January 2024 Writing Update
January 2024 Writing Update
This month has been very busy for me, but January always is. There's something about the new year that pushes your mind into a state of productivity and motivation, and I always end up taking it just a bit too far, working towards burnout. This time, I think I've just about managed to avoid that.
There's still a few days left in January, and I'm hoping to use those days to finish up my Scareuary and prepare a few goodies for Ramadan, which I hope to share with family and friends.
Here's what's been keeping me busy this past month:
- Scareuary 2024. Since this is the first year I'm launching Scareuary, I wanted to at least take on one of the challenges. I'm not a great planner - I do things last-minute, generally speaking - so I didn't promote Scareuary as much as I probably should have prior to this year's launch. That's alright; I'm hoping that as time goes by, more and more writers will join in, both those who are seasoned horror writers and those who want to dip their toes into the murky pool of horror.
- The Star Seal. As part of my Scareuary 2024 challenge, with the randomly generated word 'star', I came up with a bunch of short story ideas to develop and write over the month of January. One of these is The Star Seal, a short story about an archaeologist who unleashes a terrible ancient beast that had been sealed away for millenia. One of the cool things about this particular short story is that I drafted it completely here on the blog, creating a sort of Write With Me experience.
- RRZ Mujannah. Another short story for Scareuary 2024, this one talks about humans looking for a place to land their spaceship after taking critical hits when meteors get past their defenses and damage it. They decide, after careful but desperate consideration, to land their ship in the planetary system of what has long been believed to be a star, called the RRZ Mujannah. Unfortunately, as they approach the chosen planet, they realize that the Mujannah is not a star at all, but something very different, and very big. This one was a crack at some cosmic horror. I actually ended up submitting this one to a lit magazine, so while I'm waiting for them to get back to me, I can't share it. If it gets rejected, I plan to polish it up even more and publish it!
- A New Spring. A scary story based in a post-apocalyptic future, originally a 297-word flash fiction written for a lit mag. When I received the rejection for it, I decided to use it to help me out with Scareuary! I revamped it, and managed to turn it into a 637-word short story for Scareuary 2024, which left me with just one more short horror story to go so that I could successfully complete The Coppe's Webbe!
- From a Star in the Ocean. The last of my stories for Scareuary, this one is 718 words about strange creatures washing up on the shores of Angola after a shooting star hits off the coast and causes a tsunami. Fun stuff!
- Murder in Heliopolis. I've been re-reading and revising the manuscript since about halfway through January. So far, I've made a range of significant plot changes, and am trying to work out how differently the story will progress as a result, and if the changes actually help at all. It's turning out to be a lot tougher, and a lot more work, than I originally thought it would be, but I'm hoping that in the end it will be well worth it. So far, I plan to add 18 scenes to the current manuscript, which represents the first part of the story, and I plan to complete the story by writing the second part. I am estimating all of this will add up to another 100,000 words to my story, making it a little over double its current length.
[The current manuscript I am editing stands at 72.8k.] - Encyclopaedia Heliopolitana. Part of my revision for Murder in Heliopolis has also been refining and developing the worldbuilding of this futuristic solarpunk story. I've done a lot of work to that end, and you can read more about the detailed elements that I've been developing in this blog post. I started calling these worldbuilding notes Encyclopaedia Heliopolitana just as a fun inside-joke, but I'm really enjoying the work that I'm putting into these, and I hope to share the completed encyclopaedia as a companion piece for anyone who wants to get a little deeper into my solarpunk worldbuilding.
- Voice Acting / Voice Over Scripts for Solo Performance Audio Dramas. That's a bit of a mouthful! What this means is that I've been writing scripts for a range of different audio dramas which only feature one character. Some of these, I'd like to produce myself for my podcast, but I also want to have a bunch of these scripts up for free, for anyone who would like to perform them as part of their VA or VO portfolios or for other reasons, so long as I am credited as the original author of the script and no modifications have been made to it. More on that soon, hopefully!
- Hyba Is Writing: The Podcast. Speaking of my podcast, this past month saw the release of 3 podcast episodes. I had hoped to release 3 or 4 more podcast episodes, but I got side-tracked working on all of the other wonderful projects that I've got on my plate, and decided to give it a little break in the meantime.
- Scrittorio Magazine. With the release of the newest issue of Scrittorio on the last day of 2023, I have spent as much of January as I can promoting it via social media and scheduling posts to be released throughout the month. I hope that a lot of people have downloaded it and read it; I currently have no way of tracking that, apart from when readers let me know! In any case, I'm very proud of this most recent release and am already considering what else to write about and feature in the upcoming issue.
- Write a story that... This is a workbook that "gamifies" writing prompt generation by asking you to generate a random number from 1-60 for each of the categories and choose which prompts to put together. This would lead to hundreds, if not thousands, of combinations. It's already up for anyone who wants to check it out!
- That Writer State of Mind. This is another workbook, but this one is a reflection journal for writers, with the aim of helping writing re-align themselves with the goals that matter most to them. This one is also already available.
- General Housekeeping. I added pages on this blog for my free writing resources, my short stories, my reading list, and a gallery of my original art (you can safely ignore that for now, though!).
- New cover for Murder in Heliopolis. Using gorgeous public domain art by an unknown artist, I created a new cover for my solarpunk thriller. Cover reveal on February 1! I wonder what it looks like? Hmm...
All things considered, I think I've done a pretty good job with this past month! I'm very happy with everything I've accomplished and all of the hard work that has gone into this month.
Thankfully, I haven't worked myself to the point of burnout. I left myself time to hang out with family, got a little pampered, went to a wedding, and watched a lot of short series on Netflix (really enjoyed many of the Harlan Coben thrillers, which I guess means it's time to pick up some of the books!).
Balance, after all, is key. ✨
What's cooking for February 2024?
Well, the short answer is: a lot's on the stove, friend.
I'm working on a range of graphics to spruce up some of my WIPs. I've wanted to give Murder in Heliopolis a new look for a while now, actually, and it's not the only WIP in need of a little artistic revamp. I've decided to use public domain art, of which there are a range of frankly gorgeous pieces. It almost feels wrong to be able to use them, just like that! But hopefully that will make the process a bit easier and less time-consuming for me, since I'm A) impatient and B) looking at my calendar nervously as Ramadan approaches and I have prepared nothing.
What might I need to prepare? you might be wondering. Well, Ramadan is a pretty big deal for Muslims. It's the most important month of the Islamic calendar. Different cultures may approach it differently, but generally speaking, there's a lot of food prep to be done (so that you don't have to spend hours in the kitchen when you're fasting - time when you could instead be praying, for example), and a lot of personal, mental, and spiritual prep to be done.
For example, you might want to wean yourself off of social media and TV in the month prior to Ramadan so that you can leave behind those distractions. You might want to figure out how you're going to pace yourself if your goal is to read the entire Quran during the month of Ramadan - which is a big goal. And, of course, you might want to also consider planning family gatherings or outings with friends, as well as making a plan for any charitably activity you may be partaking in during the holy month.
So: What might I need to prepare? A lot. And all of that planning has to happen in the coming month, or else I'm going to be unprepared, and waste the precious days of Ramadan, where so much good can be found. (And, between you and me, I also kind of want to prepare a few goodies to give to my friends and family for Ramadan, and the goodies I'm thinking of are going to take a little while to make, so... the sooner I get started, the better!)
That being said, I'm hoping that in February, I can finish beta-reading for this amazing MG fantasy book, record some more episodes of my podcast, write a little more, and keep working on the myriad of other projects and ideas that I have rolling around in my brain. I don't have any definite or specific goals, but I have a general idea of where I want to be by the end of February. It's just that... a lot of that month is going to be dedicated to preparing for Ramadan.
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