Getting Ready for 2018
With the beginning of 2018, I took some time to determine what I wanted to accomplish this year.
Since I will be attending the Futurescapes Workshop in April, I first want to be able to get a substantial amount of the manuscript I’ve been working on ready to be critiqued there. I’m not yet sure if it will be novella- or novel-length at this point; I am such a slow writer, I’m concentrating getting words on the page at this point.
Whatever length it ends up being, I’m sure it will be the longest work I’ve completed. . . but I’m also having fun, and the excitement of writing something this cool keeps spurring me to finish. I hope to be able to share it with the world very soon.
I also hope I’ll get four new short stories finished and out for submission during the year.
As for the more social aspects, apart from Futurescapes, I plan to be attending the Nebulas Conference in Pittsburgh this year, I hope I can be invited to the Baltimore Bookfest (missed it in 2017 due to wedding plans), as well as Capclave, and I hope I can make it to World Fantasy (since it will be held in downtown Baltimore), but I’ve yet to buy the tickets for it yet.
More importantly, the events of the past year taught me that it’s perfectly fine to not write if it comes at the detriment of my health–mental or otherwise. I’ve lost a parent, as well as had one of the biggest natural disasters I’ve seen affect my family in Puerto Rico. My sister, her daughters, and my father have been living with us ever since they were able to get off the island. I’m glad they’re here, especially since Puerto Rico might never go back to the way it was before.
I’ve never been able to write 1,000 words (or more) like some writers are able to do. Less so in these circumstances. For good or ill, I tend to edit as I go, unraveling sentences and whole paragraphs in order to get it right. The thousand(s) of words a day writers have their way of doing things, and I have mine, which works for me at this point.
There might be a moment my way of doing things changes, becomes something else.
And that’s all right, because I have to take care of, and be kind to, myself.
It’s the only thing any one is responsible for, anyways.
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