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

[@NanaSomebody]

I think my brain created some kind of psychological connection between watching this channel and feeling a painful, frenzied urge to write, which I always appreciate. Thank you for the work you do-I can’t express how impactful it has been.

[@yonathanasefaw9001]

Yeah I felt that way too.

[@MicaEditour]

Same... what is she lacing these videos with??? 😂😂😂

[@Otter-Brainrot]

I feel the exact same way!

[@newtocamelot]

My greatest accomplishment of the year was selling my first short story! It was published by Prairie Soul Press in their anthology “The Philosophy of Blue.” I’ve been trying to get my stories published for years and it’s finally happening. I couldn’t have done it without your incredible channel. All I know about POV and line level writing I learned from you. This year I’ve already received two more acceptances! One poem and one short story. I had the pleasure of receiving feedback from you on the short story (A Tale of Knives and Arrowheads ☺️). It will be published by A Coup of Owls Press in their summer anthology Other Worlds. I signed the contract on Monday! I am not exaggerating when I say your channel changed my life. ❤

[@ShaelinWrites]

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I'm not at all surprised A Tale of Knives and Arrowheads was accepted for publication! I can't wait to read the published version ☺️

[@deathsheadhawkmoths]

unbridled passionate jealousy for your button-up collection always

[@ShaelinWrites]

honestly it's my greatest accomplishment

[@DiinoLeHarlequin]

Hey! There's this book called Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor and the writing style is REALLY different. I bet you'd like it but I won't be able to read it cos it has some content that's too much for me right now. 😂

[@Amaiguri]

Shaelin, I just wanna say I think over the past two years, you have become one of my favorite creators -- especially in the writing space. Even tho it hurts it in the algorithm, sometimes I wait to watch your videos until I know I'm gonna have time to write cuz they always make me feel so cozy but also, activate my brain in a way that other channels can't. (Not to knock anyone in particular! Different channels are just for people in different parts of their journeys!) Anyway, I'm really excited to see you do more stuff in the future! If you need ideas, I would love to hear if you have anything new to say on developmental editing, since you've been doing big passes. Alternatively, I'd just love to hear more about your fantasy stuff that you're working on, since I also write fantasy ❤ Here's to a great new year!

[@matthewjaco847]

While querying agents in hopes of publishing my book, I have drafted a list of (probably) not quite attainable goals for the year. Mostly just to make myself show up and try: 1. Write one flash fiction per week 2. Write one short story per month 3. Write one children’s story per quarter (I’ve never writing a single children’s story, but it should still be fun to try) Happy writing, everyone!

[@a-yam943]

2023 has been my year of starting writing. I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a child but never really knew how to write until something clicked this year. I wrote my first short story, hated it, wrote another short story, hated it, rewrote the second short story. Submitted it to 3 journals in late December. I also wrote a handful of poems, none of which are good. I read 28 things this year including a lot of short stories and I plan to write as many short stories as I can in 2024. Your videos have helped me so much with getting into writing, so thank you for that. I’m excited to see which videos are next and to improve my craft.

[@a-yam943]

As for videos to see I’d like to see another one about confidence. I kept telling myself the 3rd short story I’ve written couldn’t possibly be any good but my friends encouraged me to submit it. It would be nice to have some tips on confidence as a beginner!!

[@margauxb3591]

Great to see you back! Your scripted content is of course top-notch and always welcome, but don't pressure yourself to only make master classes! I think we'll all appreciate vlogs, updates and Q&As just as much (also justice for the specific book recs series you started)!

[@efosaagbonson1581]

Queen of Specificity...thanks for coming in early this year.

[@sarahumlaut]

Shaelin! I'd love a video about organizing drafts on your laptop -- something I have struggled with for years 😵‍💫

[@caitlinibm924]

I'd also love to see how you set up certain documents, like what a manuscript for a novel vs a short story looks like or how you plan/summarise as you write. I've tried multiple different ways, and still can't quite seem to peg down a way that works for my brain.😄

[@Lara_Ameen]

I’m always impressed by the amount/volume that you write and how many books you read! I love your 2024 goals, too. I love fantasy books! 😍 Things I’m most proud of in 2023: - Earning my PhD - Finishing my PhD dissertation (12 drafts of the script written between 2021-2023; 3 drafts of the fantasy novel adaptation written in 2023) - Got traditionally published (thriller short story in an ace YA anthology published by Page Street YA) - Wrote a new horror pilot (Adult) and the first 2 chapters of its YA novel adaptation - Read 89 books, which is the most I’ve ever read in a year (I also read CHLORINE and GHOST MUSIC last year-very interesting!) 2024 goals (that I can control): - Revise my PhD dissertation Adult fantasy novel again - Query my PhD dissertation fantasy novel - Finish drafting YA horror novel - Submit pilots to TV writing fellowships/opportunities when appropriate - Maybe write more short fiction (took a break from it in 2023) - Read 100 books

[@ShaelinWrites]

Wow what an incredible year!! HUGE congratulations on your PhD, that's an incredible accomplishment, and doing so much else alongside that! Also love that you did a fantasy novel as a PhD dissertation--amazing!!

[@veganphilosopher1975]

Inspirational. I actually set my writng goals for this year for the first time. Look forward to being able to reflect on them 2025!

[@ChBrahm]

Just did a word count for my own projects of last year 52.253 words. Didn´t even think of doing this. So glad I did

[@MerweenTheWitch]

Delighted to hear from you, and I wish you a great writing time in 2024!

[@ororogenese]

happy 2024!!! since you're taking suggestions, i'm just going to say i hunger for more recent reads!! it's my primary source of book recs and i love listening to you talk about what you thought of them :)

[@o_o-lj1ym]

Amazing stuff Shaelin! I was blown away by You Know Where Your Body is Buried. Wishing you a great 2024!

[@ShaelinWrites]

thank you so much!! so happy you enjoyed it!!

[@Neko123Uchiha]

2023 was the year of WIPs for me. Finished my big detective series in March, and since then I've chased this high of having a big project to work on. Wrote some short stories, but mostly played around with ideas, ranging from WIPs being 1000 - 25,000 words long. So far, nothing has stuck, but I'll keep on collecting ideas! :) My goal for 2024 is to hopefully find that spark again, a story I can get really invested in. We'll see how this pans out! xD

[@donboggs3880]

Dearest of Shaelins, Get a cup of tea for this one.... Just a short story long: I appreciate your knowledge, your willingness to share that knowledge, your video production skills and most of all your great haircut. You would be safe to stop there... Since you insist: Okay, the last is kind of goofy. I started watching you several years back. I am in retirement and have reached the point where I have interest in writing about my early disjointed life experiences. I don't know what my offspring will be, a girl, boy, middle ground or memoir, novel or three page short story. Or, published at all. I'm spending time in this chair, consistently. Even though I majored in journalism/communications and have written journal type messages to myself since I was fourteen, my only sort-of-published pieces were during classes in the school paper a few, shall we say, years ago. Recently, my heart has turned to writing about my early, somewhat tumultuous journey. Although not a drastic torturous experience physically, emotionally roller-coaster-ish. When I began researching information on where to start I watched hours of YT looking for personalities whose information I thought I could respect and actually listen to without gagging on their personalities and cringing on the production. Each day I opened YT seeking people whose knowledge I could respect and actually listen to without running off on mental tangents. I watched days of videos, many times just hitting the back button on my remote to start the next video, my ADD does compound that problem, until I ran across your face. I go on intuition many times and my spidey-sense screamed into my brain...something to notice. A brightly reflective surface that moves, a squirrel would say...if they would talk. Regardless my prejudgment self, who reclines in my left ear, automatically dismissed you as not having enough years to satisfy my curiosity so, I passed. The next day, there you were again, shoulder length hair cutely framing your friendly face but still, I scrolled to the next video. The next morning, three hours beyond ante merīdiem, as I resumed my research, there you were...again! As I hovered over decision, YT played a few seconds of your video intro section and I almost kept scrolling to the next video. Your audio literally hurt my ears. Certain frequencies transfer through into my crazily vibrating ear sections hurting enough to bother in a physically uncomfortable manner. You could have been screaming directly into my pillaged ears!!! My more mature self, now in it's arc of a mid-air collision within my right ear canal said, "Hey, she's kinda cute and her voice intrigues me," so I gathered ourselves together (me, my self...and I). Looking down at the remote, I located the play button and willingly clicked the bait, then leaned back to listen expecting disappointment. Then really listened. Then began adjusting my audio parameters to a more comfortable level removing the most intrusive higher breaking frequencies. I found myself three hours later looking for your next video and next...I became addicted. Still going? Wow, you really are a tiger! After making my lunch, sitting down back in front of my television and taking your latest video off pause I suddenly realized I've totally fallen in like with you. With your attributes of knowledge, consistent visual delivery and organizational flow. Kudos to your production. But the real reason I keep going back to you, besides being in like, is your knowledge and delivery of the "goods." I have internalized as much as I can of your writing knowledge and know I will not forget soon what you've given me. I believe, for the rest of this life. I thank you for being who you are and want you to know that what you do, at least for me, has changed my life. Not only my writing but, you have also impacted the way I think about writing in my life and that I find impressive. There, I've said it, you are impressive. Not taking it back and look forward to your next gift. Shaelin: Thank you. Best regards, Don (absolutely want to steal your name, so beautiful, a ronin) Okay, okay...shuttin' up. Ciao...lol.

[@african_chris]

Yay, Shaelin is back! 😃😃😃🎉🎉🎉

[@lydiahall4184]

I'd love to hear how getting back into writing fantasy after a long time away goes

[@AdamFishkin]

Good to see you again. It could be argued that a routine for short stories takes more maintenance and momentum than a routine for novels. It's because you have to line up so many littler projects in a row, and the ratio of preparation to actually doing things is skewed too wide.

[@u_t_d_s_h-1_a]

Indeed not--- or perhaps had. Had hoped to have five novellas published ---did write all five, but managed to see only one through to publication ---let see what gives this 2024...

[@c1975stark]

I would love to see some content on how to quit comparing yourself to other writers and how to have more confident-sounding writing. Currently my worries about not writing as much or as well as others holds me back from drafting anything in the first place. I also worry my style isn't strong enough, sometimes I don't even know if I have a style. Look forward to any uploads from you, though. Happy 2024. xx

[@vanessaglau1797]

Congrats on reaching all your goals for 2023 & wishing you a happy, fulfilled 2024! My most significant achievement was finishing my first science fiction novel. It was so much fun to write & I even got in a small first round of edits. Hope to do more with this project once I get some more feedback. I don't have any big writing goals for this year yet--maybe I'll just keep it this way since I have much less time now.

[@yonathanasefaw9001]

Welcome back Shaelin!

[@prairiebutch]

happy new year! i’ve been itching for a recent reads video 👀 can’t wait for all the great content this year will bring

[@ShaelinWrites]

should be a recent reads veryyy soon, I have one filmed!!

[@davies1738]

Happy 2024. Glad to see you had such a good writing year. I'm mainly writing plays at the moment. Currently trying to write a play in a month for January. Should get back to it...

[@aveeeed]

your videos always helped me outnlast year, looking forward for the next one's.

[@willtitone8844]

Happy new year Shaelin! I'd love to see a video on the process of how to go about finding beta readers/editors. That's coming up in my writing journey and I'm not really sure how to get my foot in the door. As for personal accomplishments, I wrote 24 poems and finished the 4th draft of what I hope will become my debut fantasy novel :)

[@codywilliams3976]

As far as 2023 goals, I really didn't have anything concrete beyond wrapping up rewrites on my novella THE FIFTH LINE. I did that and the book is coming out next week. Other than that, I worked more on drafting my southern gothic epic, WHISPERWOOD. I've been working on it since November of 2022. In '24, I expect to finish drafting it. It's a chunker standing at over 240,000 words (770 manuscript pages) at the moment. When I finish that, I plan to start drafting a novel called WHY NOT BE WONDERFUL? which is a sequel to the aforementioned THE FIFTH LINE. I wrote a handful of short stories in '23. Off the top of my head there's "Clutter", "When The Walls Close In; or The Laughing Bear", and "The Phantom of the Christmas Concert". I'd like to write another holiday story to go with that last one and do like a eBook exclusive Holiday Bundle but I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. I'd like to write a couple more shorts in 2024. I've got the titles for two of them: "Tailgating a Tricycle" and "She Bought it For A Game But She Changed Her Mind". We'll see.

[@jenniferrollin5777]

You mentioned that you wanted to write more poetry this year...have you thought about participating in NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) during April. The goal is to write one poem a day in April...they can be long or short.

[@Mini-f6i]

loved this video! can you make a video on personal/narrative essay? i would like to see more videos on creative nonfiction

[@ShaelinWrites]

unfortunately I don't really have any personal experience with creative nonfiction!

[@kiremio]

hey shaelin! have you got any tips for a messy plot? i've been writing this for over two years now, and it's starting to feel as though events are more just ‘thrown in there’ just to get them in, without actually having solid progression. sometimes it even feels like i'm entirely diverting from the book itself, including tens of thousands of words of completely irrelevant events just to try and increase tension. 100k words and i'm still not feeling like the plot has a solid progression or purpose even tho i have a solid plan... idk what i could be doing wrong (it's a romance/action btw if that helps)? tysm and sorry for the mini essay! :)

[@SundayJane-j1o]

To answer what content I wanna see, I want more recent reads. I'm probably in the minority but I just love recent reads haha

[@ShaelinWrites]

there will always be more recent reads!!

[@Felesoid]

Could you do chat about writing software? I use Papyrus Author. I think it is the best writing software on the market and I would love to know what you think of it. Best wishes Andrew.

[@ShaelinWrites]

I'll confess I'm boring and just use microsoft word haha

[@MichaelButlerAuthor]

Let's work together! Let me know if you need any help.

[@ibrahimlovesblink]

girl u looks gorgeous😍

[@sourisdebibliotheque]

I wish to have your thoughts on representation. I want to include different people in my stories: people of color, neurodivergent people, chronically ill or disable people, with diverse sexuality, etc. But I am none of those things. I do research and write with empathy, I plan on having diverse people read my manuscript, but I still fear my depiction of those people risks not being accurate. If I add a diversity characteristic to a character just because I feel like it, is it queerbaiting? false representation? I don't want to address the challenges linked to being a minority, because it is not my place to do so. People from those groups should have space to do it and I try to give it to them when I have the power to do so. But I still want to include all kinds of people in my stories because it is how life is. I feel that any person, whoever or whatever they are, can face problems in a way I can imagine. Because our characters, to be fully formed, complex and interesting, have to be so much more than one label. But what if I am wrong about diverse people feeling like I do? A person of color told me I should have a good reason to include diversity. Or maybe just give my white perspective on those things and stick to a white main character. I disagree. What about your stories? Do you keep space for diverse characters? How do you do it? How to balance respectful representation, realism and creativity? Am I thinking too much about it? Probably. But I feel it is important. I hope all those questions I have will inspire you to do a video on this topic. Thank you!

[@croc2112]

You can just kind of do whatever you want on those subejct there isnt a wrong answer.

[@RoseBookblood]

Last year for me was a disappointment in regards to writing. Turns out studying Russian at university can be soul- and time-sucking. Though I'm proud that I've reached a point where I can see your amazing progress (huge congratulations!) and not beat myself up for not doing as much, and just accept that sometimes writing can't be my priority. I'd much rather not be productive and feel good with myself, than write 100k a year and be miserable. P.s.: very random, but I realized that I gave my non-binary ace lesbian character your exact same fashion style, and that's hilarious to me.

[@Casca1997Berserk]

Cathoven

[@Nbrolfiwriting]

Thank you, Shaelin! 😊 always like hearing from you, and my main goal is to write my 2 drafts of my first book in my series. I'm looking at 6k words per month and hopefully gonna get my website up. Any tips on growing on instagram?