Image: Aaron Burden
It seems it’s time for a reset. Fortunately, February is starting on a Saturday which means that I have a very real opportunity to start the month strong — and that’s my plan.
- I had originally hoped to get Standing in the Dark done this month, but at this point I’m not sure that will happen. I do, however, think that there’s a good possibility of me getting it to the point where I can finish it next month.
- I am making the final tweaks on my first two anthology stories; looks like they’re coming out sometime this spring. I’m hoping I’ll be able to announce exact dates sometime this month.
- I have a scratchpad list of ideas for blog posts. Three per week was probably a bit ambitious, so I’m going to drop back to two per week (posting on Wednesdays and Saturdays) and see if I can maintain that. I’d far rather maintain at a goal of two, then push myself beyond my capacity at three and fail.
- I did start a short story, with the working title “Daffodil Sprouts,” that was originally intended for submission to the Reedy Branch Review — I’m an alumna of the sponsoring school — but I realized partway in that I wasn’t going to be able to finish it in time for this year’s deadline. The next submission period opens in September, so I’m planning on having it (or an alternate piece) ready by then. That said, it’s going to have to go onto the back burner for February.
For this month, I’m going to stick to those writing goals.
I used to have a friend who struggled with addiction, and I remember telling him that I didn’t care how many times he fell down. As long as the number of times he got back up was that plus one, I’d be part of his support network. We’ve since lost touch, but I still wonder how he’s doing from time to time.
It seems that this is the month where I’m going to have to take my own advice. I fell down, but I’m getting back to my feet, and as long as I can keep doing that, I can keep moving forward as a writer.