Tag: self-publish

My covid stories: Two years later

~ stephaniehaggarty ~ Leave a comment

In 2020 I arrived in Utrecht with Chris just in time for their lockdown. I didn’t have a job and couldn’t get one until I got my residence permit. Something I did in by August. So for the first time in years, I had 24 hrs of free time day after day after day.

I wanted to use this time to write many stories. But I didn’t. From memory I had burnout and forcing myself to write was slow and arduous. But somehow I managed to churn out two stories.

First came the novella at 23k. It’s a medieval fantasy story about a wizard’s apprentice and woodcutter’s daughter coming together to try and stop their king from owning a dragon. The second story is 16k and it’s a contemporary supernatural tale about a man who wakes from a car crash following a disturbing dream. It is also my first story where the main character is male. Something I’ve not really done before.

Both of these stories I came up with during 2020 and I was able to write them up to completion and publication within maybe six months for both of them. I didn’t work on them constantly. But I can’t quite remember how long I waited between the two. I know I was brainstorming other story ideas and such.

I’m proud of what I produced that year. I think it speaks about how determined I can be. It was also a lower year for me. I also think back and wonder if I was in higher spirits would I have produced more? But the time has passed and now it’s today.

Goals Revisited

~ stephaniehaggarty ~ 1 Comment

Before I turned 30, I had the goal of 10 stories published. While I didn’t achieve it, I still hit that number before my 31st birthday.

So what was next?

As I write this, I can’t remember. And I’m too lazy to go back and check what I wrote about it. However, in the last month, I have been making myself think and decide on a goal for the rest of the year. There are five months left in 2022 and I’m going to make it count.

So I think my end-of-year goals will be;

  1. Self-publish one story.
  2. Have a completed first draft of a second story.
  3. Have the plan for a third story (mostly completed).

I’ve got a few ideas from back in 2020 that I still need to get around to. So maybe they can be the other stories. But I also have this one little gem from the beginning of this year that I’ve started.

To do lists

~ stephaniehaggarty ~ 2 Comments

I’ve set goals in the past. Done things like post them to this blog as a form of accountability. I’ve usually achieve some but not others. In the last year I’ve pretty much been lazy about it. I’d list everything on piece of paper and then forget all about it. But I got the genius idea to actually find a goal check list on word templates and see what pops up.

So I found something that might fit me and put in my goals for the next six months. I’ve added the expected completion dates in hopes of pushing me along. Maybe if I view everything as an assignment then it might change how I see it.

The immediate things I want to complete this year is to publish Matt and Rose, hopefully within the next six weeks 🙂 I want to complete the manuscript for my other story, so far titled, Those in the Forest, by the end of January.

Writing during the Quarantine

~ stephaniehaggarty ~ Leave a comment

Time, time, time.

Since March I have all the time in the day to write. For the most part I have spent my time equal parts writing, moaning about not writing, and wondering why my organic self cannot work like a machine. However it has not been a complete waste like I infer. These are the things I have done during quarantine;

  • The Dragon’s Mate: I wrote, edited and self-published this novella in two months.
  • Matt and Rose: A novelette that is just about ready.
  • Those in the Forest: Plan for a supernatural story about an escapee from a recluse cult. Only has a few thousand words have been written. Probably won’t be done for at least a year.