When I first took a break from posting about my journey, I had no idea how long it was going to be. I thought I would take off a few weeks from talking about my writing and then I would get back to it. After all, the whole point of these blogs and my TikTok videos is to keep my accountable. Well…one thing turned into another…assignment after assignment piled up (I should NOT have taken 18 credit hours of all STEM classes), and next thing I knew, I hadn’t posted in months. I took on way more than I was capable of and as a result, my book and my podcast were thrown to the wayside.
Good news… I survived so now I’m back and hoping to be more consistent with my updates. I recently changed up my website’s theme and overall look so I’m hoping that will help. I have a lot of cool projects planned for the future (maybe an interactive map of my world?).
Once I finish draft two, I’ll be able to post promotional videos and the like about my characters, the plot, and everything else related to A Cult of Death and Darkness. Who knows? I might even be able to publish the book before I graduate college. That gives me two and a half more years I suppose.
As of writing this, I’ve written about 6K words towards the second draft. My goal is 80K words. I’ve got a long way to go but if I keep to a consistent writing schedule, I should finish in a reasonable time frame. I’m starting a habit now of writing every single day. Even if I choose not to work on my book for some of the days, I’ll still be practicing the craft. I’ve been using the same notebook now for over two years to write in, so I think another good goal for 2024 is to fill it.
Which leads me to my 2024 list of goals. What exactly do I want to accomplish this year? I’ve tried to narrow my list down into three categories: ACODAD, Marketing, and Creativity. ACODAD has everything to do with my book, marketing has to do with growing my social media accounts to promote my book, and creativity involves the things I want to do to improve my skills.
A Court of Death and Darkness
- Finish draft 2
- Update the maps
- Begin cover design process with artist
- Begin draft 3
Marketing
- Post weekly updates on insta and tiktok pages
- Grow to 3K followers on Tiktok
- Create a working email subscription list
- Monthly updates on blog
Creativity
- Think more critically about the books I read
- Write at least one page in notebook daily
- Take a class for Creative Writing Minor
- Talk to other authors
