Arctic weather aside, I love winter.

As the days grow shorter and the remaining weeks of 2021 dwindle, I find myself imagining all of the cool stuff I’m gonna do in 2022.

Ever since I started One Million Words, my indie publishing company, I’ve tried to treat my fiction endeavors as a true-blue business. That includes examining my accomplishments from the prior year and planning the next 365 days.

But while I consider myself a realist, I inevitably overbook myself.

2021 — My Best Intentions

A year ago, I came up with the following battleplan for projects in 2021:

  • Write, illustrate, and publish the Curmudgeons & Flagons webcomic weekly.
  • Plan, produce, playtest, and publish a tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) starring the heroes of The Lost Tale of Sir Larpsalot.
  • Narrate, produce, and publish an audiobook version of The Lost Tale of Sir Larpsalot.
  • Gather feedback, make edits, and publish Ghost Mode & Other Strange Stories.
  • Begin planning for an untitled videogame.
  • Continue to write and publish a blog post and distribute a newsletter monthly.

I even included a couple of stretch goals:

  • Complete freelance editing projects for Goodman Games.
  • Design and sell Curmudgeons & Flagons apparel/products at Café Press.

2021 — The Reality

Here’s how Plan A shook out:

  • Write, illustrate, and publish the Curmudgeons & Flagons webcomic weekly.
    • Success! A new installment has been released every Friday in 2021, and Issue 53, the final entry of Vol. 1, is already uploaded for Dec. 31.
  • Plan, produce, playtest, and publish a tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) starring the heroes of The Lost Tale of Sir Larpsalot.
    • I’m 2 out of 4 on this one: the planning and production of The Curse of Er’Mah’Gerd has stretched throughout the year, but playtesting won’t begin until early 2022, with publication slated for several months after that.
  • Narrate, produce, and publish an audiobook version of The Lost Tale of Sir Larpsalot.
    • I abandoned this notion very early in the year because anticipated sales didn’t justify the huge time commitment for recording and editing.
  • Gather feedback, make edits, and publish Ghost Mode & Other Strange Stories.
    • Success! The short story collection was released as a paperback and e-book in June.
  • Begin planning for an untitled videogame.
    • Alas, no.
  • Continue to write and publish a blog post and distribute a newsletter monthly.
    • Success (as of today)!

What about the stretch goals?

  • Complete freelance editing projects for Goodman Games.
    • Success! In addition to editing hundreds of monsters for the upcoming Dungeon Denizens sourcebook, I had the pleasure of proofing a short adventure, some articles for their annual yearbook, and the designer diaries for the much-anticipated rerelease of Crypt of the Devil Lich—with more freelance work on the horizon.
  • Design and sell Curmudgeons & Flagons apparel/products at Café Press.
    • Nuh-uh.

What went wrong right?

It would be easy to lament all of the projects that fell by the wayside, and honestly, a part of me does. But the reality is I have more ideas and ambition than hours in the day—or days in the year, for that matter.

Moreover, when it comes to combat between quantity and quality, I’ll side with the latter every time.

A bigger issue, perhaps, is the inherent difficulty in estimating how long a new task is going to take. I’ve gotten pretty good at predicting how much time it will take to write, revise, edit, lay out, and publish a novel. But when it comes to pioneering new forms of storytelling—from audiobooks to webcomics to video games—I don’t know what I don’t know.

Yes, I’ve become quite enthusiastic about experimentation in recent years. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have pumped 200-plus hours into creating my first TTRPG, which has forced me to extend far beyond my prior comfort zone in terms of honing my technical-writing skills, researching publishing platforms, sampling and subscribing to a mapmaking software platform, enlisting playtesters, hiring freelance illustrators, and so forth.

Truth be told, The Curse of Er’Mah’Gerd has proven to be more time-consuming than I imagined. Fortunately, it’s also a lot of fun to work on!

So while I’d love to have recorded an audiobook edition of The Lost Tale of Sir Larpsalot or to begin digging into a digital format for interactive storytelling (i.e. a videogame), I can’t be too disappointed by my progress in 2021. After all, I also squeezed in a few extra activities beyond what is outlined above, including writing and submitting a short story (“Darlings”) to an upcoming dreampunk anthology and participating in a mix of in-person and virtual events.

All in all, I’m pleased with the pace of my production in 2021. Of course, I already have big plans for 2022. More on that next month…