This blog is primarily about accountability: an attempt to keep myself on track to achieve my writing goals, or, at this point, my writing goal.

2022 was not my most successful year ever. In fact, measured against the only three goals I set at the beginning, the word ‘fail’ gets to be repetitive.

I’ll quickly review those goals, give a concise reason why success was elusive, and then briefly go over the surviving directions that I will be going in for the coming year.

Excuses time!

1. Getting Into Print.

This one is straightforward. I’m going to include images below of where the pressures and priorities of everyday life took me and say that although the novel was worked on, simply not enough energy went into that for any success.

2. The Autonomous Drone.

I’d bought myself a book with Christmas money:

It’s a well written book by an experienced and knowledgeable author who had sadly passed away. Unfortunately, the market moves quickly and the step-by-step guide includes parts that are no longer available.

Right now I’m favoring a Rotor Riot kit, but when I look at the prices and my ability to pay… it’s just not going to happen any time soon. The Watching has a book cover to pay for and, should I decide to go that route, an editor, and right now I can afford neither.

The Autonomous Drone project is important as Robert Case is a drone building expert. If I were to make him a biochemist my lack of experience in the field wouldn’t be more obvious to those who actually know what they’re talking about and so I need to be grounded in the subject. I need him (and everyone else) to be authentic.

So this is on a semi-permanent hold.

3. The Livestock.

I could write an entire book about this on its own, but here’s the short version:

Our neighbor used to mow, rake and bail, and generally maintain our pasture, but he had a stroke a while ago, so that responsibility has shifted over to me. I can’t afford a full-size tractor with any attachments whatsoever, so a walking tractor seemed to be the best bet.

I ordered one in August of 2021.

I took delivery of it in July 2022. I’ll spare you the details, but the intervening time usually consisted of being told two-weeks, or part A was in and they were waiting on part B, or part B was in and they were waiting on part A, and the time between ordering and delivery was a direct delay on being able to move forward finishing off the fencing.

Leaving details aside, it wasn’t delivered in operable condition, and it took until early October for the situation to be corrected.

In the meantime, there are a thousand projects around the property, all top priority, so I continued with other things. The final completion of the fencing I hope to get done before March, which will enable me to start cattle and sheep shopping in late March, early April.

Going back to needing to afford things, the livestock alone is likely to set me back $7,000 or so, just for a small number of breeding stock animals.

Anyway, believe it or not, that is the short version. If there’s popular demand, I can start work on Volume One of the story, just as soon as I’ve finished everything else I’m already committed to.

The Watching Update.

I’ve taken away the little widget that gives the current status as I don’t think it’s helpful anymore, but at present I’ve completed the (hopefully!) penultimate revision readthrough and I’m a little over 50% through incorporating my notes. Once this phase is done, I want to do a pre-edit readthrough or an edit-substitution readthrough if I decide against using an editor.

A Beta? Are You For Real?

One of the issues I have is that the only feedback I get is from myself. I have my Alpha, who read the story so long ago that my Mum was alive and my Dad didn’t have an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, so I may ask her for one last readthrough, but despite having three other Beta Readers who’ve been completely silent, my eldest daughter has been reading it and says she’s enjoying it.

I plan to incorporate any feedback from her and from the dear wife – that Alpha reader I mentioned – into the next final comb-through and then go from there.

The Blog.

Perhaps one of the reasons I didn’t achieve much last year was that I wasn’t holding myself accountable on the Blog, so I’ll be posting here more regularly now. I’d like to get back to once a week, or perhaps once a fortnight, but we’ll see how everything goes.

Until then, here is a sample of what I did last year, just as a counterweight to the idea that I didn’t do anything at all.

2023: A Look Ahead.

Once bitten, twice shy, I’m not going to make definite goals. I’m just going to be focused on finally making this property into a functional farm and getting The Watching into print.

With that, I’d like to wish the very best of New Years to everyone who hasn’t invaded the Ukraine.

Categories: New Year

Tags: 2023, New Year