The Writing Life, 4 January 2025
Recapping the success and non-success of last year's goals and what I want for next year's writing goals.
Well, I hope everyone is getting off on the right foot for the upcoming year 2025. As for me, I decided to use the first newsletter of the year to look back on my old goals for the year just passed.
I had considered maybe doing a separate post about all those goals and the numbers I did (or didn’t reach) this year. However, the whole point - or, at least, one of the main points of this newsletter - is to discuss my writing experiences, projects, and related work. It wouldn’t make sense not to talk about goals here, even though I’ll try not to get to numbers-heavy here.
So, let’s talk writing goals past and present. I’m not a fan of the word “resolutions” when it comes to setting goals for the year, are you?
The Home Front
Not too much to discuss here. I got to see my family over the holidays, in some cases more than once. I think I did have time to relax, even though I’m going to be jumping into the teaching mess once again starting next week. However, depending on the drop in temperatures and the increase in precipitation, exactly when we get back off break might vary.
Writing Goals 2024
During the past few years, I’ve had a good handle on my writing goals for the upcoming year right from the beginning. This year was no different.
For those who didn’t want to bother clicking on the link, here were some of those goals.
I wanted to write a minimum of 200,000 words for 2024. Since I’ve gotten at least that much written three out of the previous four years, I figured that was a good minimum quota, similar to how I want to write either at least 500 words per day or spend at least 30 minutes revising or planning my work. In addition, I wanted to meet my daily minimum writing goals at least 75 percent of the time.
Later in the year, I also decided later I wanted to at least try to exceed my personal best yearly total, which was 215,152.I wanted to finish the rough draft of The Yank Striker 2 (working title of my second book in The Yank Striker series) this year. I had optimistically thought I might have it done by the summer of 2024, but I more realistically figured it might be more like the end of the year before it was completed. Later in the year, I decided to try and keep it somewhere around 75,000 words in its rough draft form.
Finally, I thought it might be cool to not only write some more poetry, but eventually maybe collect it into a chapbook format or get it published somewhere.
So…, how did I do on them?
Better than I expected, actually.
I reached 200,000 words by Black Friday of November. Shortly before I headed off to holiday break, I got past last year’s total. And by the end of 2024, I had written 224,606 words. It was 9,454 words above last year’s total and less than 400 words short of 225,000.
I also ended up meeting my daily writing quotas 84 percent of the time, only one percent less than last year. Although I ended up spending several hundred minutes less revising and planning than I did before, I still think this was still overall the most productive writing year I ever had.I was so close to getting the rough draft of The Yank Striker 2, everyone. As of the end of 2024, I have a rough draft of 74,059 words. As far as word count goes, I fell just short. In my heart, I think I have maybe four or so scenes I’ve got to finish up before I feel secure in calling it a complete rough draft.
Considering my first two books took (depending on how I look at the process), 4-5 years to complete, the fact I started last year with a manuscript of about 25,000 words and I’m nearly finished with the rough draft is at least a partial victory - a result, as the announcers call a draw in the English Premier League.Well, right at the end of 2024, I produced my first ever collection of poetry, The Flow and the Journey, a collection of 19 poems with river and travel themes. Check out my recent post on it for more information (and where you can find it).
The Flow and the Journey
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As I’ve mentioned previously in this space, I came into writing poetry more or less under protest.
Writing Goals 2025
With what has happened in 2024, I have decided to set out my goals for the upcoming year in this space. I recognize I might modify or add to these goals as I did last year, but such is life, so they say.
Write a minimum 200,000 words, but I would love to crack the 225,000 mark this year if at all possible. And with my results during the past two years, I should be able to make my daily minimum writing goals at least 80 percent of the time.
Whether I will manage to do this or not is an interesting question. I imagine I will be spending much more time with revisions this year than the previous year due to finishing revisions for The Yank Striker 2.I should be able to get the rough draft of The Yank Striker 2 done by the end of the month. However, this means a big turnaround of having a final draft ready for publication. If I was going to have my preference, I would want to have it ready for release either late May or early June, which means I should try and get a rough draft stitched together by mid-January. I’d like to let it sit for about four weeks, and then it would give me a solid three months to finish revisions. It would be a tight turnaround, but I don’t think it would be impossible.
Currently, I have 24,004 words written on The Untitled Pro Wrestling Project, which I’ve mentioned her previously. I would like to make similar progress on this manuscript over the course of this year. It would be fantastic if I had a full rough draft on my hands, but I’m not quite committed to the idea - yet.
As far as my poetry goes, I would like to continue to add to my collection of original work. Whether I want to put together another chapbook this year might be an open question. I would like to get my poems published in an outside publication, whether it be a poetry periodical or something regional. I have no acquaintance with this whole process, so I am sure this will be a full learning experience.
So for right now, I have two hard goals and two soft goals. I’m hoping I make progress on them throughout the year.
Writing Quote(s) of the Week:
I’ll start off with Toni Morrison explaining something important about writing and identity.
I never asked Tolstoy to write for me, a little colored girl in Lorain, Ohio. I never asked [James] Joyce not to mention Catholicism or the world of Dublin. Never. And I don't know why I should be asked to explain your life to you. We have splendid writers to do that, but I am not one of them. It is that business of being universal, a word hopelessly stripped of meaning for me. Faulkner wrote what I suppose could be called regional literature and had it published all over the world. That's what I wish to do. If I tried to write a universal novel, it would be water. Behind this question is the suggestion that to write for black people is somehow to diminish the writing. From my perspective there are only black people. When I say 'people,' that's what I mean.
Toni Morrison
And for the first time ever, I am including a quote about writing suggested by one of my subscribers. This comes from my good friend and fellow writer Gesene Oaks at
, which I was happy to see.Deadliest words to writers of poetry and short fiction: I don't get it.
Gesene Oaks
What I’m Doing Having to Do With Writing
This week, I stopped by Green Point Mercantile, my old hometown of Muscatine’s newest independent bookstore. It’s located at 214 Chestnut St., right in the old downtown district.
I had the chance to meet with the owner, Candy Fuegen, an old classmate of mine, and we talked books and the new location. She now has copies of my books, including The Holy Fool, The Yank Striker, and my chapbook The Flow and the Journey.
It’s been way too long since Muscatine had an independent bookstore, so I was delighted to hear of Green Point’s opening just this fall. I would highly recommend checking them out if you are ever in Muscatine. Click on the button below to check them out.
How to support me😊.
Go to the links on the side if you are reading this on a desktop/laptop or the links on my profile to check out some of my other links. For example, in those places, you can find out about my first book, the journalism thriller The Holy Fool: A Journalist’s Revolt, as well as the first book in my The Yank Striker series, The Yank Striker: a Footballer’s Beginning.
If you go follow the links above, you will be able to buy both the paperback and ebook versions of my books on Amazon. Again, if you just put “Jason Liegois” in Google you’ll probably find them on the first page of search results.
If you happen to visit these fine independent book stores in Iowa, you can find my books there:
[NEWEST LOCATION] Green Point Mercantile, 214 Chestnut St., Muscatine.
Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
Bent Oak Books, 619 7th St., in my new hometown of Fort Madison.
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.
The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.
I’m always looking for some new places to place my books, so feel free to hit me up in the comments if you have a suggestion.
My poetry book The Flow and the Journey is going to be available at the first two bookstores above (and hopefully more down the road), but it is also available online but not on Amazon. I’ve set up a new online store for copies of my chapbook on my Wordpress site, Liegois Media. If you want to get a physical copy, go ahead and click on the button below.
On the subject of Substack, I’m grateful if you are signed up for my free subscription, but I would love it if you signed up for a paid one. The monthly rate is the lowest I can put it ($5 per month) but my yearly rate of $35 is a steal at less than three/fifths the monthly rate.
Now, if you are interested in supporting me but can’t quite afford a full subscription, I am now on Venmo. If you are interested in a donation of whatever you can provide, you can just send whatever you can afford. Just click the button below; anything you can provide helps me keep things going.
Final Thoughts
Not much more for this week. Hope the snow doesn’t muck things up for us too much in Iowa. Best wishes to everyone.