Now that 2024 is over, I’m glad to see my creative calendar lighten up significantly. Last year, I had something to work on for every single month. While many of the tasks were easy and only took a couple days to complete, others expanded and took more time than I expected. Having sat down and worked through what I want to accomplish this year, I’m glad to see it’s slower than usual. Of course, there’s a lot of moving parts in multiple projects, so here are the broad strokes of what I want to accomplish in 2025.

The $1,300 Alphabet

With last year’s release of Bountiful Bunnies, I’m on a bit of a children’s picture book kick as I continue to work with artist Nancy Anderson to illustrate this year’s release, The $1,300 Alphabet. I am convinced that if kids can memorize the Latin names of dinosaurs, then they can also learn “$50 words” like “Akimbo” or “Defenestrate.” This book has been a wonderfully collaborative project with the artist as we work out the best way to represent these 26 different words in a collection of 13 different two-page spreads (first spread example shown here). We completed most of our initial planning in 2024, so all we have to do this year is create the final illustrations and get everything put together for a late September release.

“The Physics of Equus Monoceros”

While I technically wrote this short story and had it accepted last year, it is releasing in 2025. Part of the Midnight Menagerie short story anthology, “The Physics of Equus Monoceros” follows the adventures of a woman following in her mother’s footsteps—continuing her research into single-horned creatures that could lead to the discovery of unicorns. Some obscenely rich people eagerly seek to exploit this research for their own benefit, hoping to extend their lives. After all, rhinos almost went extinct in the same way for equally selfish reasons. However, the hypothesis here borders on astrophysics more than biology, thus leaving this researcher dealing with her research all by herself, having been abandoned by the scientific community. What happens if she fails? What would the world be like if she succeeds?

Courier to the Stars

This Jules Verne re-write that I drafted in 2023 is now ready for its editing phase. Sharing the same public domain shenanigans as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Courier to the Stars is a science fiction space opera based on the Jules Verne Russian spy novel, Michael Strogoff: Courier to the Tsar. Most of the text remains unchanged, but it’s not so simple as to just do a “find and replace” to make this kind of adaptation work correctly. I’m looking forward to polishing this up in May so I can get it released in 2026.

The Next Big Thing

Last year, I planned on doing extensive world-building for my next series of books. This ultimately didn’t pan out because I had a much stronger idea I wanted to work on (which became the first draft for Rift). This year, I know whatever I choose to write, it won’t just be a one-off novel like before. I’d like to get into the Exiles trilogy, but my mind is burning hot on a middle-grade LitRPG based on the Wizard of Oz series of books by L. Frank Baum. I’m already a few books into reading the source material, so I see myself being ready to do world-building by July and writing the first draft of the first book in this series by November. This is something I don’t think will be a 15 book series like the original books, but it’s definitely something bigger than I’ve ever done before. Ultimately, I have a few months to decide on the schedule of what I want to work on next. Whatever it is, it’ll be what I write for the next three years.

Online Shopping

With transferring my website hosting to a new service last year, I’ve considered adding a new sub-domain that contains a shop for everything that I make that you can buy. This will include signed copies of all my books (which you can already buy at my Square online storefront), but will also have options for buying my photographs (from my photo.benjamin-m-weilert.com sub-domain) as well. I’m also considering having a section where people can buy some of the Pokémon cards from my collection. This might be in tandem with setting up eBay and Etsy seller profiles, but I’d like to have control over it here on my personal website at a minimum. I’ve seen that this could be quite easy with Shopify or WooCommerce, so we’ll see how it pans out when I dive in this summer.

Family Project

Since I don’t have as many big creative projects this year compared to 2024, I’m also working on updating a cookbook from my father’s side of the family. The current one has lots of great anecdotes and recipes, but now I think the next generation (i.e., myself and my cousins—and our spouses) have something to add to it. Having put together a fairly well-received ice cream cookbook in 2023, I want to use what I’ve learned to upgrade this piece of family legacy. You won’t likely be able to purchase this cookbook, but I might offer this service in the future for those who might want to have one for their own family recipes.

Reviews

After reaching 1,000 reviews on BMW the Critic at the end of 2024, I’d like to create a bit of a buffer by catching up this year. I have a few months of reviews that I can write right now, but my busy schedule last year prevented making progress on this. If I can get to where I can review something shortly after finishing it, that would be a nice goal to reach by the end of 2025. Right now, that’s only 77 reviews I have to write and schedule. Doable, I think.

I’m still on a hiatus for writing blog posts for this website, but if something big happens that I need to discuss, I’ll make a post for it. Right now, check back in come December to see how I did on all these creative goals.

I love the quote, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” This year, I had an ambitious goal to accomplish something every month. I was wrapping up a few years of 10th Anniversary projects and wanted to get a head start on the next few years of projects. Some of these tasks were easier than others and some took a lot more work than I had expected. Ultimately, I’m proud of what I accomplished this year, so here’s how my initial January plan stacked up…

JANUARY/FEBRUARY: Releasing the complete, definitive edition of The Fluxion Trilogy wasn’t too difficult for the hardcover, paperback, and eBook versions. However, all the experience I gained from producing the first three audiobooks came to a head when I realized I needed to re-record a lot of what I had previously done the last few years. This set me back a bit as I had originally only expected that I needed to record the Appendix for this project. My workload doubled, but I’m much happier with the result. You can now get the full Fluxion Trilogy experience on Audible and iTunes.

MARCH: It surprised me how easy it was to create A+ Content on Amazon. I put together a little something for almost every book I’ve published. Of course, the biggest thing I could use to help market one of my books was how many awards my homemade ice cream cookbook garnered this year. Stop Screaming! ultimately won or placed in six literary contests. I flew out to New Jersey to accept one, drove up to Boulder to accept another, and now I have a healthy group of medals near my desk to remind me of my most successful work. This wasn’t the only bit of my writing that won an award this year, either. Kami’s Curse was a finalist for the Colorado Authors League Awards and I had a fun time in Denver with the other nominees and winners.

APRIL/SEPTEMBER: While my last children’s picture book, This is Not a Drill mostly used photographs, my latest children’s book, Bountiful Bunnies required me to hand-draw over 2,000 rabbits. It took a bit of work in April to figure out how I wanted the rabbits to look and how I wanted to arrange them on the pages, but I used the Camp NaNoWriMo event to break this big project down into smaller chunks. Still, drawing 100 rabbits a night was an endeavor that took many hours. I’m proud of the result that I released this September, but I learned my lesson. I’m having my next picture book, The $1,300 Alphabet illustrated by Nancy Anderson (pictured).

MAY/JUNE: Ironically enough, these two months did not go as planned. While I got Buried Colony and Stop Screaming! into a local bookstore, I realized that this has historically been more of a stressor for me. I decided to stick with what I was good at: focusing on direct sales at conventions. This decision was also aided because one of the local stores where I made most of my brick-and-mortar sales went out of business this year. Still, the Book Bash in May was an incredible event and I’m looking forward to participating again in 2025. As for expanded audiobook distribution, my initial plan got sidetracked because of controversy surrounding the services I was looking to use. There’s always some other time to explore other sales venues for my audiobooks, and it merely didn’t happen this year.

JULY/NOVEMBER: This year, I wanted a better first draft for NaNoWriMo. As such, I put forth the effort in July to do extensive world-building. However, neither of the books/series I was thinking of starting this year were what I ended up researching in July. Rift stuck out for me as the project I needed to do this year, and I’m really proud of the result—mostly because I actually planned this one out instead of just writing by the seat of my pants. Once November came around, though, the drama surrounding NaNoWriMo came to a head for me. This was my 15th year participating and 11th running the event for the Colorado Springs region. I have my reasons (noted in this year’s singular blog post), but I will not be returning to this organization in the future. It doesn’t mean I won’t write my first drafts in November (or any other month, for that matter), it just means I can do it myself. I still enjoy the community, though, and you can join my Discord server if writing is your thing.

AUGUST: While I spent a lot of August getting Bountiful Bunnies ready, I also submitted my back catalog to Readers’ Favorite to see if any of them would get 4- or 5-star reviews. Most weren’t picked up, which is fine. However, Be Fruitful… received a 5-star review! This seems fitting for this year, considering it was the conceptual basis for Bountiful Bunnies. You can check out the press release here. I also added a new task to August, which was to submit some short stories and poems to a few different contests and anthologies. Only one has so far made it the farthest, and I am still waiting to hear if “The Physics of Equus Monoceros” will be published soon.

OCTOBER: Of all the projects I gave myself this year, this one ended up being almost on par with completing the Fluxion Trilogy audiobook. Completing a full audit of my inventory was merely the first part. Once I realized I needed to dive deep into all the sales I’ve made in the last ~15 years, I had to improve my spreadsheet database and dive deep into finding the truth behind much of the data I had loosely accumulated over the years. Now that this system is squared away, I feel like I can more accurately track sales from now on.

DECEMBER: After fracturing a rib in November from a sledding accident, I determined I would forego my initial December task and take it easy. That’s not to say that December is completely devoid of accomplishments. It took 8 years, but tomorrow will mark a milestone for BMW the Critic. I will post my 1,000th review on December 11th. I still have many more reviews to post, but it feels weird that I’ve now written such a large number of them.

I’m glad that I pushed myself to get a lot of my writing hobby in order this year. I think it will serve me well for what I have planned for 2025—some of which has already started in 2024. Stay tuned for my planned projects when I post again in January.

15 years ago, I didn’t consider myself a writer. That all changed after I heard about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This annual challenge to write 50,000 words of a first draft of a novel in the 30 days of November showed me that the impossible was indeed within my capabilities. Fast forward to today and I’ve now published 11 books, written 9 more on top of that, won multiple writing awards, and built an amazing group of fellow writers I consider my friends. I’ve introduced others to the NaNoWriMo concept, and they also found that they are writers as well.

I still have a huge backlog of ideas I plan to write for many years to come. Unfortunately, after this year, I will no longer be doing so using any of the NaNoWriMo events. It is sad the organization has crumbled to this point, but it was probably only a matter of time before something would take it down. As a Municipal Liaison (ML) for the organization, I served the cause of inspiring the people in my local community to write the novel that’s been stuck in their head. After 10 years, I cannot say that NaNoWriMo aligns with my beliefs anymore. My story is a little long, but it’s worth the read below.

Nothing lasts, and that sucks.

To understand my decision, we need to go back to the beginning. The original NaNoWriMo website was useful to track my progress toward that year’s goal, but it was also a fun forum to connect with local writers and others who shared this passion from across the globe. I spent a lot of time on the Regional Forums, which not only had collective statistics for the Region but also contained multiple threads where writers would talk about their amazing ideas, writers’ blocks, and other random things they wanted to share. People could become “writing buddies” and we’d see each other’s progress toward that lofty 50,000-word goal.

Of course, with a website that hadn’t changed for over a decade came technical limitations as the annual event grew in popularity. Each year, there would be a clean wipe of the forums, with only a few useful threads saved that continued conversations between years. About five years ago, NaNoWriMo headquarters (HQ) upgraded the website to be more in line with the modern internet. And while there isn’t as much activity in the off-season, having an annual event meant they needed to transition the entire website in less than a year. An enormous undertaking which didn’t go smoothly at all. Now the main website where you tracked your goals and kept track of your buddies’ progress had been separated from the forums where conversations happened. Aside from the many bugs that came from the transition, core functions weren’t nearly as easy to use as before. Being able to see the progress of my friends was an almost labrynthine affair, and the regional chatbox meant to bridge the gap between the Regional Forums and the main site was an unmoderated nightmare. Many people left after that transition, since using the website was more frustrating than fun.

If only the forums had died there…

I’m stubborn, and I stuck it out, attempting to teach others how to work their way through the new website. There wasn’t nearly as much activity in the Regional Forums because it was basically a separate website that people needed to go to for those kinds of conversations—which was a dying corner of the fast-paced internet. Then COVID hit. HQ suspended all in-person events for 2020. This was ultimately the right decision, since it was better to play it safe when it came to a global pandemic. Unfortunately, the new website still had a lot of issues that made it ill suited for the transition to an all-virtual event. As every region migrated to platforms better suited for entirely online interactions (like Discord), the main site became less and less relevant. However, that didn’t mean people stopped using it.

This leads us to the big reveal in 2023. Turns out, there was a lot of bad stuff going on in other parts of the forums. I rarely ventured out of the Regional spaces, but there were large groups of people who enjoyed the wider sections of the forums as (what they thought was) a safe space to be themselves. Many of these individuals were minors, and if you want to learn all the seedy details, there are plenty of places online to get the full scoop on what happened. Needless to say, the forums all got shut down, they banned anyone younger than 18 from the site, and HQ swore to make things right by finally vetting the hundreds of volunteers that made NaNoWriMo work on the regional level (i.e., the MLs). After all, who knew if there were other predators out there that they just gave access to impressionable teenagers?

Willing to make amends.

All of this drama was happening right as NaNoWriMo 2023 was taking place. There were a lot of solutions brought forward by HQ that did not sit well with many of the MLs. As an ML myself, I figured most of these new procedures and guidelines weren’t enforceable and I’d just continue to run the event at the local level the way I always had. I was willing to give HQ another chance, since I saw they were at least trying to fix things (albeit with the grace of a blind roller skater in a marble factory). Hopefully, I could see them through this and help them rebuild into what I considered the organization always should be: a widespread network of local writing communities committed to starting authors on a journey to finish a novel.

Of course, at my local level, things were changing with the library that we usually used for these in-person meetings. What used to be an easy couple of e-mails coordinating with the events planner became a much more tedious ritual of reserving rooms only a few months out from the actual event. There was talk of cutting funding completely to this library, which was partly why it was now much harder to get things scheduled with them. And yet, this wasn’t the biggest problem with this year’s NaNoWriMo.

Despite saying that I would return as an ML for 2024, HQ must have lost my response because they asked for my confirmation again in May. I still said yes, and then never heard from them again. When I reached out in mid-September, it took weeks for them to give me a boilerplate answer that just linked to helpdesk articles that explained why everything was taking so long. This was also on top of new bugs on the website that made my event submissions not come through correctly—an issue that would not have been a problem if I had ML powers on the site and could approve my own events. Instead, they merely encouraged random people to submit events with little to no vetting or local understanding of the venues. This was what got them in trouble in the first place.

Digging the hole deeper.

None of this was surprising, of course, because through the few bits of information that were shared, it became obvious that the entire HQ staff had either quit or been fired. With no MLs reinstated, no theme announced (along with all the accoutrements like stickers, posters, and T-shirts), and the forums still on lockdown, I wondered why NaNoWriMo HQ didn’t just throw up their hands and dissolve the organization entirely. Instead, they doubled down by making a statement about writers using AI. And they were for it.

This was my final straw—and yes, I realize I should have drawn the line at grooming minors online. Current AI used for writing (more accurately referred to as Large Language Models, or LLMs) needs a lot of data to work, and it’s abundantly clear right now that the training data for these LLMs aren’t ethically sourced. This is more obvious with the image-generating AI tools, where artists are finding their stolen work used to train the AI data sets. Creatives from all different mediums have been speaking out against the use of AI, as it devalues the creative process. And, you know, wholesale theft of intellectual property is not something that should be easily forgiven.

Even if there are some useful AI tools for other parts of the writing process (like editing/proofreading), NaNoWriMo said it was OK to use generative AI to steal create stories. They claimed that it leveled the playing field for those with disabilities, which felt like a dig at those who had been overcoming their limitations for years and still achieving the 50,000-word goal. Ultimately, I could not stay with an organization that did not value the creative process, that instead encouraged taking shortcuts to win their arbitrary challenge. I’m still a man of my word, so I’ll run this year’s event (such as it is), but this will be my final year as ML or participant.

I’ll still miss it.

Most of the discourse I’ve seen in the fallout of this collapse has centered on the NaNoWriMo challenge itself. There’s no patent on the concept of writing 50,000 words in a month (November or otherwise). Tons of people “do NaNoWriMo” having never realized it was also an organization with international reach and a website that allows you to track your goals and connect with other writers. Sure, people can track their progress with other tools (I’ve been using an Excel spreadsheet for years, after all). However, NaNoWriMo’s name recognition for 25 years is partly why there hasn’t been a clear competitor to the event. Experienced writers don’t need it, but it’s always been about getting new writers to chase that illusive goal of writing their first novel.

The thing that I think most people miss with the concept of NaNoWriMo is the community aspect. Coming together with other writers to engage with this solitary activity in a way that invites competition and motivation between peers is one reason I kept coming back to NaNoWriMo and encouraging others to join as well. This isn’t only an online thing either, as participating with local writers in person has been one of my favorite socializing events of the year. These are my people, and I will miss them. I continue to connect with local authors through conventions and groups like the Colorado Authors League, but I love the energy of seeing new writers finding their groove and finally getting the novel they’ve had in their head for years onto the page.

This year, I’ll likely break through 950,000 total words for the 15 years of NaNoWriMo I’ve done. It’s disappointing that I won’t get to 1 million words officially using the event, but I’ll still continue to write. I have my systems in place now, and I know I’ll continue to write for many years. If anything, now I’ll have the freedom to do more conventions in November since I won’t have to be tied down to running the event for my region (or even writing in November at all). Hopefully, I can continue to keep some friendships I developed through NaNoWriMo over the years.

I won’t deny that NaNoWriMo helped me to get where I am today as a writer. My past experience is still valid despite the recent scandals. I participated in this challenge for over a quarter of my life, so it’s hard to let go. Hopefully, I can find something to replace the community I lost, but I’m also fine with using the extra space in my life to try new things and make new friends that way.

For the last few years, I’ve been more productive than I had to be. Since 2018, my singular goal has been to publish a single new book wholly written by myself each year. This means that being in an anthology doesn’t count, as the entire project must be something I wrote. However, it also means that compilations of things I’ve written (like blog posts or short stories) can count as my annual release. There also isn’t a length requirement, which is why I count children’s picture books and cookbooks as meeting the intent of my goal. Having published not only a 10th Anniversary edition of The Fluxion Trilogy for the last few years (including audiobook versions of these books), but a new book as well, I decided it was time to refocus my efforts for the next few years before I have to put out a 10th Anniversary edition of Fourteener Father in 2028.

The plan for 2024 still has some remnants of the last few years, but I finally have some space to refocus and attend to things that have been languishing (like online marketing and product availability). I also have spent little time world-building the upcoming books I want to write, so this year will hopefully remedy some of that. Having two kids under 5 years old has taught me I now need to be explicit in my annual plans, which is why this year’s “resolution” post is arranged a little differently. I jotted down my plan per month instead of as general projects so that some months are inherently lighter than others and lend themselves to burnout prevention.

JANUARY: With the three separate 10th Anniversary editions of The Fluxion Trilogy complete, there’s still a bit of work I need to do to stitch everything back together for the 10th Anniversary release of the three-book collection. I already have the new cover mocked up, and it shouldn’t be too hard to get the paperback, hardcover, and eBook versions ready to go for the February 24th release. That I’ve already done most of the heavy lifting for this project makes me confident that January should be fairly relaxing.

FEBRUARY: While I could just slap all three audiobooks together and call it a day, the Appendix in The Fluxion Trilogy makes it a bit of a new book. I plan on recording this portion of the audiobook in February. I’ve also learned a lot in the last few years of producing audiobooks for Audible, so I plan to do some retroactive cleanup to make the three-book collection as professional as possible. Hopefully, I’ll have the audiobook version complete and released shortly after the 10th Anniversary goes live near the end of February.

MARCH: Since most of my books are on Amazon, I’ve been a little lacking in the marketing department. I plan to remedy this in March by submitting some A+ Content that will be displayed alongside my books. I already have some ideas on what this will look like, but I just need to make the time to create it and submit it. This shouldn’t take too much time (I hope), even for 10 books, so I expect March to be another light month.

APRIL: The first of two Camp NaNoWriMo events happens in April. I’m currently in talks with an illustrator for my next children’s picture book, Bountiful Bunnies. If these negotiations fall through, then I plan on using this month to create the draft of this book. I already have the words written (as minimal as they are), so much of my work will be developing the right look of the book’s illustrations. I have some styles already drafted up but need to sit down and work through the logistics of drawing over 1,000 rabbits for this book.

MAY: If you look closely at the picture above, you’ll notice that there’s some space at the bottom of the sticky note. That’s because I accidentally left May off my initial list. Part of my wider three-year plan between 10th Anniversary releases is to get into more local bookstores. While I’m in two local shops already, I’d like to expand to other locations. Increasing my local networking should help with this, and I already have a few businesses I’d like to partner with. Keep an eye out on my “Shop Local” page for additional stores that may show up as I spread my books across Colorado Springs.

JUNE: Similar to May, I plan to expand the distribution of my audiobooks beyond Audible. They’re already directly available from my online storefront in CD, USB, and digital mp3 formats, but I’d like to expand to other distributors so as many people can listen to my first trilogy as possible. I’m also going to try opening up another online storefront for my products (e.g., signed copies of my books) that’s not quite as isolated as the one I currently have. I’ll let you know where that is as soon as it’s ready.

JULY: Camp NaNoWriMo’s second event of the year takes place in July. While I won’t be writing a draft or editing a manuscript, I’ll be using the month to dive deeper into the world-building that I feel is lacking in an upcoming series that I plan to start in November. While the sticky note says this world-building will be for the adult fantasy “Exiles” series, I’ve lately had a lot of inspiration for a six-book middle-grade sci-fi series called “The Space Scout Handbook.” Hopefully, I’ll have settled on which series I’ll be working on for the next few years by the time July rolls around.

AUGUST: Having received a glowing review for Stop Screaming! from Readers’ Favorite, I plan on submitting more of my books for their reviews during August. I know not everything I’ve written is likely to get a 5-star review, but it doesn’t cost me anything to try. This lighter month will also allow me to wrap up what I need for this year’s release of Bountiful Bunnies. A children’s picture book is easier to pull together than a full novel, but it still takes some work.

SEPTEMBER: I plan to release my 11th book in the first few weeks of September. Bountiful Bunnies shares a similar plot to my short story, Be Fruitful… in that they both deal with exponentially increasing rabbits. I hope to visually convey the rapid increase in lagomorphs via this picture book. Having read quite a few books to my children, I found this mathematical topic to be sparsely covered and decided to increase awareness with this book.

OCTOBER: Being the spreadsheet nerd that I am, I’ve kept pretty good track of the sales of my books. However, my original spreadsheet for this job was clunky. I’ve since improved the spreadsheet, but the numbers don’t quite add up right. I’ll be checking my new spreadsheet against the actuals of my sales so that I can go forward into these coming years with a much better tool to provide metrics on my sales.

NOVEMBER: Whether I decide to pursue “Exiles” or “The Space Scout Handbook,” this year’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) will see me drafting out the first book in this series. Exiles will likely be a trilogy, which means the work I did in July will help me through the next three years of NaNoWriMo events. The Space Scout Handbook, however, is planned to be a six-book series, thus locking me into a schedule that could be twice as long as I initially planned. Either way, I look forward to finally starting a new series of books after a few years of one-shots and short story collections.

DECEMBER: The one book I know I want to write soon is none other than Rift. This fantasy book follows two points of view (POVs) and is split in half so that one POV is right side up and the other is upside down. I already have these two characters, the setting, and the rough plot figured out, but I need to dive deeper into the world-building. The more I can build my story Bibles for these books, the better prepared I’ll be to draft them correctly when the time comes.

This certainly looks like a lot of work for this year. However, it’s missing a few huge things that took up my time in previous years (like full 10th Anniversary and audiobook releases). One such goal is monthly blog posts about self-publishing here on my website. I’ve covered most of what I wanted to in the ~7 years of monthly posts and now I have nothing else to add that I hadn’t already said before. I’ll still post my annual January plans and December check-in for actual results, but the in-between months will remain quiet. Be sure to sign up for my Newsletter for monthly updates on the plan I detailed above—because I won’t be posting about it here until I’ve completed it in December.

I saw a lot of milestones in 2023. Not only did I publish my 10th book this year, but it also won a major award. This was my 10th year as a Municipal Liaison (ML) for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and my 14th year of participating. I also finished my first trilogy of 10th-anniversary editions, along with audiobook versions of these books. This was also the year I joined the Colorado Author’s League which has helped me connect with other writers in my state. Not all the plans I made at the beginning of the year came to fruition, but the beauty of having multiple projects in various stages of planning is that I can pick what I want to work on next. So, while plans change, here is what I actually did this year…

2023 YEAR IN REVIEW

The Third Degree (10th Anniversary and Audiobook versions)

By now, putting together a new version with character sketches (by Robin Childs) and a handy appendix isn’t that hard to pull off. Additionally, recording the audiobook version (available on Audible and iTunes, as well as a 6-CD set, USB drive, or digital mp3 files) is a lot easier now that I’ve been through the process twice. The 10th Anniversary edition of The Third Degree reminded me why I like it the most of the three books in the Fluxion Trilogy. Part of me is also glad that I’m done with this huge 3-year undertaking. It’s a lot of work to put out these things, so I’m glad that I only have a little more to do for the 10th Anniversary edition (and audiobook version) of the full Fluxion Trilogy omnibus. Be sure to pick up this definitive edition early next year.

Stop Screaming! A Beginner’s Guide to Homemade Ice Cream

This passion project of mine that I wrote in July 2021 finally came out on the first day of summer this year. I was a little skeptical that anyone would want such a niche book like this, but it has actually been my best-selling release since I started self-publishing. As my 10th book, Stop Screaming is quite a milestone. In mid-November, I learned it won the 2023 Best Indie Book Award (BIBA) for the Non-Fiction: Ice Cream Crafting category. This award feels like it legitimizes and validates my writing in a way that my previous awards and anthology acceptances haven’t. It’s currently submitted to a few other contests—some of which I won’t know the results of until late next year.

Be Fruitful…

Originally published in the Welcome to the Alpacalypse anthology, “Be Fruitful…” is a fun short story about the end of the world caused by exponentially reproducing rabbits. The events of this book take place between Thanksgiving 2022 and Easter 2023. Therefore, this Easter, I released the eBook version of this individual short story from that anthology (and also from the Ascent of the Writer collection). I think it’s one of my better short stories, so if you get a chance, make sure to pick it up.

Courier to the Stars

When I have a project like Courier to the Stars, I feel like it’s “cheating” to write it during NaNoWriMo. As a sci-fi adaptation of Jules Verne’s Michael Strogoff: Courier to the Czar, this book is an almost word-for-word reimagining of the adventure novel as a race across the galaxy. Much in the way Pride and Prejudice and Zombies made minor tweaks to the story it was based on, Courier to the Stars makes substitutions that result in converting this hidden gem into something I hope gets people interested in the original.

One Year to Live

While my original plan for my November NaNoWriMo project was to start on my next trilogy, I felt I needed more time to do worldbuilding before diving into this new fantasy setting. As a result, I took a novel I planned on doing in a few years and decided it was ready enough to write this year. One Year to Live (which will get a new title once I revise it) is a deeply personal book about a lot of heavy subjects like suicide, loneliness, and toxic masculinity. It’s not quite ready for beta readers, and probably won’t be for a few years, but I felt like I got a lot of things off my chest while writing it, and I hope that one day you all will be able to read it.

Blog Posts

This is the seventh year that I’ve been writing regular blog posts about my experiences as an indie, self-published author. I’m not sure how many more topics I have left to discuss, so I plan to put this blog on a hiatus starting in February of next year. In the meantime, be sure to catch up on what I wrote this year:

• January: Almost Free in 2023
  I had modest ambitions this year, some of which changed (see above)
• February: Two Creative Certainties – Death [PART 1/2]
  We all die. What happens to the works you created after you die?
• March: Two Creative Certainties – Taxes [PART 2/2]
  If you make money on your creativity, you better make sure you pay your taxes.
• April: The Stages of Handling Criticism
  Don’t worry about the criticism you can’t do anything about.
• May: The Basics of Making Your Own Cover
  You can tell a lot about a book by its cover. Here’s how to make one yourself that isn’t immediately rejected.
• June: Using real places in your writing
  Add some realism to your settings, but make sure you’ve done your research or actually been there.
• July: The “Black Box” Approach to Editing
  When editing, consider each scene as a black box with input and exit criteria.
• August: The Psychology of Selling Books
  It’s interesting how prices and multiple formats can drive sales.
• September: Write what you like
  If you like something, you’ll eventually get to “know” it.
• October: Systems Simplify
  Figure out what works, and run with it—cut out the things that don’t work.
• November: Getting Past Originality
  If every story has already been written, then just make sure yours has your own unique twist on it.

With two young kids at home, I’m taking some time this holiday season to refocus on what I want to do with this hobby of mine. Winning a major award is encouraging, but it’s hard to juggle work, family, and writing when there are only so many hours in the day. Check back here in January to see what these plans look like.

There’s usually a point in a writer’s career when they have an amazing idea and flesh it out—only to find that it’s been done before. Now, I’m not talking about a word-for-word “they stole my idea before I even wrote it” kind of plagiarism here. I’m talking about the raw concept being similar enough as to draw easy comparisons. These are the ideas that authors tell their friends about and receive the feedback, “Oh, it’s like [FILL IN THE BLANK].” This devastates inexperienced writers. However, those who have been writing for a while welcome the comparison. Why?

Contextual originality.

If you gave two writers the same prompt (like for an anthology), they’d likely come up with two completely different ways of handling it. Similarly, even if someone already wrote your idea, that doesn’t mean they wrote it how you’d write it. We all have different inspirations and worldviews that make what we write contextually original. It’s been said that all stories have already been written. If you accept this, then you can free yourself from the burden of being “original.” There’s likely no way you’ll be completely original. Yes, truly original works stand out—but how easy is it to get someone to read something that original?

When querying agents or talking to potential customers, it’s beneficial to make comparisons between your manuscript and existing works. This is known as a “comp title” and it can help instantly give someone an idea of what your story is about. With shorter attention spans, it’s helpful to describe your book as (for example) a “sci-fi Arthurian Legend retelling” so that people quickly understand its premise. Many authors will mix two or three different comp titles together to obtain that lofty “original” designator—but even just one comp title is enough.

Adapt and remix.

About a decade ago, there was a huge craze for fairy tale retellings. Working with known stories, these authors adapted fairy tales in the public domain and remixed them for modern audiences. Most of these books were romantic, but Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles stood out for its sci-fi take on fantasy. By using known stories, much of the heavy lifting of character development, setting, and plot can be lifted wholesale from the source material. The “Quirk Classics” series mixed traditional romances with monsters (such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies). These “monster romances” lifted a large majority, word-for-word, from the original stories they were based on. Similarly, the “William Shakespeare’s Pop Culture” books head in the opposite direction by adapting modern movies in Shakespeare’s style.

Earlier this year, I endeavored to adapt Jules Verne’s Michael Strogoff into a sci-fi version of the Russian adventure novel. Courier to the Stars used the format of the Quirk Classics by replicating most of the original text unchanged. However, it was not easy to adapt to sci-fi as one would think. I couldn’t just do a find-and-replace on the source document, as the sci-fi additions would change depending on the context surrounding them. There were still places where I could make original additions to fit the story I wanted to tell while not deviating from the one Jules Verne already wrote. Was this book original? Probably not, but I know Jules Verne didn’t write about intergalactic wormholes, hover-bikes, or plasma swords while he was alive. I tried to remedy that. Genre shifting is a perfectly acceptable way to adapt stories that already exist.

“Isn’t this plagiarism?”

When adapting and remixing existing stories, you must be careful to not stray too far into plagiarism. There are fair use rules that allow the Quirk Classics (and Courier to the Stars) to change just enough to not be plagiarism. It also helps that the stories being adapted are already in the public domain. While it’s easier to use a comp title with a more recent book, you don’t want to go too far in replicating the book that inspired you, lest your work be labeled as “derivative.” Yes, I realize this goes against my advice to ignore originality, but you have to at least put your own fingerprints on what you create.

Ultimately, think about the stories you love to read. Don’t you wish you had more stories like that? Being original is a lofty aspiration, but satiating the need to read more of something we love is much more fulfilling. After all, there wouldn’t be a ton of fanfiction out there if this wasn’t the case. If you’re being hung up on finding the most original idea, perhaps you need to take a step back and find inspiration in something that already exists.

What’s a story you wish you had more of?
Have you read an adaptation you really liked?
What’s the most obscure public domain work you’ve ever read?

How long does it take you to write 100 words? I’m sure most of us have never sat down and figured this out, even if we’ve done it many times. Still, if I asked you to write 100 words in 100 minutes, you’d likely say you can easily do that. 10 minutes? Probably more of a challenge, but not impossible. 1 minute? Unlikely—unless you really work at achieving it. As with most things in our lives, we develop an innate understanding of how long something takes the more we do it. We feel frustrated if it takes too long but accomplished if we can do it faster than normal.

The routine becomes subconscious.

A tenet of writerly advice is usually “develop a daily writing habit.” Why is this? First, it’s practicing something that then becomes easier with each iteration. Whether it’s a set number of minutes or words each day, the more times you practice this routine, the better you’ll get at judging how much you can write or how long it takes to crank out those words. Just like I know how long it takes to do other chores around the house, I know I can probably spend a solid hour to write 1,000 words. The trick is finding an uninterrupted hour to write.

I think the better advice for developing the habit is to understand the system around what you’re trying to do. Having a daily writing habit is great, but it’s better if you know how to get into that successful “writing mode.” Maybe it’s a cup of coffee in the morning or some instrumental music piped into your sound-canceling headphones. Is it having a reward for your daily writing spurring you onward? Part of the routine of a successful habit is knowing what helps (or hinders) you accomplishing that habit. Don’t feel bad if the stars don’t align every day. Sometimes, we need to take a break to avoid burnout. Just don’t be so beholden to your system that you avoid the habit. Flexibility is key.

What’s nice about systems is that they can stack and scale. Once you’re aware of what works for you, then you can start planning out your work, not only for one book but for a whole series. For example, I know I can usually get a workable first draft done within the 30 days of National Novel Writing Month every year. The time I take to edit this manuscript depends on the amount and type of edits, but it’s usually 50% longer than the first draft took. I have been using Camp NaNoWriMo events more frequently to motivate myself to edit since the community aspect helps with my discipline. I really enjoy the formatting and cover creation process, so it rarely takes more than a week to finish. Even recording and producing an audiobook multiple times has given me a sense of how long each step of that process takes.

Practice makes perfect…planning.

After 13 years of self-publishing, my systems have become so ingrained in my life that I can confidently release at least one book a year. Knowing what each step takes helps break the daunting task of self-publishing down into more manageable chunks. Even if the diagram above was my best guess at when I’d be in the writing (W), editing (E), querying (Q), and publishing (P) systems, I allowed myself to move projects around. Like, if I got to the end of a trilogy and realized the first two books needed to change from first person to third person, I allowed my systems to shift to other projects. Still, some of my newer systems take some getting used to (it takes a lot longer to burn audio CDs for audiobook distribution than I ever give myself time for). Additionally, when you’re working with other people for editing or cover art, be sure to keep their systems in mind as well, so a deadline doesn’t sneak up on you.

By sticking to something, you’ll likely see improvement over time. When I started writing novels in 2010, I thought those who could write over 100,000 words in a month were insane—until my systems allowed me to do so in 2015. Ultimately, you may try a lot of different systems to simplify your writing process and might not find the right fit yet. Don’t let others tell you how to write. It’s definitely a personal journey that you should enjoy on some level. Be mindful of your writing style—whether you prefer a strict daily routine like Stephen King or a longer world-building process like George R. R. Martin. The goal is to get words on the page. Embrace the systems that simplify that process.

Do you know how fast you write?
What needs to happen to get in “writer mode”?
How flexible are your systems for sudden changes?

There are tons of pithy sayings writers usually hear when they’re starting out. “Kill your darlings.” “Show, don’t tell.” “Write what you know.” Most who are starting out don’t really know what these idiomatic pieces of advice actually mean. Even experienced writers have trouble cracking the code on some of these sayings. Ultimately, you can’t really distill sound advice down to a 3-word phrase. Sometimes, it’s better to rephrase this advice. For instance, when I tell people to write what they know, what I’m really saying is to “write what you like.”

Passion makes it easy.

“If you could speak on something for an hour without prepared notes, what would it be?” is an icebreaker question that uncovers your interests and hobbies. It also answers my “write what you like” motto. Have you ever picked up an interest that suddenly sucked an entire weekend away as you dove down the rabbit holes that uncovered the depth of this hobby? Did you spend every waking moment for a few weeks learning everything you could about this topic? Just like how I hate the “What do you do for a living” icebreaker question, I think we should replace it with “What are you passionate about?” If there’s something that you are passionate about, then chances are you “know” that topic—and could therefore write extensively on it.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpHfdgLXr50[/embedyt]

I hope you’re fortunate enough to have a few different interests other than writing. When I look at the books I’ve published, the four non-fiction books I created all come from hobbies of mine. Climbing all the Colorado 14ers with my dad gave me the experience to write my memoir, Fourteener Father. My love of many movies spawned the blog that turned into the Cinema Connections book. Having kids and an appreciation for woodworking gave me the idea for This is Not a Drill. Making homemade ice cream with my wife and discovering how easy it was led me to Stop Screaming. I could easily talk for an hour or more on any of these topics, which is why I ended up writing books for all of them. Compared to my fiction writing, these books were a lot more fun to put together.

“But,” I hear you cry, “I don’t want to write non-fiction! I want to write fiction!” Well, you’re in luck. Each character that you write is intrinsically an author self-insert. Their hobbies can be your hobbies, which makes their experience in these things easier to write if you have experience in these things. Multi-dimensional characters are more interesting and realistic than one-dimensional ones. Interests add dimension to characters, and you can spread them out across a cast of characters to hide your self-inserts. For example, two of the characters in Buried Colony enjoy classic movies, just from two different points of view. Similarly, in “Soul Photographer,” the lead character is a professional photographer obsessed with analog film. While I have experience with photography, I still had to learn more about analog photography to make the character realistic.

Mind the gap(s)

While I didn’t have to do much research for my non-fiction books, I still had to ensure that I was correct about the things I was writing. This is the problem with the “write what you know” phrase—it does not leave room for the parts of something you do not know yet. Research can be intimidating, but if it’s something you have fun learning about, it doesn’t seem as daunting. Furthermore, to write about things you don’t know, find someone who has knowledge in that area—who is passionate about it. Just like you can talk for hours about the topics you love, I assure you that others love to discuss their passions just as much. Hopefully, their passion will rub off on you and you can then take on the mantle of research to create the story you want to write.

I think sometimes the writer’s block that comes with the blank page results from not “liking” what you’re about to write. You might feel intimidated that you’ll get some details wrong. While I usually tell people to just write and fix it in the edits, perhaps this is the one case where you should stop and dive into research before you continue. The other reason might be that you’re writing to chase a trend you’re not interested in. If you’re writing commercial fiction, it helps when you like the topic. After all, fans of these trends might get the sense that you’re not one of them if you don’t “like” it yourself. On the flip side, if you write what you like, and others like it as well, you have a built-in audience who will enjoy your book. In the end, I think writing should be fun—and what better way to have fun than to write what you like.

What about you? What’s something you could talk for hours about?
What is a hobby you have that your characters could also share?
What is something you want to learn more about?

A piece of editing advice often given to writers is “Kill your darlings.” The feedback we receive from readers is important to identify these sections that don’t work. Even if we think it’s the greatest bit of prose we’ve ever written, these “darlings” have to go. If you’re lucky, these portions of your story added nothing to the overarching plot and can be easy to write around. However, what happens when the darlings you just killed leave tremendous gaps in your story?

Chances are, you’ve probably written the entire story before you gave it to someone to critique (at least, that’s how you should do it). You’ve likely spent a bit of time figuring out the logic of the plot, ensuring that actions result in your intended consequences. But if a key event in your plot isn’t landing correctly and you need to cut it, how do you stitch together what you have? How do you make it so you don’t have to start from scratch and rebuild the plot from the ground up?

Most scenes have inputs and outputs.

Quite a few fields have the concept of a “Black Box.” Programming. Business. Engineering. Mathematics. The Black Box is something that we know what goes into it and what comes out of it, but not necessarily what’s in it. However, by using these entrance and exit criteria, we can often deduce what’s happening in the mysterious middle of the Black Box. The beauty is that sometimes these Black Boxes can have multiple solutions as long as it transforms the inputs into the correct outputs.

A well-written scene is like a Black Box. There should be some inciting incident that pushes the characters into the scene. Next, the action of the scene should transform the characters so they’re different upon leaving it. String enough of these Black Box scenes together, and you have a full plot. If a scene doesn’t significantly change the plot if it’s removed, then it’s easy to cut and patch the connecting scenes on either side together. When you need to replace a Black Box scene, then things can be more challenging—but not impossible.

What is the expected outcome?

After receiving some significant criticism of my book, Buried Colony, I knew one of my “darling” scenes had to go. This scene had a lot of plots that hinged on its outcome, so I was initially depressed that I’d need to rewrite the whole book. I took some time to cool down before tackling this problem and realized that I just needed to rework the scene to remove the objectionable material. I also had to dial back one of my characters, which changed the inputs to the scene but not to the entire book. Ultimately, this scene had a particular outcome I was trying to achieve. Giving myself enough time to pivot to other projects allowed me to arrive at the eventual solution for this Black Box hole in my manuscript. It had some slight ripple effects throughout the plot that required me to tweak a few other scenes as well. The most important takeaway was that I didn’t have to rewrite everything.

Now, there are limits to this Black Box approach. If there are a lot of significant changes early in the plot or a character has to be altered drastically, you might need to consider doing a full rewrite. After all, being able to reproduce the intended outputs of a scene exactly can be difficult—if not impossible. These outputs are ultimately the inputs to the next scene, which leads to the next scene, and so on. If they’re a bit off, be sure to check your continuity to ensure a seamless scene transplant has taken place. This is sometimes how writers end up with characters who act “out of character.” Not carrying the effects of the modified scene through the rest of the story can cause this issue.

Using Black Boxes for planning.

Extending the concept of Black Boxes past the editing phase can also be useful for story planning. Often, I’ll have a great idea for a scene that’s not connected to anything else in the story. By asking myself three simple questions, I’ve been able to connect these scenes to the larger plot.

• What needs to happen to arrive at this scene?
• What does this scene need to accomplish?
• How does this scene lead to the next scene?

You might iterate on this approach as you build the bridge between your new scene and the existing parts of the plot. As long as the inputs and outputs of these scenes make logical sense, it should prevent any potential plot holes that might arise from working in this new scene. Alternatively, you can also use this technique to battle writer’s block. If you’re stuck, just think about the next immediate thing that needs to happen, then just build upon that scene into the next one. When you reframe scenes as Black Boxes that fit together like puzzle pieces, it can be much easier to plan, prod, and polish your story into a finished product.

What scenes in your writing have been easy to cut? Difficult to cut?
What different actions can your characters take to arrive at the same result?
If you get writer’s block, are you looking too far ahead in your plot?

Watch the entire “Writer Rant” series by Benjamin M. Weilert:

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