Did I Meet My 2023 Writing Goals? 🪴 Publications, Projects, & 2024 Writing Plans!

Jaylen’s 2023 writing wrap-up lands on a clear pattern: steady creative momentum, heavier editing than drafting, and a publication year that was smaller in volume but meaningful in milestones. The biggest personal win was finishing the first draft of her novel—now titled The Animal Sense—well ahead of schedule in late March, after spending much of the year planning and then moving into developmental edits. She reports writing consistently throughout the year despite travel and intermittent health issues, but the total word count dipped because most of her output shifted away from first-draft production and toward revisions.

Short fiction and poetry filled out the rest of the year’s creative work. She wrote four short stories—Birth of Dogs, Our Mother’s House, Junk Garden, and You Are Contractually Obligated to Withstand Violence—totaling about 12,500 words. Three of those stories (Birth of Dogs, Our Mother’s House, and Junk Garden) are headed into her first collection, Parolia, which she previously considered “done” but now wants to strengthen thematically with additional development. The fourth story is slated for a second collection. She also wrote six poems late in the year, totaling 1,799 words, and credits a lack of consistent poetry reading for why poetry had fallen off earlier; increasing her poetry reading is now part of her plan to write more.

Her publication record reflects that same shift toward revision and selective submission. She published two poems—“How to Get a Fish When You Are a Fish” in Augur and “My Gender as a List of Things I Don’t Understand” in Vagabond City Lit—and two short stories, including “Iowa Wolf” (print, in Filling Station) and “You Know Where Your Body Is Buried” (online, in her room’s release). She notes she didn’t submit much because she had limited new work ready for markets: the short stories she wrote were largely going into Parolia rather than being offered elsewhere, and one other story was only just finishing its first draft.

Across the year, she set three writing goals and hit all of them. She finished the first draft of what was formerly Salt Birds (renamed The Animal Sense), got Holding a Ghost ready to send to her agent (moving it to “ready for sub”), and wrote three short stories—ultimately producing four. For 2024, she keeps her goal-setting lean, choosing only two to four priorities to avoid the “recycled list” problem she experienced when she used to set too many goals.

Her top 2024 goal is to draft a new fantasy novel (working title previously shown as Godship, but she won’t reveal the final title), which is already outlined and expected to be ready to draft within a couple months. Her second priority is getting The Animal Sense ready for submission, though she expects multiple feedback cycles due to the book’s intricate interpersonal connections and the need to ensure those relationships land as intended. A softer, non-quantified aim is to write poetry more consistently. She also adjusted her reading goal back down to 50 books after falling behind on a 75-book target, and closes with a channel update: she’s been too busy to post regularly, not taking an intentional hiatus, and is asking viewers for topic ideas.