R.H. Walker, Author

(Cover image by Jamie Fenn on Unsplash)

Happy New Year!

I’m a big sucker for goals and resolutions. I love a checklist, I love tracking my progress on goals throughout the year. So, I wanted to appraise the blog of my goals for this year, so you can follow along with my progress!

Bekah’s 2024 Writing Milestones:

• Attended LTUE 2024
  • I returned to Provo in February to attend Life, the Universe, and Everything with my friend (and Solace Curse Holdings collaborator) Ari! We had such a blast hanging out and attending sessions with Utah’s vibrant sci-fi/fantasy community.
• Started this blog
  • Perhaps my biggest accomplishment this year is building the website! This was a big symbolic step for me, a signal to myself that I’m ready to take myself and my writing seriously, instead of nursing it as a co-dependent hobby.
• Completed 4 short stories
  • This is a bigger deal than you might think! I only hopped back on the short fiction train starting in July, and I’m quite proud of myself for getting as far as I have.
• Completed the script for Solace Curse Holdings
  • I am SO excited to announce that I did it, I managed to finish the first draft of this project!! It’s not perfect (is it ever?) but it’s great to have the foundation.

Bekah’s 2025 Writing Goals:

• Receive 25 submission rejections
  • Kim Liao wrote an excellent blog post for LitHub back in 2016 about “collecting rejections”, and I think it’s a great idea. I’m also someone who needs to overcome both my ego and my fear.
• Complete at least 5 short stories
  • I have more than 5 short stories on my slate this year, but this is my boilerplate goal. Returning to short fiction this year has taught me more than I could have expected– about time and project management, about story structure, about the art of storytelling itself. I hope to keep learning those lessons this year.
• Finalize the script for Solace Curse Holdings
  • After a little rest I’ll be jumping into a big structural edit on this! After my initial developmental edits, I will likely let it rest for another month. After that another pass myself, have both of my artists do a pass, and then recruit beta-readers and/or an editor to get their opinions. The big hope is to start publishing this online before the end of 2025, but that will depend on if we can finalize both the script and the art during that time.
• Complete the first draft of Thea of Merecastle
  • Thea of Merecastle will be my big longform draft for 2025! This is an idea I’m very excited about, and I’m hoping to make some excellent progress on it.
• Attend Narrativity 2025
  • I can’t make it back out to Utah for LTUE this year, but I am planning on attending the Narrativity convention in Plymouth, MN at the end of June!
• Make progress on By Writers For Writers
  • I haven’t made a specific goal for continuing By Writers For Writers this year, but so far I’ve been averaging a book a month, and I think I want to maintain that. I will keep posting those reviews here as well!

I think that’s everything I have for now! I hope you have a happy new year– what goals have you set for yourself this year?