Down the Writing Memory Lane of 2024

- Reflections of a year gone by and resolutions for a year to come: Part 3

“There is no real ending. It's just the place where you stop the story.”

- Frank Herbert

This is the third year in a row that I am penning this review, and the fourth year in a writing career that I no longer view as new. The review is an opportunity for me to reflect with gratitude on the time gone by and take what I have learned to a New Year. It is also an endeavour to share what I have learned with other aspiring writers.

Before setting goals for the future, it is always a good idea to reflect on the past with gratitude, pat ourselves on the back for a job well done and sum up the learnings so that we are well-positioned to begin the New Year. We cannot change history, but we can definitely ensure not repeating it.

If you remember my last review, I made a pact with you – dear reader – to share my progress, achievements, successes, and failures every year before the New Year. I have come good on my promise this year. I hope my learnings inspire you to make 2025 the best year of your life.

While I am a spontaneous writer, I have planned my writing journey. I prepared for 2024 by setting my goals at the end of 2023. 2024 was all about following my plans.

While I was able to execute my plans, I have mixed feelings when I look back at the year from an outcome perspective. It could also be because this was a year where I wrote significantly more non-fiction than fiction, leaving the creative being within me unsatiated.

Continued to Advance as a Versatile Writer and an Author

I continued with my daily writing ritual this year despite facing many challenges and distractions. First, my coaching and speaking career flourished, demanding more of my time and attention. Second, I was facing some personal challenges for half of the year, which meant I was preoccupied while sitting on my writing desk. Third, I travelled a lot more than usual this year.

There were many days during the year when I wrote simply to keep up with the writing habit rather than enjoy the process. I am glad that I could stick to (and add more to) the writing plan made in 2023 with an eye on quality rather than quantity. Genuinely, I am very proud of what came from my pen in the year.

While penning this reflection, I realise that I have a lot to be grateful for during the year.

My Writing Goals for 2024

At the end of 2023, I had set out the following writing goals for myself:

1. Will pen no more than 20 short stories during the year. But each story will stand out and be meaningful.

2. Win at least 1 major international fiction competition

3. Publish my fourth fiction book during the year, which should reach more readers than my first three books did.

4. Write the first draft and complete editing of my next manuscript for publishing in 2025  

5. Review at least 1 book a month and 12 books during the year

6. Read at least 15 books during the year

The above goals were for my author career. I had set separate milestones for writing non-fiction pertaining to my business, which I have mentioned in the blog post on my coaching site.

Behind the Pages: Glimpses of A Writer’s Life

1. Continued burning the daily early morning oil, almost

I continued waking up between 5 and 5:30 am for most 365 days of the year, including during times of sickness, heavy workload or on vacation. During the ongoing winters, I have forced myself to get up from bed, not looking forward to writing. I wrote a lot on my phone given my travel this year.

This is also the year where I was a lot more intentional and a lot less spontaneous than usual with my writing. Writing for a purpose took precedence over writing for pleasure. I realise that this is also a phase in an author's life.

I continued making incremental progress daily, and the results started to show up.

2. Followed my writing calendar

At the end of 2023, I made a list of publications and platforms where I would send my stories for consideration in 2024. At the beginning of every month, I simply looked at my calendar and knew for which platform I had to write and submit my entries.

Compared to last year, my 2024 writing calendar had fewer entries, giving me a lot more flexibility to make space for new avenues, surprises and emergencies. Additions—and, in occasional cases, deletions—happened in the calendar throughout the year. Owing to the selective focus, all my entries were submitted well before the deadline in spite of other commitments and distractions.

Screenshot of my 2024 writing calendar

3. I stopped keeping count of my word count this year onwards

Keeping with my focus on quality, I stopped tracking my word count on the Grammarly dashboard. My guess is that I would have doubled my last year's word count of 11 million words owing to the sheer volume of what I wrote—22 articles, 30 blog posts, 21 short stories, editing one fiction manuscript(that was published), and writing and editing one non-fiction manuscript.

In retrospect, I realise that's quite a lot for a year where I decided to cut down on the quantity!

4. Sending Fortnightly emails to my Email Subscribers

I regularly sent newsletters and emails to my site subscribers every fortnight.

Image of one of the emails sent to subscribers

5. Started making and posting writing reels

This was a year when I succumbed to the trend of writers making reels about their books and work. Honestly, I didn't want to do it, but my research and Instagram dashboard insights told me that was the way to go to increase my reach as a writer. And so, I put in the work.

  One of the Instagram Reels made and posted in 2024

I dislike making reels so much that I don't even keep a count of them. Believe me, making reels take a lot of work, and unlike writing, it is not pleasurable for me. But my Instagram analytics show that it is paying off, so I will (grudgingly) continue with them in 2025.

Writing Report Card: Progress Vs. Plan (And Beyond)

Here are my actual accomplishments against the goals I set for myself at the beginning of 2024:

1. Penned 21 short stories, 22 articles, 2 personal stories, 5 book reviews and 30 blog posts during the year

Despite my target of writing no more than 20 short stories during the year, I exceeded the target by one. While I don't mind missing this target, I feel my quality could have been even more enhanced had I written less.

The power of personal stories continued to amaze me. A personal story that I wrote on LinkedIn about a mundane subject like my unrepaired microwave went viral and got me calls from senior people in the concerned company. I continued writing on unconventional women-centric subjects like ‘Menopause’ on Women's Web until the platform, sadly, closed down. I also wrote blog posts on out-of-the-box subjects like ‘Personal Development Lessons from Reading Fiction Books.’

Cover image of the personal story that went viral on LinkedIn

I fell woefully short of my reading and book review target. I targeted to review 1 book a month, and instead did one a quarter. The reason is I read far less than I should. While I continued reading daily outside magazines and newspapers, I could read only 8 books a year against my target of 15.

Reading is the fuel for writing, and I can't expect to remain a good writer without a diligent reader. For me to continue evolving as a writer, the scorecard will need to change this year.

2. 1 of my story got published in an international anthology.

My story 'Good Girls be Damned' got published in the prestigious US-based 'Unleash Press' anthology, which also did a feature on me and my writing. I consider myself fortunate for being the only Indian writer on the list of published writers in the anthology.

Cover image of the U.S. based anthology where my story was published

Another significant highlight of the year was being the author of the week on the erstwhile Women's Web platform for three of the five writeups published on the platform.

Snapshot of one 'Author of the Week' week on the Women's Web Platform

It is worth noting that my ratio of rejection to writing is very high as a writer. While I did meet my international win cum publication target, there were many heartbreaks as a fiction writer. This isn't the first time, and this won't be the last. Despite the long submittable rejection pile-up, the fact that the anthology that published my story this year had rejected my entry last year gives me hope.

Screenshot of my Submittable Dashboard; Ratio of rejections to acceptance tells its own story

While I am not disheartened, I do want to put a writer's struggle in perspective – behind one success, there are dozens of failures.

3. Published my fourth book – Till Fate Do Us Part

My fourth book baby, Till Fate Do Us Part, came out in August 2024. The contemporary medical romance that sheds light on multiple social issues took two years to conceptualise, write, edit and develop. Going by the number of reviews, readers' ratings and personal feedback I have received, this is the most universally successful of my four books to date.

Snapshot of a Press Coverage and Amazon review and rating status of Till Fate Do Us Part

Some readers shared that they cried reading the book, while others wrote that they became aware of neurological challenges after reading it. Reading/discussing some of the remarks was very humbling for me.

Precious Moments: At the book launch event of Till Fate Do Us Part

In November 2024, the book went for a reprint. This was my third book in a row, after Twisted Tales and Turns and A Price to Love, that went for reprint within months of its publication. Grateful.

Publisher Announcement of the reprint of Till Fate Do Us Part

4. Finished writing the manuscript did multiple rounds of edits for my next book

I wrote the first draft (‘Draft Zero’ as I call it) of a nonfiction manuscript from January to March 2024, got it beta-read in September, and did multiple rounds of edits through November and December.

This is the first time I am attempting nonfiction and the first time I have written and edited a long-format manuscript in the same year. At the time of writing this, the first draft of 69.5k words has become a 57k-word manuscript, and the process is continuing.

That is what the life of a writer is — editing always consumes more time rather than writing something from scratch.

Keeping up with the schedule amidst my coaching commitments and the marketing activities of Till Fate Do Us Part took tremendous juggling. I could pull this off only because of the writing plan I made at last year's end, which factored in this commitment.

While I certainly enjoy writing fiction more than nonfiction, I can see that readers benefit directly from reading nonfiction. I am again venturing into a new genre with my next, and time will tell how if I have been able to pull it off.

5.  Connected with readers across ages in multiple roles- speaker, trainer, author.

Being a speaker, I am used to being invited by institutes and organisations in my professional capacity. However, 2024 was the first year I received multiple invitations from various educational institutions as an author. Besides speaking at these events, I was privileged to take a workshop on creative writing for young minds.

Images from one of my workshops with children and a reader in Lucknow holding my book

It was also incredible to see all four of my books travel to different lit fests and book fairs throughout the year.

6. Invested in my development by taking up a writing course during the year.

As the world evolves, it is necessary to keep upskilling and relearning your craft. I am a vocal proponent of upskilling as a coach, and I am glad to have walked the talk by taking one writing course during the year. I also made it a point to regularly revisit the learnings from the courses I took last year. My other commitments outside writing prevented me from taking more courses, but I will definitely aim for continuity on this front.

7. The Writer in the News: 8 Media Mentions

I found myself in the media 8 times during the year for my books and writing journey. Prominent publications include The Times of India, New Indian Express and The Daily Guardian. The CNNNews18 TV appearance which covered all my books in detail took the cake.

In the News for my Writing: Images of media appearances as a writer during the year

My Writing Goals for 2025

What can I do differently in 2025? How can I grow as a writer?

My motto for 2025 is life-first, work-later. In many ways, this is a pivot for me, a significant mindset shift. Accordingly, I am taking a step back.

Here are my 2024 goals after reflecting on my learnings from 2023:

1. Daily writing with selective focus - will write no more than 15 stories during the year. The writing calendar I have made for 2025 reflects this focus on quality

2.  Win/Publish on at least 1 major international fiction and 1 major Indian fiction platform respectively

3.  Publish my first non-fiction book and fifth book during the year

4.  I will not draft a new manuscript in 2025. This is a major change—for the first time since I took up writing, I have a goal to 'not' draft a manuscript during the year.

5.  Review at least 10 books during the year

6.  Read. Read. Read. Read at least 2 books a month, 24 books during the year. This is going to be my major focus.

7. Get published in a Chicken Soup for the Soul anthology. This childhood dream is a new addition to my bucket list for 2025. I am challenging myself to achieve it.

My Writing Journey… The Last Word for 2024

Writing is a passion that I indulge in every day. It is also a journey of hard work and rejection. I am fortunate to have achieved some successes and garnered lots of love along the way.

Honestly, rejections during the journey don’t discourage me. I write out of love, not for fame or money. I want to reach more readers and empower more people through my words—this dream keeps me going.

Readers' Love= Writers' Joy

I hope readers continue to shower me with their love for years to come.

My Second Career: Journey as an Executive Coach and Personal Empowerment Life Coach

My journey as a coach was equally exciting and eventful as that of being a writer, with the revenues and impact from my business growing manifold. I have penned the blog post in a similar format at my coaching website here if you wish to read the same.

A Special Day: Named among India's Top 3 Women Entrepreneurs

I am blessed to make a direct impact on the lives and careers of so many people through the work I do.

My Personal Round-Off for 2024

My personal goals for 2024, and the progress under them are:

1. More travel during the year: I travelled a lot in 2024. 1 domestic vacation, 1 international vacation, 1 solo trip, as well as multiple small duration travels. This was the first year that I stopped carrying my laptops during vacations. And I am determined this will not be the last 😊.

2. 30 min-daily workouts: I failed miserably on this front. No wonder, my health deteriorated in 2024. Nothing alarming, but I need to spend more time on physical activities. While I was consistent with a daily 20-minute workout routine for the first 10 months of the year, this dropped off my radar in the last two months.

One silver lining on this front was me resuming playing badminton after nearly two decades.

Rekindling old flames: Resumed playing badminton after two decades

I intend to restart with regular after the winters are over and increase the duration.

3. Start maintaining a daily gratitude journal and end the day by noting the things I am grateful for: While I didn't start a journal, I did add a 'thank you' routine in my daily prayers. This helped me overcome a very difficult period personally.

4. Declutter my surroundings: I started the year with an aim to simplify my business and life. While business experiments added more complexity, destiny had other plans for me in life. While I did declutter and simplify things, it was not to the extent I had envisaged.

   
   

5. Block at least 3 hours daily for quality family time: This was better than last year but I wasn't as consistent as I would have liked. Now that I have decided to merge business and personal goals and pivot to a life-first business approach, my scorecard should improve on this front in 2025.

                                                                           The pleasures of travelling and being with the family: Glimpses

Like last year, my scorecard again shows that I focus more on my career than personal life. While I am not apologetic about it, I do want to change.

I do not have any separate personal goals for 2025, except for consistent physical activity. If I succeed in pulling off the life-first business pivot, both my personal and professional ambitions should be realised.

The Last Word…You Can Write the Story of your Life The Way You Like

2022 was a good year for me. 2023 was even better. 2024 was the best. 2025 will be one better. I know that.

There were no shortcuts here; the results and accomplishments came from hard work.

Destiny is a choice.

2025 will be the best professional year of my life. No doubt about it. What I need to see is whether I will succeed in transforming into a life-first business pivot, while taking out the time for my passion of writing.

Will Love Triumph Over Fate? Or, are They Destined to be Apart?

                                                          Find Out in Till Fate Do Us Part

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Smita Das Jain is a writer by passion and writes every day. Samples of her writing are visible in her home office, her sunny terrace garden, her husband’s car, and the kitchen napkins. Her debut short story collection 'A Slice of Life' was named among India’s top three fiction works in 2021 by Writefluence. Her debut novel 'A Price to Love' came out in October 2022, followed by Twisted Tales and Turns in July 2023 and Till Fate Do Us Part in August 2024. Smita is the only Asian to be named in the Top 20 flash fiction winners list in the Spring 2022 contest of the prestigious US-based Women On Writing (WOW!) magazine for women writers, and her award-winning short stories have been featured in prominent national and international anthologies around the globe. You can learn more about her writings at https://www.smitaswritepen.com/

Outside the world of writing, Smita is an Executive Coach and Life Coach enabling people to get better at what they do, a 2X TEDx speaker, a keynote speaker at prestigious corporate conferences and a guest columnist on personal development matters for leading magazines and platforms. You can learn more about 'Smita's Empower Yourself' coaching program at https://www.lifecoachsmitadjain.com/