IWSG—Writing plans for 2023

Welcome to the very first Insecure Writer’s Support Group of 2023! The IWSG convenes the first Wednesday of every month to commiserate over worries, fears, doubts, and struggles.

My major 2023 writing plans are to finish the radical rewrite of the book formerly known as The Very Last and prep it for publication. Its new and improved title will finally be revealed upon release. As I’ve said many times, the title comes from a line in one of Charlie Chaplin’s sound films (but not the most well-known of his talkies).

After that’s done, I’m resuming my near-total rewrite of Almost As an Afterthought: The First Six Months of 1941. I think it’ll go much faster and easier when I’m coming to it in the proper order, with the background context of a completed TVL. I should’ve learnt my lesson about the perils of writing out of order!

To reward myself for winning NaNo, and for my birthday, I got my twelfth ear piercing and got my other nostril pierced. The new addition is the rook (which I’ve had on the other side since 2015), the curved barbell with dark blue opals and anodized blue titanium. I also finally got a new piece of jewelry in my conch in that ear, the blue opal marquis fan. The purple opal I wore in it for seven years is now in my second lobe piercing on that ear.

               

Hopefully I’ll be able to resume my alternative history about Dante and Beatrice before the end of the year. As I mentioned in my last IWSG post, during NaNo I realized a big factor in my reduced level of writing productivity since lockdown has been my unconscious inability to turn off editor mode. Now that I’m getting back into better habits, I predict writing the first draft at a much faster rate.

Slated blog post topics for 2023:

A thorough review of my favoritest album ever, The Who’s Quadrophenia, which turns 50 this year. I’ve posted about it many times, but never as a review. Given how much I have to say about it and how important it is, I’m doing an entire series on it.

Film reviews of the original Ten Commandments (1923), Quo Vadis (1913), The Last Days of Pompeii (1913), and Life of an American Fireman (1903), plus a whole bunch of classic horror films with landmark anniversaries in October.

The history of Divine Comedy translations into worldwide languages. I already wrote a post about the history of its translation into English.

Part II of contrapasso (a punishment or penance reminding one of the sin committed in life) in The Divine Comedy. This will cover Purgatorio.

Films about The Divine Comedy.

A series on writing about corsets in historical fiction, and debunking persistent myths about this very misunderstood garment.

Reviews of Please Please Me and With The Beatles on their respective 60th birthdays.

Writing about breeching, long pants, and little boys wearing dresses in historical fiction.

Writing about menarche and dysmenorrhea.

A series about writing about Jewish denominations (history, theology, etc.).

The distinction between the words “woman” and “lady” in historical fiction.

Behind the scenes of my list of silent films seen (what I count as a silent, pertinent information to include in parentheses, how and when I started my list, etc.).

The 100th anniversary of Rudy Valentino’s Mineralava Dance Tour, which he and his second wife Natacha Rambova did while he was on strike from acting.

I’d like to express how relieved and happy I am that WordPress decided to retain their Classic Editor through at least 2024! I was dreading the end of 2022 because that had been called as the final date for the Classic Editor, and I was NOT looking forward to the long, slow, steep learning curve of the garbage Block Editor almost no one likes.

What are your writing plans for 2023?