That's a Wrap! 2023 in Writing

That's a Wrap! 

2023 in Writing

Image from Pixabay.

 

This past year has been challenging in many ways. I have navigated personal, professional, academic, and social issues without rest. In fact, the first half of the year feels a bit like a haze - I completed nothing writing-wise, focusing my energy instead on my work and the issues therein. And, I lost a large chunk of time in the second half of the year due to personal issues and health problems. Despite it all, however, I managed to accomplish a great deal more than I could have expected - and, in some areas, less than I'd hoped. Here's my year in writing.

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January

• Released my New Year's Resolutions. Um... I kind of got, like, one thing done? I know - I know. It's grim, but I give myself a very well-earned pass given everything I've gone through this year.
• Plotting for a murder mystery side-project. Just a little something I've had in the works for a while, with its own dedicated notebook. It's not a book, and it requires a different kind of plotting which has been a bit tricky for me to do.
  
• ⭐Began developing my horror writing workshop.⭐ I had hoped to release it this upcoming March, but alas, I may not make that deadline. Good things take time to develop, and I don't think it's fair of me to cut corners to meet such a close deadline. And it doesn't necessarily have to take place in March, but I really want it to (for reasons that will become clear when it's released, I promise).
  
  I usually reserve my stars for big accomplishments that I'm proud of, but this is something that I'm just happy I've mustered up the courage to work on! I've been wanting to develop and release a workshop or course for quite some time, and inshaAllah, it will be happening soon!
  

 

February

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March

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April

• New ill-fated writing project. Started working on a project tentatively titled Tasteless, but scrapped it later on. It was horrible. I don't know what I was thinking!
• Wrote and recorded "The Old Medina." It's a short horror story about a tourist getting lost in one of the old medinas in Morocco and slipping into another dimension... Very fun piece.
• Wrote "The Witch in the Garden." Another horror story about a little girl who keeps meeting a strange old woman in her garden.
• Began a course on game design. I've been interested in it for a very long time, and I tried out an online course. Loved it, but certain factors made it difficult for me to continue, and ultimately I had to drop the course. 

 

May

• Completed the Marie/Elise re-plot and character comparison sheets. This was such a long time coming. I'd been procrastinating for ages, and finally sat myself down and did it!
  
• ⭐Printed copies of Murder in Heliopolis and Marie/Elise!⭐ This was such a fun moment for me. I got to hold these babies in my hands! Two thick, spiral-bound volumes, ready for some revision, proofreading, and editing.
• Completed "Infested". A short horror story about a man whose house was infested with cockroaches. 
• ⭐Published Season 3 Episode 2: The Novel Editing Process.⭐ Just some stuff I learned while editing my own novels. 

 

June

• Began working on a choice-based video game. I focused on plot, script, and design. It was really fun, but I've lost the giant poster paper I worked on in the move! I won't be working on this project until I find that piece of paper...
• ⭐Published Season 3 Episode 3: Cerberus, the Many-Headed Enigma.⭐ One piece of a larger audio production centered around a strange monster on the loose. More pieces to come, if I can get some friends to help me with the voice acting. 😅 (Let me know if you're interested, by the way!)

July

• ⭐Published Season 3 Episode 4: The Old Medina.⭐ That horror story I wrote a couple months earlier? I recorded it and published it on my podcast! And I enjoy recording my stories (even with my bad voice acting, haha!), so I decided I would keep doing that. 

 

August

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September

• Wrote and submitted a short story called "Knowing" to a lit mag. (And it got accepted as an Honorable Mention in BarBar! Getting published was a pretty big deal because these months were really the worst of my year. I had health issues which prevented me from writing or using the computer or doing much of anything, and I had to stop working and studying, which really hit me hard. Also, we had a pretty scary earthquake, and I stopped sleeping for a little while. Somehow, I managed to write this tiny piece in the middle of it all. Alhamdoulillah.) 

 

October

• Planned Scrittorio 2023 and began working on the new issue. Yeah... It took me a while, I'll admit, to come around to my next issue of Scrittorio Magazine. My New Year's Resolutions for 2023 were that I would publish a new issue by end of January. Owing mostly to the fact that this was pretty stupid, I obviously didn't get that done. Better late than never, though, right?
   

November

• Began preparations for Scareuary 2024. Another event I've been planning since the release of my first issue of Scrittorio.  
• Continued working on Scrittorio's new issue. Didn't get as much done as I'd hoped, mostly because I spent too much time working on an article that grew wildly out of control. I ended up cutting out most of it...

 

December

• Continued working on Scrittorio's new issue. Yeah - cutting it close, I know! But I managed to get so much done this month, and I guess I really do work well with the deadline. I even managed to interview a few peeps in the first half of the month. I have to admit, I think I've outdone myself for this new issue. I hope that's the case with every issue in future.
• ⭐"Knowing" was published in BarBar as an Honorable Mention.⭐  
• Began working on NCP. It's an interactive fiction that's allowing me to explore just what I can do with Twine. So far, I've made an inventory system, have created significant decisions that will affect the player's choices later on, and have even inserted placeholder images and gifs (because I hate not having an idea of what the final piece might look like!). The plot is a work in progress; might go nowhere. But I'll enjoy this exploration in the meantime.
• Updated the Scrittorio website, created a mailing list, and advertised it more. One of the issues I have with Scrittorio - and anything that I publish, really - is that I'm away from the online world for sometimes weeks on end, and even when I am there, I don't like to advertise my stuff. I feel like it gets repetitive and tiresome for my followers - when, in reality, most of them probably don't even get to see it because it gets moved down the feed. I'm trying to be better about that.
• ⭐Released Scrittorio Magazine #2 - Winter 2023 on December 31st, 2023!⭐