End of a Hiatus

It's easy to get pulled in too many directions. Today I found myself saying yes when I should have been asking more questions. I find myself reminded of all those magazine articles with a topic about how to say no. Say no politely, say no assertively, say no even when you think you can do it all.

I can't do it all. Most days I don't want to.

I started to make a list of the things I accomplish on a daily basis. I get tired of it near the afternoon and skip it, but if I don't keep up the list I can't remember what I've finished.

Lists don't just include those little things (like taking vitamins) that slip through the cracks without a reminder. Today I looked up all the work in progress ideas I have in various stages. I have six published short stories that I call done. I have one novel completed that needs a rewrite and I haven't decided to push myself through mentally. I have another novel with a reworkable premise. There are also fifty short stories that I haven't finished or haven't edited or haven't yet published.

Fifty?

I can't believe I've allowed so much time to pass me by without doing something with those ideas. This week I had two more (ideas, not half-written slush pile stuff). Last night I outlined them to give myself direction to tackle them.

I'm at a loss over the fifty mark. Most of them are short- too short for me to think that I ought to put them for sale on their own. However, several of them are candidates to be lumped together into short story bundles.

If you need me, I'm looking into some market research. See you next week.

Dragging My Feet

I need to stop dragging my feet. There is always another reason to not get out there. To just say I'll do it tomorrow. Forget that I've been super busy with things outside of my writing and they're good excuses - they're still excuses.

I missed on one of my goals. I just realized I did not send out a story in March. I sent out two in February, but that doesn't count. So I decided I must send out two this month to balance that out. I pretty much know what I'm sending where. I thought I'd have a response from one of them by now, but I'm sure they'll get back to me soon.

Goals are good to keep us on task to where we need to be, but I don't feel the need to beat myself up over little stumbles. This goal is getting me toward where I want to be - published. If I quit now I'll never get there.

So I review my progress every so often. I try to figure out what I'm doing well and where I can improve. It's far more productive than beating myself up. For the most part I write short stories, though I do have a few projects in the novella and novel range that I will continue to work on.

The only hard part is the whole process is not very permanent. A short story gets a few minutes in the limelight and then it is pushed to the side for something else. There are a few places where you may pay and view what you like. Ruthie's Club was one, but they went defunct a while back. Literotica is a free site that is similar, but there is very little in the way of quality control - if you write it and it is within their guidelines, it doesn't matter how well it's written, it's out there.

So there are also ideas in my head that to make those more permanent. Just because it is a short story doesn't mean it can't be out there. And I'll give more information on that later.

Always Another Challenge

The more we put challenges in front of ourselves with the expectation to do something with them, the more we will accomplish. Well, maybe it's better to just say that is how I manage. I set high standards for myself and I reach to achieve them. 

So the end of 2011 is going to see the end of something else - me not submitting new stories out to be published. It's been a long time since I sent anything out. I know, I had the acceptance in September. But before that, I had submitted nothing this year. 

Nothing. I will admit I looked around a little, but it's disheartening to think all of the stories that I have written and not done something with. Okay, some of them have gone to friends to enjoy - and luckily they're very kind with their responses. 

So last night I sent out another story. I struggled so much with a title and a bio. Those shouldn't be the difficult things. Okay, titles I'll give you as a bummer; they either come to me or I struggle horribly with them and get people to make suggestions. 

Total for 2011: 2 submissions and 1 acceptance. [Will let everyone know the status of the other one when I find out.] 

Next year, I have to believe I can manage to do better. I should be able to manage at least one submission a month. I have a few stories that are ready, or very close to being ready, to go out to publishers. I've been researching several markets and I know there are matches out there.

I've also been thinking about self-publishing a collection of short stories. That gets into difficult decisions, though, like whether to put them according to erotic interest (kink, vanilla, gay, straight, mind-boggling...) or to just mix them together. If anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them. 

Here's for something better in 2012. Wishing the best to all of you, as well. 

Challenge

There are a lot of wonderful things about setting challenges and goals. For me, it's a way to grow and learn. It doesn't have to be about a prize, but the challenge itself has to mean something.

As a writer, I like to write every day. As a person with responsibilities, there are a lot of things that can get in the way of even a simple goal like that. Then it depends on what you count as writing - does a blog count? does an article work toward the quota? Do you make exceptions because family obligations dragged you out of town?

I'm a fiction writer. Since that is my goal, I've been pushing hard to be brainstorming about fiction or writing fiction every day. I do not count blogs, which means I don't always post something here though I would like to fill it with random ideas. Or not so random.

So this month's challenge is to prepare to write a short story every day. I haven't decided if I'm going to wait until November to write them or what, but I'm setting them down in pieces to make myself think about it. I'm working on character, plot, theme, setting, and a couple other things. And yes, most if not all of them will be in the erotica genre.

I love the writing energy that comes with NaNoWriMo and so many participants flood the air with their creativity and enthusiasm. I'm not out to write a novel just yet, though it isn't impossible, but this year I'd love to get a bunch of short stories out and possibly ready to get submitted to magazines and such.

There are 31 days this month, and I brainstormed about 90 ideas to try to get me there. Some are fleshed out more than others from years of gleaning little bits here and there. Others are a word or two that means something to me about how things will change or progress. If I start with 90 ideas (and if anyone wants to run something else by me, I wouldn't mind inspiration though I'm not making guarantees), I should easily be able to end up with a short story every day.

For today I'm set. I have a story in mind. It's not written yet, but I have enough details to mark out the things I want to say. Tomorrow will bring something else, I hope. Indulging my creativity in the past has always brought more connections my way, so I'll keep you posted on my journey. Thanks for reading.

The other random thought in my head is I need an alpha reader. Yeah, beta and/or gamma would also be wonderful, but somewhere I need to cultivate that one first person who reads everything I write and knows enough about writing - generally and erotica specifically - to give me feedback.