2024

You want to know what my goals and aspirations are for this year? Well, I’ll tell you.

I gesticulate too strongly with the cigarette, and get ash on myself.

I want to share more of my work, and not be held back by the insecurities and imposter syndrome that plague my mind. Want to, through the process of writing and sharing, start to quiet that voice that tells me I suck. You suck. Shut up.

Hell, I wasn’t sure about writing this piece in this particular way.

I’m not one for outlining, so of course I had to take this, probably misguided, approach. (Note to self: Maybe I should try outlining more this year… Nah.)

I’d like to step more outside of my usual horror comfort zone. I feel like I made some strides last year in dabbling in some more sci fi and drama flavored pieces, but I want to continue to stretch myself in that regard. Poetry too. It’s a different beast, and I want to run with it some more, even if my attempts turn out poorly.

But I’m definitely going to keep at the horror. Nothing wrong with playing to your strengths. Would love to keep finding new spins on classic ideas. New ways to tap into the terror and dread that lurks in the backs of our minds and the corners of our eyes. I think writing is like cooking in that regard. You can still make a mess of things even following a recipe, and not every experiment is gonna work. But you can create some amazing dishes, and find fresh twists, by mixing and matching styles and flavors. Just can’t really know unless you try it out. And if I have to toss a few things into the bin, so be it.

Utilizing the challenges here will continue to push me (as I feel they already have) into different areas, spark new ideas, and expand the kinds of things I write. Basically will keep me from skipping leg day, as it were.

Challenges here introduced me to microfiction, which I absolutely adore now. I hope this year to start to master microfiction (as well as one can master anything) and really explore that mode of storytelling.

(I take a sip of coffee and start second guessing writing this thing. But not this whole writing thing.)

Would love to collaborate with more writers. Started working with another local writer on a project, and it’s been an iron sharpens iron experience so far. I have some ideas that have been marinating for a while now, and would love to get some other writers who dig those particular visions, and make something great.

And, quite simply, I want to write more and more often. I want to finish the novel I’m working on, as well as the various series I have in the works. I’m “always writing” but I want, need, to do more. It’s honestly tough writing during the week, just from being physically and mentally tired from work, so I do as much as I can on the weekends, but that just doesn’t feel like enough.

Writing is what I want to do, and I’m going to keep growing here.

Am so grateful for the support and feedback I’ve received in my time here, and hopefully everyone knows how appreciative I am of that.

Well, enough of that.

Time to start thinking about and working on what’s next.