Six-Month Writing Update: Crime Fiction Goals, Setbacks, and Lessons
Somehow we are in the second half of the year, and for many of us, those New Year goals and aspirations have become near distant memories, consigned to the dustbin of good intentions and bad actions.
On that cheery note, I want to take a moment (out of the summer sun) and reflect on the year so far and how much progress, or not, I’ve made toward my yearly goals.
For many aspiring and early-career authors, progress can sometimes appear to be glacial, and the need for reassurance weighs a lot heavier than the potential for future success. This in turn can negatively affect our decisions and see us prioritise short-term wins at the cost of our long-term goals.
And spoiler alert that has certainly been the case for me, but read on and discover why it is not all doom and gloom if this is your situation, too.
As the months fly by and the sales trickle in (if at all), you will see many other authors chasing the long-tail of success and releasing several books or published stories a year. Even though we all want everyone else to succeed, the little green-eyed monster tries to get its claws into us, and we question ourselves and our productivity.
This itch only goes away if you are busy. Doing what doesn’t really matter. So we end up being busy being busy. I know I did this year, and it is only now, as I look back, that I ask myself was what I was doing actually helping me reach my yearly goal.
Writing goals at the start of the year
I had started the year with three simple goals. These were broad, but I felt cohesive and consistent with my aim of becoming a professional crime fiction author further down the line (five-to-ten years).
To develop my capabilities and reputation as a crime writer.
To use my short story collection ‘Born to Lose: Tales of Gigi’ as a calling card for my (current) abilities.
To work on a new novel (completing both planning and zero draft)
And after six months, how have I done?
Well, I self-published ‘Born to Lose: Tales of Gigi’, and promoted it on two film-based podcasts (Caliber 9 From Outer Space and In Film We Trust), had it included on a review episode of the amazing Crime Time podcast and ran some advertising on a couple of channels. So that was goal two underway and by far my biggest success.
I also had my vigilante crime short story ‘Closure’ featured on the Urban Pigs Press website and submitted two pieces of crime related flash fiction to third-party websites. Whether they get published is irrelevant, as they helped me practice, try new things and scratched that itch. I’ve also been looking at doing a few cheap crime fiction courses to help me develop my learning of the genre. So, goal one is underway.
But those short stories, along with the fact that I wrote and published one creature feature short story (That Damned Thing) and wrote and submitted two more to anthologies (not to mention writing and planning a couple of other horror shorts) has hindered me in reaching my third goal, which arguably is the most important of them all.
Because of this, as I look back on the progress, I think the best I can say about this first half is that it has been a mixed bag. This is because it is the novel that will help me develop my career as a writer and take that next step.
The others, while still beneficial, have proven to be distractions. Low-lying fruit that I did to make it seem like I was doing something rather than doing what needed to be done. Basically, it was one step up from procrastinating.
Some of this dereliction of duty was conscious, others, like the two anthology submissions, were circumstance. Right place, wrong time. But I didn’t have to do them. I chose to say yes to the opportunity.
The power of no.
Danny Wallace wrote the book (later adapted into a wonderful film) titled The Yes Man, and there is a lot to be said for saying yes when opportunities arrive.
In fact, there is a possibility that this year I have three creature feature short stories published in anthologies (Catch of the Day, written and submitted in 2024 will feature in the Trash Tales anthology, out in August 2025), which could have a knock on impact on sales of my royalty-paying creature feature releases (Killerpede and That Damned Thing).
Obviously this would be very nice, and that was how I rationalised spending the time on them, but by saying yes and doing those stories I said no to working on my novel.
Here, while the sentiment is good, I failed to consider whether it aligned with my goals.
Now, I will not go all personal development on you, however as Seneca once wrote:
‘We’re tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers.’
This is true regarding both people and pursuits that we spend our time on.
If i want to be a credible crime writer, how does having several creature feature short stories published help me reach my goal?
Being positive, all writing can help you develop and become a better writer. It may allow different techniques and styles to be employed, but that is probably about the end of it.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve also been thinking about my author brand, looking for an agent and developing my skill set for what I want to write. I don’t think saying I’m a dab hand at animal attack scenes will help sell my action-thriller. Well, unless I write the next Jurassic Park that is.
When I come to conclude about the first six months, I have to admit to myself that unfortunately much of what I’ve done has barely moved the needle in the right direction.
What’s next?
The good news is that it is rarely too late to change things.
I’ve written those stories and enjoyed the experience, but more importantly, I’ve come into this second half with a renewed vision and focus. The research for my novel Dada or Death is going well, and I’m loving the challenge of bringing the story to life.
Sure, the last six months haven’t presented a consistent author brand or pushed me toward my goal as much as they could have, but they have proven to be a valuable experience and one which I can learn from and act on.
Will I claw back the time and make good progress by the end of the year? Or like a magpie, will I be distracted by new ideas and opportunities that promise a little, but in reality cost a lot more?
What are your writing goals for 2025 and are you on track to achieve them? Drop me an email, let me know and let’s motivate each other to stay focused and achieve what we want to achieve.
