My Writing Year in Review 2024

by Mike Turner

Please welcome back, Mike Turner - poet, songwriter and featured writer in our latest anthology, Journeys IV: Magic & Mystery - to The Writers Journey Blog, with his Year in Review!

Another Year in the Books (and Journals, and Anthologies) - My Writing Year in Review 2024

My thanks to Elaine for inviting me back for what’s become a year-end tradition: an update on my writer’s journey! I’m a poet and songwriter on the U.S. Gulf Coast, writing with a purpose: to inspire hope, understanding and community through poetry and song.

If you review my earlier guest posts (links at the end of this post), you can read about my “strategic planning” approach to managing my writing. I want to use my songs and poems to bring people together to live in peace and build a world based on love, understanding and cooperation.

To achieve that vision, I’ve got to do four basic things:

I.  Write and produce poems and songs that illuminate what we have in common and what we want our world to be

II.  Achieve wide distribution of my work

III. Grow and support an engaged audience

IV. Achieve professional/peer recognition as a writer (primarily in furtherance of gaining distribution and readers/listeners)

Each year I set objectives for myself - how many new poems/songs I’ll write; how many poems I’ll submit for publication; how many songs I’ll record and post up on streaming sites; how many new outlets I submit to. The numbers I pick are less about attainment per se, than making sure I stay on track to actually write, submit and get published.

I’m not going to take a deep dive into my objectives here - suffice to say that I basically want to write and submit somewhere around two poems per month, get around 30 poems published for the year, and record/release about one song a month.

My results for 2024 were somewhat mixed. It became obvious early in the year that, owing to a combination of outside circumstances, I was going to come in well below my targeted songwriting accomplishments: my wife and I had a busy travel schedule planned for the year; my Mom passed away in February; work around the house kept me from setting up my recording equipment for any length of time (I don’t have a dedicated studio); and I developed hearing issues that affect my ability to edit and mix my recordings into finished tracks.

Even so, my musical efforts weren’t a complete write-off: I completed two songs that are up on streaming and getting some good listenership; and I have two more projects nearing completion that I expect will issue in early 2025.

Fortunately, none of my music-related issues, constrained my writing. My “literary output” exceeded expectations: I wrote somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 new poems and songs, submitted 125 pieces to 52 journals and anthologies (45 of which were new-to-me outlets), and had 108 poems published (the most I’ve ever had in a single year), including works in 35 journals/anthologies running my work for the first time.

I was particularly pleased with my acceptance rate - 80% of my submissions were published; I’ve been told many poets typically have acceptance rates of 25-30%. I attribute my rate to three factors: first, I have a handful of publishers who have been accepting my work almost from the beginning of when I started submitting - I continue to submit to them, and they continue to publish me, because I think we seem to be a good fit for each other in terms of what I write and what their subscribers want to read. Second, I put a fair amount of effort into checking out new-to-me outlets, to see what they tend to run (topics, styles, etc.), and try to match my submissions to what I think they might be interested in. Third, I take great pains to follow submission guidelines; and, as a rule, don’t do simultaneous submissions or re-prints, which I make clear in my submission letters - so publishers know they’re getting exclusive content. I think these factors tend to drive my submission rate up (or at least drive my rejection rate down).

I also had some nice professional/peer recognition in 2024. I accepted a position on the board of directors of the Alabama Writers Cooperative, one of the oldest writing groups in the United States. I was profiled in several magazines in the U.S., U.K. and Europe (shout-outs to Grant Hudson at Clarendon House Books, Jane Shields at Simply Folk Magazine, and Albanian poet/editor Irma Kurti). I organized and MC’d two poetry readings/open mics at my local library that were very well received; was invited to speak, read my poems and perform some of my songs in several other venues; and won awards for two of my poems in my local writing group. I was invited to serve on a committee to select speakers/readers for a literary arts event to be held in early 2025. And I had several poems translated into Italian and Albanian and published in several international journals (another shout-out to poet/editor Irma Kurti).

And I’m honored and humbled, that I was chosen as the Featured Author in the latest entry in The Writers Journey’s anthology series, Journeys IV: Magic & Mystery. So a big “Thank You!” to editors Elaine and Kerri Jesmer for that!

Overall, I’m pleased with what I accomplished this year - and to cap it off, I just passed a real milestone: just over 400 poems published, since I started submitting in 2019.

As in prior years, two questions are a little harder to answer: Are people actually reading my work? And are my poems/songs having the impact I aspire to? I can only point to anecdotal evidence, but what there is, is encouraging.

On the first point, all signs are that people are reading my poems: I’m fairly well known in various writers’ groups on social media, and get likes and comments when I post up links to my published works. Publishers continue to accept my submissions, including those with new-to-me outlets who are seeing my work for their first time. All of which indirectly tells me that people are reading what I’m putting out there.

Listenership of my songs isn’t bad either, with about 5500 streams on Spotify and YouTube for the year - not as high as I’d like, but respectable given my lower level of recording/producing this year. And each stream is someone who actually played one of my songs.

And the second point (impact)? I’ve had several people tell me that they’ve been particularly moved by one poem or another; and the streaming services give me some limited metrics that show that I’ve had repeat listeners (it’s 5500 streams, but it’s not 5500 distinct individuals listening - some people are listening more than once), which one can interpret as meaning the songs must have had some impact, if people wanted to listen more than once to a given tune. Hard to quantify, I guess, but I think it means that people aren’t only reading/listening, they’re coming back for more.

So, what’s “up on deck” for 2025?

First, I’m refining my “strategic plan” - not a lot; but I took a workshop this year on using creative writing skills in marketing and promotion, and what I learned there about finding my audience dovetails nicely with having a vision, objectives, and a clear understanding of what I’m trying to do with my writing - the essence of a strategic plan. Plus, it’s always a good thing to review your “mission” and “metrics” from time-to-time, to adapt to changing times and circumstances and push one’s efforts, and hopefully achievements, to the next level.

Second, I have high hopes of doing some more songwriting in the coming year, although as I’ve mentioned, I now have some hearing issues that could impact producing music tracks. I’ll be working on those challenges, while continuing to pursue my songwriting passion.

Third, as to my poetry, I came to a realization, or perhaps made an admission to myself: although my first love is songwriting (I’ve always felt it was my primary talent), I recognize that since I started writing and submitting poetry, my poetic accomplishments have far outpaced my musical achievements. And so I think it’s time for me to accept that my poetry isn’t a sideline - it’s at the core of who I am as a writer. I used to tell myself that “poetry is a form of songwriting:” but I think I’ve had that backwards: it should be, “songwriting is a form of poetry.” This may seem just semantics, or at best a fine distinction - but I see it as better defining and accepting who I am as a writer. I think that acceptance will have significant impact not just on what, but also how, I write.

…

As this blog’s name reminds us, as writers, we’re on a journey. We might have a map, but it’s also interesting to see where the twists and turns of the road take us, and what waypoints  - some unexpected - enrich our experience along the way.

My writer’s journey in 2024 didn’t follow the route I’d initially laid out for myself, and took me places I didn’t expect, helping me to not only grow my craft, but better focus on who I am as a writer. That, by any measure, is a meaningful journey.

My thanks to everyone who’s been with me on the ride so far - folks reading this post, following my poems and songs, collaborating and growing with me along the way.

I invite you to come along to see where we go in 2025!

Prior Posts: 

“It All Started With a Pen Name” (Sep 27, 2020): https://www.authorelainemarie.com/post/it-all-started-with-a-pen-name-the-writing-story-of-mike-turner 

“2021 - That Was the Year That Was” (Jan 2, 2022): https://www.authorelainemarie.com/post/2021-that-was-the-year-that-was 

“Another Year ‘In the Books’ - My Writer’s Journey in 2022” (Nov 20, 2022): https://www.authorelainemarie.com/post/another-year-in-the-books-my-writer-s-journey-in-2022 

“2023 - My Writing Year in Review” (Dec 31, 2023): https://www.authorelainemarie.com/post/2023-my-writing-year-in-review 

Links: 

Website: http://www.MikeTurnerSongwriter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MikeTurnerSongwriter

YouTube: www.YouTube.com/MikeTurnerSongwriter

X: @SchoonerSkipper

Instagram: @MikeTurnerSongwriter

Book: Visions and Memories available on Amazon at https://a.co/d/hrQnjjA 

Bio: Mike Turner is a poet and songwriter and living on the U.S. Gulf Coast. He was showcased  performing his original songs about Gulf Coast life at the 2020 Monroeville Literary Festival, and his poem “Sense of Peace” was awarded the 2023 Roger Williams Peace Prize by the Alabama Writers Cooperative. Mike is the Featured Author in the anthology, Journeys IV: Magic & Mystery,” published by Stone Pony Publishing. His poetry collection, Visions and Memories, is available on Amazon.