Miraculously, my plans haven’t changed much since my last update. I’m still planning to focus my fiction writing efforts on my debut novel. But a few things have happened since then, so I’ll give you a quick update all the same.
- I’ve settled on a debut novel idea: Given how fickle I am, I probably shouldn’t share this, but what the heck. I’ve decided to expand my Losing Control short story into a full-length novel. Given that this was my very first published erotica piece, it’s very fitting that my official first novel will be an expanded version of it (with many changed details). It’s a standalone and I’ve already spent years working on the details and writing drafts, so it’ll hopefully be easier to finish than a lot of my other stories. The novel version of Losing Control is such a perfect embodiment of the exact kinds of stories I want to write: dark, gothic, lusciously erotic, full of morally dark gray characters, and centering a fucked up relationship that’s at once darkly romantic and straight-up toxic. It should make for a fabulous debut.
- I landed a nice freelance writing gig: Once I get in the flow of things, I’ll hopefully spend no more than 25-30 hours a week working. This gig will ideally last me for several months, at least, and if I do well, I’m hoping this client will have more work afterward. I was a little overwhelmed my first week “on the job,” and I haven’t gotten a moment to think about my fiction, but I think I’m getting the hang of writing to fairly tight deadlines again. I rather like the cohesion of being a full time writer. If need be, I’ll pare my work back to one article a week so I have more room to work on my novel, but I could really use the extra money.
- The erotic horror promo I joined was a staggering success: My goal was to build my paltry mailing list to 25 subscribers. So far, I have over 570 subscribers. That is so far beyond my wildest expectations and there are still 5 days to go! But that means I need to get my act together and start building up my author platform. That mostly means posting most regularly on social media, sending out a monthly mailing list, and figuring out where I want my author “fan group” to live. Facebook? Ream? Both?
- I’ve decided to let my Ream account go stagnant for now: So my original plan was to write short erotica on Ream, but now that I have consistent money coming in and can focus on my novel, I don’t have time to write erotica. I’m not about to release chapters of my novel on Ream, so I don’t really have a reason to post at all… I now have 15 followers, though, which is really cool, and I don’t want to let those people down, so maybe, if time and energy allow, I’ll still write the occasional micro erotica snippet to share there.
That’s about it for now. Making money again feels nice. I’m slowly starting to regain some of the ambition and excitement to progress as a person I once overflowed with. I’m actively cultivating that feeling again. I miss it. I’m having fun thinking of myself as A Writer. Life is good.