through the porch, it’s going to find a way into the wall. So three days in a row I had to replace some porch boards and paint them, and eventually the squirrel gave up and went in search of easier nesting grounds.

So my nemesis had become a woodland creature. Like I was a Disney villain or something. 🙂 But I had to trade writing time for home repair, because I really didn’t want squirrels getting in the wall again.

That said, if 2022 was my weakest year since 2015, I still sold 2.5x as many books as in 2015. Perspective is important. 🙂

So I had eight writing goals for 2022, and let’s see how I did with them.

1.) Write one million words of fiction.

That didn’t happen. I wanted to write a million new words, but for the reasons enumerated above, I only made it to 814,000. Which is still a lot of words, granted. It’s only 81% of what I wanted to do, but 81% is still a passing grade. 🙂

2.) Continue the DRAGONSKULL series.

I did that – DRAGONSKULL: BLADE OF THE ELVES, DRAGONSKULL: CURSE OF THE ORCS, and DRAGONSKULL: FURY OF THE BARBARIANS came out in 2022. I would have liked to have gotten one more DRAGONSKULL in 2022, but it didn’t work out. But DRAGONSKULL: TALONS OF THE SORCERER will be my first book of 2023.

3.) Continue the CLOAK MAGE series.

We actually ended up with a lot of new Nadia books this year – CLOAK OF IRON, CLOAK OF SHARDS, CLOAK OF SPEARS, and CLOAK OF MASKS. So that went pretty well. I am hoping to start on CLOAK OF DRAGONFIRE in February.

4.) Write a third CORMAC ROGAN mystery.

I didn’t do this one, I’m afraid. I got about 40% into it and stopped.

The problem is that like everyone else in 2022 I’m concerned about money. If I published a third Cormac Rogan book, I know about how much money it would make. I also know that a new SILENT ORDER book would make 5x as much, a new Nadia book would make 8x to 10x as much, and a new DRAGONSKULL book would make 10x to 12x as much, and all for about the same amount of work.

So I thought it was best to set the third Cormac Rogan book aside and do SILENT ORDER instead. Maybe I’ll have a chance to work on it again at some point.

5.) Write the eleventh SILENT ORDER book, SILENT ORDER: RUST HAND.

I ended up doing two SILENT ORDER books – SILENT ORDER: RUST HAND and SILENT ORDER: WRECK HAND. The advantage of SILENT ORDER books is that they’re shorter and so easier to squeeze in when Real Life gets busy. I am hoping to start on SILENT ORDER: THUNDER HAND in February, and as with the previous two books, I’ll squeeze it in when it looks like I’m going to have a busy Real Life month. There will be a grand total of 15 SILENT ORDER books, and THUNDER HAND will be #13.

6.) Finish FROSTBORN in audio.

People have been asking for this for years, and 2022 is the year we finally did it! FROSTBORN: THE DRAGON KNIGHT and FROSTBORN: THE SHADOW PRISON came out this year, completing the FROSTBORN series in audio, all excellently narrated by Brad Wills. As an added bonus, we also got MALISON: THE COMPLETE SERIES in audio, which sold really well when the ebook version had a Bookbub in November.

7.) Finish GHOST EXILE in audio.

We also did this as well! We had GHOST IN THE INFERNO, GHOST IN THE SEAL, GHOST IN THE THRONE, GHOST IN THE PACT, and GHOST IN THE WINDS all come out this year, all excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy. I need to sit down and figure out how long the combined GHOSTS/GHOST EXILE series is, but I think it comes to like around 220 finished hours.

Looking back, I did a LOT of audio in 2022, and by autumn, combined with everything else that was going on, it was becoming overwhelming. So I think I’m going to take a break from producing new audiobooks until spring or summer 2023.

8.) Lose one pound.

LOL, no.

I actually lost like 500 pounds – it was just the same pound over and over and over again.

So those were my 2022 writing goals.

I don’t think I’m going to set any really big goals. The last two years have shown the folly of long-term planning, so my goals will be more along the lines of “Stay The Course.” Though I do want to try something new. More on that below!

Let’s see what I would like to do in 2023!

2023 WRITING GOALS

1.) Write as many words as possible, but try to hit one million new words. The last time I hit a million words in a year was 2020, when I did 1.27 million words. Of course, that was the year of the Great Rona Freakout, so there was nothing else to do but write (and take Photoshop classes, as it happens). I also wrote the entirety of the WRAITHSHARD series and about half of DRAGONTIARNA that year, which seems crazy in hindsight. Like when you look back at stuff you did in high school and college and wonder how you lived through that, though WRAITHSHARD was only two years ago.

But I would like, if possible, to hit over a million words in 2023. We’ll see if it happens or not.

2.) Continue DRAGONSKULL.

The DRAGONSKULL series will be nine or ten books long, so I might finish it in 2023. At the very least, I definitely will continue it – DRAGONSKULL: TALONS OF THE SORCERER should come out in January if all goes well.

3.) Continue CLOAK MAGE.

If I could get a couple more CLOAK MAGE books out, that would be great. I’m going to start on CLOAK OF DRAGONFIRE in February. I do have very specific ideas for the next few books, so I’m looking forward to getting to them. Nadia is going to be very busy!

4.) Continue SILENT ORDER.

I would like to at least get SILENT ORDER: THUNDER HAND out in 2023.

5.) Write in a new genre of fantasy.

I am definitely going to do this, and I’m actually 12,000 words into it.

I realized that I hadn’t created any new settings since 2017 when I started SILENT ORDER. You could say that MALISON was a new setting, but it was really part of the FROSTBORN universe.

I decided to try writing a LitRPG book. Let’s be honest, I’ve played a LOT of games, so I have the background for it. 🙂 Also, LitRPG/Gamelit and Progression Fantasy seem to be more popular with the younger generation than traditional epic fantasy and sword & sorcery, so I thought it would be a good idea to try one. One of the keys to success as an indie author is to find the overlap on the Venn diagram between “Things that will sell” and “Things that I enjoy reading & writing”, and LitRPG might fall into that overlap for me.

We’ll see – I have a specific sales figure in mind, and if the LitRPG book hits it, I will write sequels.

More details to come after DRAGONSKULL: TALONS OF THE SORCERER is done.

Finally, thanks for reading, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the books over 2022, and I am looking forward to writing more in 2023.

Unless the squirrels really get out of hand, of course. 🙂

-JM