Planning the next few months. And questioning my sanity…

I started off this year saying, “I do not want to find myself asking where the hell 2016 went.” And I stand by that. I swear, as you age, years fly by before you can even blink an eye. I set up some fairly ambitious goals for the year and promised to reach them no matter what.

After only one month, I feel like have made a lot of progress toward those goals. I finished a first draft to one short story and one novella. Neither one of these are ready to submit to any respectable market, but it did feel pretty good to type “the end” again, and quite frankly it had been far to long since I’ve done that.

I also managed to launch the Write Good Books Podcast with my good friend Scott and I’ve been very pleased with it so far. We’ll plan to stick with a biweekly schedule but may reevaluate that a some point.

So all in all, January wasn’t so bad. But…we’re already four days into February and I’m ready to switch things around again. I have this nagging problem that I can’t get out of my head. And that is the fact that I’ll be attending a few writing conferences this year.

What a problem to have, right?

Yeah. Attending writing conferences isn’t ever a problem. The problem is that conferences generally include a pitch with an agent as part of the price of admission. That should be good news, no? No. And here’s why:

I have nothing to pitch!

So…I’m once again making the executive decision to change my goals for the year. I’m putting my short stories on hold, biting the bullet, and getting a freaking second novel ready. It’s not like it’s the end of the world, either. I have a 50,000+ first draft of a novel sitting on my computer looking at me as we speak. It doesn’t need a ton of work, either. I’ve got a couple of problems with the plot and need to add a good 10-20 thousand words to flesh things out, but the basic structure is in place.

As much as I’d prefer to not take an extended break from short stories, I feel like attending a conference and skipping the agent pitch is such a wasted opportunity. Also, the first conference I’m attending isn’t until April, so I’ve got over two months.

And this will get done.

And yeah, I know I’m crazy. Write Good Books and Theme of Absence will continue to be top priorities to me, and regular readers know I’m a husband and a father of three (awesome) young kids. Along with my hour-long commute to the day job, time isn’t exactly something our family has in abundance. Yet when I tell people I don’t have time to watch TV, they look at me like I’m on drugs.

But back to writing stuff…it is possible to get this novel cleaned up. I can–and will–do it.

And I’ll post the occasional update on where I’m at with it and how many hairs I’ve pulled out in the process.

So thanks for bearing with me and check back tomorrow for another edition of 5 Link Friday!