2 Wins and a Fail: 3 Ways My Writing Changed in 2014

Three ways my writing changed in 2014 ... not all of them for the better.  Wha? I'm woman enough to admit when I've tried something that didn't work out the way I'd planned.

1. Writing One Story At A Time: This was the first year I didn't write two books concurrently. In the past, I've done it to give my brain a break and allow the focused distraction to enhance my creativity. This year, one book = one focus. Now that we've reached the end of the year, I can say with all honesty... that was a mistake. I obsessed about the details of the lone book, which crippled my ability to push forward. I was more than tangled in the weeds, I was pulled under and woven into a basket. My productivity tanked to embarrassing and disastrous levels. So in 2015, I'll be cheating on my book with another book.

2. Reclaiming Control: I made the choice to self-publish. That required a different mindset, a different set of goals, a different set of expectations, and a whole lot of different inputs. Then there were the finer moments of adjusting and readjusting product schedules to align with reality. It's been thoroughly satisfying, and I'm looking forward to the Q1 2015 release.

3. Letting Go of the Beloveds: I frame my plots around certain visuals/moments that are crystal clear in my mind--and I do everything I can to keep those scenes in the book, even when the scene no longer fits the story.  Same thing with characters -- fun in the first draft, but superfluous by the final. As part of cutting my way free of the basket-weeds of Point 1, I had to cut those beloved moments and characters.  I like to think 2014 taught me to be more ruthless in exorcising them.

That said, my biggest win of 2014 was the camaraderie found here among my fellow Word Whores.

Merry Winter Holidays!

May your days be filled with joy.

(And your nights filled with red wine, lots of red wine...

...and maybe some feathers, firelight, and pleather. Hey, this is a bordello!)