The 10th chapter of Loyalty Fallen Book 2: The Desert Crossing is now available for you to read. In this chapter, Ren spars with a young warrior to prove that he is worthy of Zafiyah’s sponsorship.

Now let’s move on to what I accomplished this past year. You’ll also get some recommendations for sites you can join to find like-minded writing buddies.

Year in review – 2024

This year included a lot of firsts for me as a writer.

1. First self-published novel

In reality, it’s a serialized novel published online, but who’s counting? The first chapters went live on June 4th, along with some promotional art I’m very proud of. Prior to that, I had spent some time writing blog posts that introduced the world and art for the novel in hopes of gaining an interested audience. I’ve been posting weekly with few breaks since then, so I have around 7 months of work put into this blog.

You may be wondering, has it produced any results?

Here’s my progress so far:

• Six subscribers, one of whom is a family member
• Two to three views per week
• Zero engagement in comments

All in all, the blog hasn’t produced much value given all the time spent on it. Which is exactly why I’m going to continue doing the same strategy this year. It’s got to work the second time around, right?

2. First time participating in NaNoWriMo

I was actually very pleased with my progress here. If you don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, which is a challenge to write 50,000 words in the space of 30 days.

In my case, I was able to write over 80,000 words in that time and complete a first draft of my latest novel, Ashbranded. I’m currently in the process of editing the novel now in hopes of submitting to a traditional publisher.

3. First time posting on critique sites

Critique sites, including Critique Circle and Scribophile.com, can be valuable places to share your writing and get feedback. These sites operate on a give-to-get principle, so you have to critique the work of others before you can expect to post your own work.

Initially I was pretty frustrated with the fact I was getting a lot of conflicting advice, but I soon realized that:

• There were some critiques that pointed out clear issues in my normal writing style that I had never noticed
• Many people really liked the general idea for the story I was posting even if they hated the writing style
• Many people told me I was doing a good job and gave solid encouragement alongside the critiques

If you do decide to post your work on a critique site, I highly recommend that you keep a couple things in mind.

First, ignore rude feedback altogether. It’s not coming from writers who have had to struggle to do well, and often it’s coming from someone who doesn’t appreciate your genre at all.

Second, take all feedback with a grain of salt. Even the most well-meant feedback can come with flaws that don’t fit your writing style.

Third, thank everyone who takes the time to critique politely, even if it’s not quite what you’re looking for. Sometimes you can generate an audience through these sites and find people who are excited for the day your book comes out.

4. First time meeting with other writers (virtually)

I had never been on a writing forum before this year. Now I’m active on MythicScribes and the Scribophile forums. I also meet with other writers virtually through ShutUpandWrite.com, which is a site that facilitates spending focused time on your writing. I also found a critique partner through MythicScribes who I’m now chatting with on a regular basis.

If you’re in a similar situation to me and you have family members who aren’t all that interested in your writing and friends that are tired of hearing about it or don’t know how to give the kind of feedback you need, I highly recommend you take a look at these sites. It’s so encourage to finally meet people who love writing as much as you do.

5. Entered writing contests for the first time

Technically, I did one other short story contest when I was maybe 11 years old, but this is the first time I’ve had the courage to do this as an adult. I doubt I’ll win, but I really enjoyed writing The Memory Mortician.

Getting ready for 2025

I’m really looking forward to what this year brings, and I have several goals in mind. You can read all about those in my next blog post. In the meantime, enjoy Loyalty Fallen!