2020 My Year In Fic

2020 Fiction Word Count:

86691 / 126531 words. 69% done!

Insights To Not Forget:

So I had a beautiful plan that I was going to reset and hit the ground running for 2021. See Year Zero is Reset Year.

Covid-19 was officially found in my state March 9, 2020, and life found unforeseen territory.

March 24th, I had to adjust to working at home. June 1st, back to working in the office and commuting daily. November 30th, we're back on a modified work from home/office plan (day at home, next day commuting in). I haven't gotten sick and I haven't passed on covid-19 to anyone else. For 2020, that is the biggest win anyone can have. 1.83 million people (to date) didn't get that win.

Would I have forgotten about my buckle down and reset plans without a global pandemic distracting me? Quite likely, I tend to forget all my plans every year. In fact, the writing business plan that I made to cover the year (I use it below for all the goals of the year), the printed version is on my filing cabinet and covered with so many other notes, I can't read the plan. (Removed the notes). This is for 2019. I never printed out 2020's?

And you can see by the total words written, I came under what I wanted to write. Let's see what I accomplished this year.

Stories I Posted:

Star Wars: Sororal Lineality: Aftermath: Word count = 3309. The Fic Whining Circle was getting stories ready for May the Fourth. I decided that this story would be perfectly short to get it up and started writing on May 2nd. I didn't get it finished for May the Fourth, but put it up on Revenge of the Fifth. And then it turned out to be the only story I posted in 2020.

Stories I Finished:

Star Wars: Unexpected Consequences: Word count = 126,607 (31,008 written previously + 49,572 written in 2019 + 46,027). The first draft was finished on July 28th, and it took the rest of the year to get my first edits polished to a second draft for my beta to go over. Now I need to go prod her so I can start posting in 2021.

Star Wars: Sororal Lineality: MJ-0002: Word count = 5664 (387 written in 2019 + 5277). I finished this short story as planned after I finished Unexpected Consequences and before I picked up the next novel. I hope to post it after Unexpected Consequences, but I may need to use it for a May the Fourth story.

Stories I Didn't Finish:

Strix: Forget the Sun: Word count = 31,146 (26,588 written previously + 4279 written in 2019 + 279 written in January) I took a very tiny stab at this novel in January and promptly lost it to work on other things.

Star Wars: Looking For Home Future Timeline: Word count = 7598. So at the end of February, I got stuck on giving the Sequel Trilogy Trio better movie(s) and started writing detailed notes on a future story that will probably never been written. I had already put Rey and Poe Dameron in the sketchy future of the Looking For Home so I needed to figure out how to add Finn. I got stuck with the Third Act, and probably need to declare it has to be a trilogy to get the resolutions I want. Maybe I need a Death Star.

Star Wars: Everybody Lives But Maul: Another plot bunny developed during the year. Mara Jade was given to Darth Vader to annoy him so he would eventually murder her, but he bonds with her instead. So Palpatine orchestrates that Lady Vader's path crosses Maul's on Tatooine. Only Luke Skywalker and Biggs Darklighter ruin the planned outcomes, and Mara remains on Tatooine for her safety. I really don't know if it will be a novel or something else yet.

Star Wars: Everybody Lives But Maul: Prologue: Word count = 1385. So far all I have written in this AU is the scene of the adoption of Lady Vader. I don't know where this scene will end up in the finished work.

Star Wars: Rescue the Farmboy: Mission on Mimban: Word count = 22,882 (8093 written in 2019 + 14,789). After writing "MJ-0002," I came back to Mission on Mimban from the beginning. Still working on it.

What I Think About My Stories:

My favorite story this year: Star Wars: Unexpected Consequence. I can't wait to turn this one lose on the readers.

Story most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Star Wars: Looking For Home: Future Timeline. I really need to spend some more brain time on this one if just to find a conclusion that makes me happy.

Most fun story: Everybody Lives But Maul. I really wasn't expecting to write it accept the idea would not leave the muse alone and then this happened:

KLCtheBookWorm: I really don't know what to do with Vader and Leia... unless he goes into her cell deactivates the IO droid and "Now Princess can we discuss waging war against Palpatine? Because he orchestrated my first family's death, has tried to kill my daughter, and your rebellion has made her flee her safe haven so he will potential see her again. He will not have her or my grandson."
Sithspit, why does the muse want to rewrite OT constantly?
JediMordsith: lolol
Hmmm.... that could be interesting. Or he could go to Bail.
"I will give you your daughter back if you help me get mine back."
KLCtheBookWorm: YOU GAVE ME MORE PEOPLE TO HELP LIVE!
JediMordsith: Bail convinces the rest of the Rebel leaders to work with Vader to take down the Emperor because he knows what a father's love is.
KLCtheBookWorm: I always consider Alderaan's destruction a fixed point in time
But the conversation between Bail and Mon Mothma. "You wanna do what now?"

Yeah, at that point I will write it.

Stories I wrote that I never thought I'd write: Star Wars: Everybody Lives But Maul. Technically I haven't really started the narrative, but really, Muse, was not expecting yet another rewrite of the OT. This one is the third, after Rescue the Farmboy and Sororal Lineality.

Hardest story to write: Star Wars: Looking For Home Future Timeline. I have never gotten stuck in which I couldn't finish off an outline. And this is so stuck.

Biggest disappointment: Strix: Forget the Sun. I did not even try for NaNo during the pandemic. (Huge props to everyone who did). I'm considering to do NaNo in April instead in 2021 to finish this novel.

Biggest surprise: I only posted ONE THING! I'm not beating myself up for any of the results of 2020 because it was garbage year, but I honestly didn't plan to leave my readers hanging so hard. On the plus side, they will have at least 30 weeks of new content to read in 2021.

What's your favorite piece of dialogue you wrote this year? From Star Wars: Sororal Lineality: Aftermath.

Luke opened his eyes to Leia’s suspicious face. “She was arguing with Threepio. I went the other way.”

“So she couldn’t put you back in the medbunk.” Leia bounced to her feet and helped leverage him out of his seat. “You are going right back to it and staying in it until we reach the Fleet, Commander.”

“Aye, aye, Colonel,” Luke replied with less than the banter he normally did. He leaned heavily on Leia, more than he should.

Lando finished locking down the controls and followed behind them. “Colonel? Not a General?”

“Not a General yet,” Luke responded with a wheezy laugh.

It took a while to figure out what Leia's military actual rank is based of costumes and plot actions in Empire Strikes Back. Major Bren Derlin didn't get a yes from Leia because she loves the two men out in the cold, but because she out ranks him.

What's your favorite piece of description or narration you wrote this year? From Star Wars: Soroal Lineality: MJ-0002.

The last one she dared to open was a recording. Her memory replayed on the screen: a child’s best dress colored green as the recorder tilted down, followed by looking back at the sad adults in the shadows of the shuttle’s lights. She heard the woman’s quavering voice, “Please, don’t take my baby.” Then the gnarled hand extended from the sleeve of the black robe and a tiny hand took it, and the recorder turned to the lit hatch at the top of the ramp.

Mara's surroundings registered in waves after that. Her glutes were tingling as she shifted from sitting in a collapsed position on the floor. The floor was cold stone. The recording was playing on a loop above her head. She hadn’t fainted because she wasn’t flat on her back. She climbed up to her feet and shut off the playback. Now the title of the file burned into her retinas, Primary Memory Imprint for Murdering Judges Clone Line.

I can't wait to share this story with readers.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would, less, or about what you predicted? Oh I came in under what I had aimed for, only writing to 69% of my goal that I set from what I wrote in 2019. But 2020 was a garbage year so I'm not beating myself up over word count results. As I went through the year though, I noticed that August and September were totally spent on just editing and no new words. That means I need to watch the schedule in 2021.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I have officially started the write a series of short stories and keep them under 7500 words. I need more practice writing short, which is why I plotted Sororal Lineality this way.

Did you meet last year's goals?

That's a no, and boy, how is it a no. 2021 Goal is to not have Leeloo laugh at me.

The goals from my unprinted 2020 one-page business plan are:

• Use Ali Luke's Two Year Novel Plan to finish the Strix series
  • January - May 2020: Finish Strix: Forget the Sun's first draft = Nope, not done yet.
  • June - October 2020: Finish Strix: Forget the Sun's second draft = Nope.
• Writing Star Wars AU fanfics
  • Finish Unexpected Consequences' first draft = Done
  • Start writing Sororal Lineality = Two stories done out of 28
  • Finish Rescue the Farmboy: Mission on Mimban's first draft = Nope, but I am currently writing it.
  • Send Unexpected Consequences to beta reader = Done
  • Send Sororal Lineality stories to beta reader = Done
  • Edit Unexpected Consequences = In Progress
  • Edit Sororal Lineality stories = Done
• Post regularly to Intentionally Left Blank, Dreamwidth, Discipline Under Fire, Tumblr Random Thoughts, Pillowfort = Do once a week on Saturdays = I haven't been doing this at all. Tumblr posts happen when I'm home but usually reposting and not anything I have written.
• BookWorm's Library website maintenance = Work on once a week on Sundays = Really need to do this
  • Make sure the software is up to date once a month
  • Add any files that need adding
• Add Media Center to BookWorm's Library = Work on once a week on Sundays = Hasn't happened yet
  • Create section
  • Make artwork
  • Code section
  • Upload files
• Add more fanfics to AO3
  • Upload Zackverse in story order = Nope, not yet
  • Upload Star Wars: Unexpected Consequences when edited on Ao3 = In Progress
  • Upload Sororal Lineality stories when edited = In Progress
  • Upload Rescue the Farmboy: Liberation to FF.net and the Library when finished = Oops, forgot about this
  • Upload Rescue the Farmboy: One More Service to FF.net and the Library when finished = Oops, forgot about this
  • Post Star Wars: Unexpected Consequences to FF.net = In Progress
  • Post Star Wars: Unexpected Consequences to Library = In Progress

My daily writing plans to help the above list of goals get done:

• Write 600 daily words. Can be split among the projects. I'm making the yearly goal to reach whatever number I actually reach on December 31st.
• Write and edit every day.
• Schedule website updates and fanmix work on the weekends.
• Work in meditation time with Brain FM.
• Use my Kanban Flow checklist consistently.
• Don't let chores pile up now that you have two jobs plus writing to do.
• Reward myself when goals are reached throughout my Reset Year.

Do you have any goals for the coming year? The goals from my 2021 one-page business plan are:

• Use Ali Luke's Two Year Novel Plan to finish the Strix series
  • April - August 2021: Finish Strix: Forget the Sun's first draft (I'm going to push myself to get it done in by treating April as NaNo, but more time is available if I need it)
  • Sept. - Dec. 2021: Finish Strix: Forget the Sun's second draft
• Writing Star Wars AU fanfics
  • Finish Unexpected Consequences' third draft
  • Finish Rescue the Farmboy: Mission on Mimban's first draft
  • Edit Rescue the Farm: Mission on Mimban to second draft
  • Send Rescue the Farm: Mission on Mimban to beta reader
  • Finish Rescue the Farm: Mission on Mimban third draft/li>
  • Finish Sororal Lineality: Miha first draft
  • Edit Sororal Lineality: Miha to second draft
  • Send Sororal Lineality: Miha to beta reader
  • Finish Sororal Lineality: Miha third draft
• Writing Zackverse
  • Work on Hyrueliana's overhaul
• Post regularly to Intentionally Left Blank, Dreamwidth, Discipline Under Fire, and Tumblr Random Thoughts = Do once a week
• BookWorm's Library website maintenance = Work on once a week on Sundays
  • Make sure the software is up to date once a month
  • Add any files that need adding
• Add Media Center to BookWorm's Library = Work on once a week on Sundays
  • Create section
  • Make artwork
  • Code section
  • Upload files
• Add more fanfics to AO3
  • Upload Zackverse in story order
  • Upload Star Wars: Unexpected Consequences when edited on Ao3
  • Upload Sororal Lineality: MJ-0002 on Ao3 on May 4th
  • Reload Sororal Lineality: Aftermath on Ao3
  • Upload Soroal Lineality: Miha to Ao3
  • Upload Rescue the Farmboy: Liberation to the Library
  • Upload Rescue the Farmboy: One More Service to the Library
  • Post Star Wars: Unexpected Consequences to Library
  • Upload Looking For Home: My Home Is You to the Library
  • Upload Looking For Home: Outcast to Library
  • Upload Sororal Lineality: MJ-0002 to the Library
  • Upload Sororal Lineality: Aftermath to the Library
  • Upload Sororal Lineality: Miha
  • Update FF.net profile of where newer stories are now

My daily writing plans to help the above list of goals get done:

• Write 600 daily words. Can be split among the projects. I'm making the yearly goal to reach whatever number I actually reach on December 31st.
• Write and edit every day.
• Schedule website updates and fanmix work on the weekends.
• Work in meditation time with Brain FM.
• Use my Kanban Flow checklist consistently.
• Don't let chores pile up now that you have two jobs plus writing to do.

Here's to 2021. We'll get through it together.