As 2024 draws to a close, I decided that it would be fitting to write up a quick summary of what I’ve achieved this year and what I’m looking forward to in the coming year.

In a nutshell, my 2024 can be summarised as follows:

• Total number of stories written: 24
  • Poetry: 1 (well, a set of 3 haikus)
  • Dribbles (0-50 words): 1
  • Flash stories (100-1000 words): 8
  • Short stories (1100-7500 words): 14
• Number of submissions made to publishers: 35
  • Number of rejections: 21
  • Number of acceptances: 5
  • Number of pending submissions: 9
• Number of unfinished stories: 5
• Acceptance rate: 19.2%

The stories that were published in 2024 were:

• Charlie – 100-word horror story published by Black Hare Press in their Patreon and in their Year Six collection.
• Charlie – an Afrikaans short story published by Naskrif in their April 2024 edition.
• The Thin Line Between Order and Chaos – a 50-word dribble that was published by FiftyWordStories.
• As They Left It – a 200-word flash horror story, published by Black Hare Press in their Flash Frights collection named Cabin.

Some takeaways from writing and submitting stories in 2024, and what I would like to do differently in 2025:

• It is absolutely key to find the right market for your story. A story might be rejected by one publisher, but it might be exactly spot on for another publisher. So the trick is to match your story (the key elements, genre of your story, etc.) with the right publisher. I’ve created a database of publishers and writing competitions for myself and I’m always on the lookout for more publishers and competitions – the more markets you know of, the better.
• Similarly, there is a lot of subjectivity involved in the process. Of course there is such a thing as genuinely good (and bad) writing, but people’s tastes also differ widely. So finding your own style and matching it with the right group of people is important. Don’t try to find acceptance in places where your style/genre simply won’t work.
• In 2024, I wrote a lot of stories based on themed calls for submission. This was an interesting and often quite challenging experience and helped me learn a lot about the submission process. However, I think going forward, I don’t want to be led by themed submissions too much. Instead, I mostly want to write stories based on my own interests and ideas, and then afterwards, match them with an appropriate publisher. I’m still going to keep my eye on submission calls, but I’m not going to let those calls drive my writing as much as it did in 2024.
• While 24 stories isn’t bad, I definitely need to write (and submit) more stories in 2025. I’m not going to set a specific goal for the number of stories that I want to write in 2025. Instead, I want to set myself a goal of around 70 submissions for 2025. This will of course mean that I will write a lot of new stories, but also resubmit a lot of older stories. A lot of well-known and prolific authors (like Neil Gaiman, Ursula Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Stephen King) have said that you must submit as often, resubmit a story as quickly as possible after it has been rejected, and that you should resubmit a story until it finds a home (even if that means submitting it 25+ times). The most I have ever submitted one story is four times. Most of my stories that have been accepted, were accepted on the first or second submission (I think that the success of those stories were mostly because they were a good fit for the magazine/publisher). Currently, I have two short stories that have each been submitted four times without success – I really believe in them (well, one might need a rewrite and the other is really cool and I don’t know why it keeps getting rejected). So basically, I need to re-submit my stories more frequently, evaluate their fit with the magazine/publisher properly, and not give up.
• So far, I have mostly written flash and short stories. While I will continue to do this, I would also like to write a few novelettes (7500 – 17500 words) and novellas (17000 – 40000 words).
• I’m really intrigued by the idea of writing stories for podcasts. I haven’t submitted any of my stories to a podcast yet, but in 2025, I would like to try my hand at writing a few short stories specifically for story podcasts.
• I want to improve my writing as much as possible in 2025 through the following three methods:
  • Reading and writing everyday.
  • Learning more about the craft of writing and the business of publishing and marketing books. I want to set aside at least one day a week (or at least one afternoon and evening a week) where I am just doing this. I have lots of books on writing and publishing that I want to read (or in some cases re-read) and there are several online courses that I need to work through. Importantly, I need to do the recommended exercises and activities in those courses and books!
  • At present, I am basically writing on my own and rarely get any feedback on my work (aside from gracious editors and reviewers whom I’m eternally grateful for!). I want to become involved in a writers’ community or critique group of some kind where I can review other people’s work and get feedback on my writing. I think that I can learn a lot from, not only the feedback, but also from reading other writers’ work. It would also be great to connect with other writers and make new friends along the way 🙂
• Lastly, I want to spend less time on social media (well, spend my time on social media more productively – i.e., less mindless scrolling) and use that extra free time to read and write more.

Okay, that’s all from me, folks! May you have a happy and fructuous 2025!