A New Approach in 2024

My goals for 2024 are loftier than I've ever set before. I'm going to release a light novel for my twenty-book odyssey series every three to four months, from February onward, until the series is complete. That's including writing, editing, and doing the artwork.

My current normal novel, Lowella, will be about as long as Auminous. It's a horror novel about the dark side of streaming culture with a supernatural twist and a detective story with newspaper articles scattered throughout to break up the story's prose.

My word count goals are also morphing into something I didn't think was possible.

10,000 words a day, six days a week, minus the weekly Sabbath.

I will become the storyteller I envision myself as in my mind. That's what it's going to take to get there.

It's completely unfounded to say that writing is supposed to be slow. It seems like writing is one of the only disciplines where they say the less you do, the better. Something doesn't compute there.

The more you do something, the better you get.

I must refine my writing into an art of excellence.

I don't believe in writing sloppily. I believe in mastering the craft.

I'll never let my integrity go, so I won't be using artificial intelligence for anything. The AI doom train seems to have derailed. If those things aren't copyrightable, there's no point in cheating.

I will achieve my dreams, and I will sell my soul to the hard work it takes to get there.

Though, in a way, I'm already living my dreams. I get to craft worlds with my gift, making a mark in fiction writing.

I believe in telling unique stories.

Too many writers want to write Sword and Sorcery #3,405.

I won't be following that train.

Stories need to breathe and offer new takes, put new spins on tropes, and be unique offerings.

I'll write what I want to write, not what a Christian publishing house thinks I should write.

My books will cross lines, offer realism, and not be Pureflix-level art.

I have nothing against them, but if we want to impact this world for a greater cause, we need to deliver excellent art.

My love of the eastern aesthetic, structure, and Christian philosophy will meld together to make novels that are uniquely my own.

The only way to go is where my soul leads me.

If I can do that, then my stories will always have my own voice to them, like little DNA markers that say: "This is a Bryan Rivera-Rivera novel."

Max, the genius that I swear understands the syntax of the English language, celebrating his second birthday. It’s a new year for him, too.