What a year.
In 2024, my main goal was to finish existing big priorities before taking on new ones. This was complicated somewhat by Covid recovery stretching between the initial infection in January though to getting my energy back in June – although according to my resting heartrate record, it was September when that returned to normal.
My big priorities were similar to previous years.
LARP: This was my last year on the writing team. I had anticipated this nearing the end of 2023 and had initially hoped that the remaining 2 games of the campaign would both take part in 2024.
Due to circumstances outside of our control, and running the game in a time of weather and Covid uncertainty, the first game had been delayed from 2021 to 2022 and the timing of the 4-game campaign ended up being 1 game per year, rather than the more typical game every 6 months. This meant that, as I entered my 4th year on the writing team, I found that my commitments and resposibilities outside of the team had changed drastically.
I have spent aproximately 1/3 of my son’s life on the team. I had anticipated 2-3 years, and so it was no wonder that I was beginning to find it difficult to balance extracurricular activities with fulfilling my share of the writing. Recognising that something would need to shift, I verbally mentioned my commitment to 1 final year during the planning for 2024 and formalised it in writing by mid-year.
Despite game 3 being mere days before my flight to the UK, I had the most fun I have ever had behind the GM table thus far – keeping track of plot that had been run, handing out plot that needed to be run, and making sure we hit our main plot beats. I am confident I will return to the GM seat at some point in the future, but not for the next few years while I navigate the intensive period of successfully seeing my son into young adulthood, and generally being a hands-on and active parent.
It may be a bittersweet decision, but at the end of the day I am able to recognise it as the right one. My mounting frustration as the year drew to a close with trying to ‘go out with a bang’ and leave the team with something awesome, while knowing that I did not have the time to give to plot writing, has cemented that I made the right choice.
And I will be there in the crew room as Senior Crew at the final game, ready to see the story come to a close, even if I am not there in the meetings or in front of the page as the game writing is finished!
Writing Submissions: Since early in the year, I started submitting poems and flash fiction to open publication submissions. This was to keep the writing muscles working between LARP writing, while being short enough to easily pick up and put down during my lunch breaks.
I had two main bursts of submissions. One close to the start of the year, where I submitted a work of flash fiction and a poem. The second, directly after WorldCon when I felt both inspired by talks I had seen and well-rested from my break.
My poem from the start of the year was accepted, although unfortunately the publisher had to downsize the project from the initially planned multi-volume set down to just one book. I received a very apologetic email informing me that the poem was unfortunately not one that had been planned for the single volume.
I still consider this a huge win!
I have been working on a ~1500 word story for a few years now that I managed to finish in late 2024, and I think it has great potential for a future submission once it has the rough edges sanded off and polished.
Speaking of sanding and polishing…
Art: One of my proudest achievements in 2024 was creating a ring at a local Lost Wax Art workshop. It’s almost a little hard to believe that I made this! First, I made a wax model of what I wanted, then it was sent away to be cast in sterling silver. As the final step, I sanded and polished it to perfection.
I am hopeful that I will be able to use the skills I learned in the workshop to make similar rings in the near future.
I have also continued on my crotchet journey, with the vague plan that I might put together a craft stall at some point. I have a literal pile of friendly skulls now, as well as a few animal friends. A craft stall is maybe not an immediate 2025 plan. It’s something to work towards.
While the year involved less painting than I would have liked, I did manage to pick up some new brushes and canvases during a sale and painted a puzzle piece as part of a friend’s birthday gift. I am currently in the middle of painting a LARP prop for a game of magic and fairies (amongst other kinds of folk).
What’s in store for 2025?
Well… I’m not entirely sure yet, but I do know that I want to focus on one main goal: Finish the first draft of my novel. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it just needs to be the first sweep through expanding the chapter notes I already have into mostly written chapters. Beta reading a work during the first half of 2024 helped me realise that I was still being entirely too concerned about expanding all instances of anything I had written in square brackets (or other notes I had left for myself) before considering a chapter ‘first draft done’. The notes in square brackets can stay for the next sweep – as long as each chapter is mostly written.
I do also want to continue submitting smaller works to open anthology submissions. This is secondary to the main goal and serves a few purposes. It’s a small detour with a set deadline – this should allow me to try some of the enticing other ideas I am sure I will have along the way in bite-sized portions. Entertaining ideas outside of the main work should help to keep the creative juices flowing and help move me along from stagnation if I get too fixated on a particular section. It’s also a big mood boost to finish something and submit it, even if the chances of being accepted are incredibly slim.
I would also like to post more regular updates here. Perhaps smaller ones surrounding milestones in the writing process!
Creative Adventures 