2017 – Where to Begin?

Happy New Year!!!

For those of you that don’t benefit from the video feed*, I’m doing a huge muppet arm-flail and my dogs are looking at me like I’ve lost it.

I hope that this year brings peace to all of you.

I also want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who bought my books  in 2016. You are all awesome and I hope you enjoyed the stories.

So, as the first post of 2017, I’m asking myself: Where to begin?

I’ll be asking myself that a lot this year. But, before I get into any of that, I’d like to take a look back.

Remember back in January when I said that I was going to try and get in a post a week?  Well, while I didn’t nail that exactly, I did manage 55 posts, which averages out to a post a week and some change!  How cool is that?

While I was reading over last January’s post, it struck me that, at this time last year, my book was being considered for representation. That book is, again, being considered for representation this January. I’m feeling pretty positive about it, but got me to thinking about what I’ve written in 2016.

Where to begin?

It wasn’t like I’ve been idle. It’s been more like I was scattered. There was a lot of rewriting and editing going on in between short stories, but it wasn’t as focused as I’d have liked. Not helping matters are the “Year in Review” posts to the blogs I follow. Instinctively, I know I shouldn’t be comparing myself to other writers, but when I read that Chuck Wendig wrote 3-and-a-half books last year and compare it to my output (Which was 4 short stories and a whole lot of polishing), I start to feel…well, theres a list and words like insignificant and lazy are up near the top.

This isn’t true, and it’s not fair.

Chuck is a full time writer. That’s what he does. Me, I’ve got a full-time job and a whole bunch of other things that demand my time. So, unless I give up things like sleeping (ever), there’s no way I’m going to generate that much output.

This doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t challenge myself.

And that’s going to be the theme of 2017.

Challenge Myself.

Some of the things I will be challenging myself on are personal. Some may make it into the blog, others may not.

My writing challenge for this year is as follows:

I will write one new book this year.

or

I will write no less than 10 short stories…and submit them. Every last one.

There was a part of me that wanted to give myself some wiggle room in case things with the potential agent turn out positively, but I’m going to squash that.

That’s my challenge: One book or 10 short stories this year.

I’ll keep you all up to date on how I’m doing as the year progresses.

Until next time, be safe.

Time: 12:30 pm – ish
Music: Blind Guardian – Tanelorn(Into the Void)

 

 

*There isn’t one…