Keeping my promise

I’ve been really careful this year not to overextend myself. It took me six months of 2017 to get back into writing regularly after I took two years off and then another six months in 2018 to build my writing speed back up to where it used to be.

I now feel better than I used to about my writing and I’m far enough along in my current work that I realize that I have to start thinking about the business aspect, as in publishing the work. 

And I’m doing this while simultaneously working on revisions for the first book in my next series. I haven’t exactly announced it yet, so I’m still feeling a little shy about it. It needs a lot of work to make it publish-worthy,  so there’s a few more weeks of solid work ahead of me.

I’m okay with that timetable. I told myself I wasn’t going to push myself too much this year and I’m sticking to that promise. I have a goal to quit my Sucky Day Job in the next year, and if I stay on track, I think I can do it.

And of course, right on queue for me working on revisions, I got the bright and shiny New Plotbunny. I told myself “hey, that’s an interesting idea” and ignored it. But it didn’t want to be ignored and it nagged at me for hours while I was at Sucky Day Job, so by the time I came home, I busted out 3.3k words that were inside my head on this plot bunny.

Luckily, that’s what it took to get it out of my head and allow me to focus back on revisions for the current work. I’m glad that I did it that way, because if I fought it, it would have consumed me. Now, I got what I needed out of my head, and I can work on what I need to work on instead.

Once more, I’m keeping my promise to myself. This year was about change and focusing myself on the goals I’ve set for myself. I feel pretty good that this is what I’m doing.