2023: A Year in Review (Article)

Reflections on 2023 and my plans for 2024.

With The Year of Our Lord 2023 drawing to a close, this is as good of a time as any for a reflection. As some of you might know, this is the year in which I first started seriously writing. Twice I’ve tried writing a blog, but I didn’t have the discipline at the time to keep going. I’ve also written flash fiction and microfiction stories and tried to submit them to some publications, but I gave up after they were rejected. Finally, I’ve been worldbuilding stories I was content to keep to myself.

Photo by Help Stay on Unsplash

That all changed in January 2023 when I put pen into paper Inquisitor’s Promise. This wasn’t the first novel I attempted to write. The first one was about eight years ago; I was able to get to 87k words before I finally quit. What’s different with my second attempt? A lot of things. But honestly, I’m still not sure what the decisive factor really was. Something clicked though, and here I am.

It’s only been a year, but I can’t help but feel like I’ve been doing this for a while. This is how I’ve felt with other jobs I’ve held before. And yes, I consider this to be a job; a fun one, but a job nonetheless. This brings me to the next part of this essay.

My Writing Portfolio

I am honestly amazed at what I’ve been able to put out since I started earlier this year. If someone back in December 2022 was to ask me how I see myself in December 2023, I would not have guessed all the things I have written and published this year.

And so, I decided to list them in this article. Not out of a sense of vanity or to show off but so I can keep track of my progress.

I consider simply linking my Table of Contents here, but then I realize that I would expand on that in the future. So here goes:

• 1 Published Novel - Inquisitor’s Promise

• Germanicus Publishing - Fiction Publication on Substack

  • Holy League Universe

    • 1 Web Novel Serial (74 chapters)

    • 1 Novella (3 parts)

  • Standalone Fiction

    • 1 Short Story

    • 13 Flash Fiction Stories

    • 61 Microfiction (about 100 words)

  • Nonfiction

    • 9 Book Reviews

    • 5 Articles (not counting this one)

    • 5 NaNoWriMo logs

• Indonesian and American - Personal Blog on Substack

  • 18 Blogposts (not counting update posts)

• Bima Sakti - Tertiary Substack, collaborative project with

  Scoot

  • Currently in worldbuilding mode

• 2 Flash Fiction stories published online at Silence and Starsong

• A video game review at Catholic Game Reviews.

• A bunch of stuff at Substack Notes, Goodreads, and Twitter.

• Tried my hand at YouTube, posting podcast videos and a Book Trailer.

• Brought my Instagram back from the dead.

I can’t stress enough that the reason I put together this list is not to brag but to keep track of what I’ve done since I started writing. As I have heard so many times from a lot of folks here in Substack, it is important to keep track of your wins. Why? Because it’s easy to get discouraged when you don’t get the engagement that you want.

However,

Winston Malone

brought up a good point in his article he wrote not too long ago:

You're doing better than you think

I’ll be honest, Digital Validation Syndrome (or DVS for short) is something that I’m struggling with. I’m seriously considering turning off notification for likes in Substack just for that. It’s simply not healthy to get hung up by what Mr. Malone aptly called “vanity metrics”.

This also brings me another point,

S.E. Reid

brought this up a few weeks ago about lurkers.

This is something that I understand as someone who had been a lurker for years in many things. In fact, one of my favorite authors to read online probably have no idea that I exist. But I’ll get into that later.

What I’m Reading

One commonly given advice about how to be a better writer is to keep reading. While I think it has it limits, it is a good approach.

Click here the whole thread on Twitter.

Of course, you also need to be reading two kinds of books: 1) good ones 2) ones that you like.

Below is my reading list at the moment. This might give an idea of what kind things I’m interested not just in reading but also writing. Also note that everything below is fiction. I do have nonfiction books in my sights, but I don’t think they’re relevant to this article.

• Silence and Starsong - Fall 2023 Volume 1, Issue 2

  • This is a short story anthology, brainchild of

    Joseph W. Knowles
    . Some of you might know that I’ve written a review of the previous edition. I’m hoping to dig into this one soon. Shout out to
    David K
    who have been reviewing the stories. I haven’t read them myself since I prefer to get into fiction as blindly as I can, but I’m glad that someone’s carrying on what I’ve started.

• Star Warden series by Donavan Walker

  • I’m almost done with Book 2, which is the latest one as of the writing of this article. Having enjoyed it, I’m hoping to do a review of this series at some point in the future.

• Legionnaire (Galaxy’s Edge) by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole

  • Apparently, this is some sort of a “Star Wars alternative”. As someone who had recently rediscovered the charm of old (read: George Lucas) Star Wars while actively avoiding the new ones, I’m curious about this one.

• Duel by

  Scoot

  • I’m really behind right now. But that’s okay because the chapters seem to be short from what I can tell.

• Forlorn Hope by

  Redd Oscar

  • I’m basically reading this chapter-by-chapter as they come out. I’ve been enjoying the author’s stories and I will say that he is one of my favorite fiction writer in Substack right now.

• The Domes of Calrathia by

  Isaac Young

  • Another work by a favorite fiction-writer of mine on Substack. While I did enjoy his novel The Matrioshka Divide (which I reviewed), I think this is his finest work so far (perhaps a bit premature of a praise since the story’s still ongoing, but whatever).

• Various stories by Albert Oon (at Smashwords)

  • Honestly, these ones are probably why I’ve been neglecting everything else I’ve been reading. According to his Twitter profile, the author had published over 250 books. That sounds a lot until you realize that each of the books are about 10,000 words in length, maybe less. The stories are also free to read, which makes me think that the author would be a good fit at Substack.

As you can see, there are some published books and some stories on Substack. That’s all well and good, though at some point I do want to dig into older works and classics instead of just indie stuff. And maybe something more mainstream since right now Nick Cole’s book is the most mainstream book in that list, and I’m pretty sure a lot of people reading this article have no idea who he is.

An Idea

I have an idea that Substack should take into consideration.

As their updates of videos how, it’s clear that Substack is trying to do more than just newsletters. Personally, I think it would be better if Substack caters to authors instead of video influencers. Instead of focusing on videos, how about being able to download somebody’s posts in PDF or EPUB? Something like this:

From Smashwords

Perhaps I’m just saying this because of I’m a fiction writer myself. So be it.

What to Expect in 2024

Moving on to next year, I think it would be good to tell people what I have in mind. So far, my work have been of erratic. I’m just posting whatever stuff I see fit. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, I do want to get disciplined and have an actual roadmap for what I’ll be doing moving forward. Here’s a list:

• Book Reviews

  • I want to do more Fiction Analysis stuff. Given what I’ve been reading, I’m setting my sights on Star Warden and perhaps the latest edition of Silence and Starsong.

• Substack Story Critiques

  • Another idea I’m considering. Like many others, I have read so many enjoyable stories here in Substack. I want to give my impression, what I like and what I don’t like, but I don’t think I should send them out as e-mails. While Substack Notes is great for those kinds of things, I found the format to be limiting in some ways.

• Bima Sakti

  • Like I said above, right now it’s still in worldbuilding mode. While right now things have slowed down, I do want to ramp things up in that part of the Stack.

• A New Novel

  • Would you believe that I’m almost done with outlining my next novel. I don’t want to give away too much. I’ll just say that the story takes place some time after Inquisitor’s Promise, though I don’t want to call it a sequel. I want to make it something that readers can get into without having to do any homework.

• The Iniquity of the Federation

  • If you’ve read my NaNoWriMo logs, you might remember that I’ve finished a short story that was part of Project Holy League Universe 3.0. Now that I’ve let it percolate for some time, it’s time for me to do some editing and release it as a three-part serial.

• Beyond the Pale

  • Speaking of serials, I’m thinking of writing a serial in which every entry is standalone. So think Star Trek but there are no habitable/Earth-like planets. Right now, it’s just an idea.

• Substack Anthology

  • Some of you might remember that

    Erica Drayton
    is setting up a Substack Anthology collection. I am one of the writers who answered the call. Right now, my story’s all finished. Also, I’ve volunteered to do some bit of editing and beta reading. I’m not the final word on this, but you can expect that one to come out mid-2024.

  • [This part is added about a few hours after initial publication since I forgot about it when writing the article. That’s what I get for rushing to get this thing out on schedule.]

Another thing I’m considering is to reduce my publishing schedule. Right now, I’m publishing weekly in Germanicus Publishing and biweekly in Indonesian and American. While this schedule had served me well in giving me a deadline to be accountable for, I also notice that I’m most unhappy writing when chasing a deadline.

Furthermore, by focusing so much on my Substack, I’m not leaving much time writing for other things whether it be a new novel or writing for other publications.

Write more, publish less. Right now, that idea is living in my head. And for good reason.

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Thanks for reading. If you like my works, consider support me by either getting a copy of my novel Inquisitor’s Promise or buy me a coffee.

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