I thought I'd posted here already this year, but apparently not. It must have been at Livejournal, which is almost as sadly neglected as this blog.

Last year wasn't exactly quiet for writing, but most of what I wrote wasn't fiction. I made the mistake of allowing articles and content work count towards my Write 1 Sub 1, so of course if I did either of those I didn't write any stories. This goes a long way to explain why I only made one fiction sale last year.

This year, now that the dust is finally starting to settle after moving halfway across the country, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. I started Write 1 Sub 1 again, and this year only fiction and poetry count. February was a loss, since I forgot to write anything - but since I made 18 submissions I'm not too upset. I've already made another nine submissions this month, and I'm partway through a longer-than-flash short story. One of my goals for this year is to get more non-flash short stories written. So much of what I've written lately has been flash I'm starting to feel like I've eaten too many sweets.

It occured to me I really should have been posting my Write 1 Sub 1 progress each month - not least so that I have a record of it!

For posterity, here's my update for the first six months:

Jan - wrote 2 flash pieces and 5000 words of articles, submitted all but 1 flash.
Feb - 6 poems written, 3 subbed.
Mar - wrote and subbed some flash fiction, also wrote ahead for some of my month of blogging posts.
Apr - wrote the rest of the blog posts for the month of blogging challenge, plus a writing sample for a company that never bothered to get back to me. Submissions = said writing sample, and a short story.
May - wrote the first chapter of an ebook, and submitted a batch of poems.
June - 9 reprints out the door to foreign markets, 1 new story written and submitted, and new versions of e-books up at Smashwords and Kobo.

I haven't been keeping track of these particular rejections/acceptances, except in the general way I usually keep track.

For next year I might refine it, and specify the writing has to consist of short stories and/or poems. This year I'm just happy to be writing at all.

Only a week of March left and I still haven't Written 1 and Subbed 1. Well, I've written a flash which count as half, and had a rewrite request which I could work on for my sub. That feels a bit like cheating though. It's going to be a busy week!

In the spirit of starting the year as you mean to go on, I saw the New Year in reading a writing magazine. Then the first thing I did on New Year's Day, after breakfast, was sit down and do some of my proofreading course. I've done my Sub 1 for Write 1 Sub 1 already, and I spent an hour and a half this morning in a coffee shop alternately noodling notes for poetry and writing the first draft of a story.

Of course, all this subject to change once the day job starts crushing my soul again, but so far it's a good start.

I've decided that the Write 1 part of W1S1 needs some parameters. For my purposes, only completed first drafts that are typed up on the computer in full count towards it. Drafts in notebooks are no good to anybody because they so often stay that way. No one wants a submission in turquoise ink and my scrawly handwriting.

My writer gifts to myself are proving to be worth the investment. The Mslexia diary is a great space-saver, since it has so many blank pages in it (a page for each week and a bunch of extra pages at the back) I don't need to carry a notebook around with me as well "just in case". And my first foray into the Writer's Toolbox garnered me a rough draft, and the idea for another story.

After (not much) deliberation, I've also bought a jar of overpriced flavoured coffee (hazelnut, if you're interested). It's expensive, but only in that a 50g jar was slightly more expensive than a large latte - which is still cheaper than drinking the same amount of coffee in a cafe somewhere. The intent is to try and replicate some of the coffee shop vibe at home, with a "treat" drink that I'm only allowed when writing, and the radio on for background noise. Whether this works against distractions remains to be seen, since that's the main point of going out in the first place.

The aim this year is to be more productive, so: whatever works!

It's been a little while since I've posted, mostly due to Real Life getting busy all of a sudden. For the last couple of weeks I've been on a writing hiatus, trying to clear everything else so I can have a nice and relaxing, writing-filled holiday.

One of the things I've been doing is gearing up to go Duotrope free next year. While I won't go into details - enough writers have already done so - I don't feel that what they're offering is value for money. So I exported all my data into Sonar, backed up my spreadsheet, and made a note of some free tracker websites to look into. I'll miss having a searchable database of markets, but to be honest I should be aiming for the pro markets first and I have a list of those anyway.

I intend to be more productive next year. To this end I've bought myself the Mslexia diary, which is full of writery goodies and will hopefully keep me motivated. This afternoon I went through and wrote "Write 1:" and "Sub 1:" on the first page of every month, since I plan on doing the monthly Write 1 Sub 1 challenge. Part of this will involve going over to Liberty Hall to do the Flash Challenge more often - no doubt there will be months that I need to in order to reach my goal!

Other goals include to finish my proofreading course, and to spend some time every week looking into and for different types of freelance work. I want to dye my hair purple, and I can't do that with an office job!