I've made a major change in my life recently: I left my editing position to focus on my writing for the next few years. My son requires me to be home for at least the next 4, and the editing position was eating up all my time, so resigning and spending the time I'm required to be home on my writing instead made sense, especially since the money being earned really wasn't enough to do anything with and won't be enough to do anything with for a long time. I spent the latter half of the week before last clearing out of the company and sending them all my files. Last week was my first week as "only" a writer (and a mother).
It has gone very well, actually. I was having a great deal of trouble finding to revise A.C. when working for the press, and in the last week and a half I've sorted out chapter 32. Hopefully I'll work through the remaining 5 chapters more quickly now, get the fixes I need to make for the next round sorted out, v6 done up, and it out to beta readers by summer. The plan is to get it on the query-go-round before winter. I've already been threatened within an inch of my life if I don't even try. *g* I do have a few agents I want to query and one small press I think I would love to get into despite it being a small press. Have to admit, a lot of it comes from the name of the press, but they've treated another author I know very well.
In addition to that, I've started a new novel project. I'm pretty much doing it for fun—it's in a genre that I love to read but am unfamiliar writing, so it will be interesting how it goes. So far, the ideas I'm working with and the outline are being pretty well received by my writing group. I love this particular phase of writing, when the ideas are fresh and exciting and all you want to do is work on that one thing. But B.C. isn't my first priority and shouldn't be my first priority. It's just nice to have a non-Alden novel in the works.
So, the change has gone well so far. I'm actually getting through my writing goals rather than having the same goals over and over for weeks at a time. I've also managed to make some time for personal improvement, like exercise. And I'm enjoying being able to work on my writing without the nagging sense that others are waiting on something from me like edits or some other response. I know at some point there will be less energy and excitement, but I'm hoping to have my routine pretty much down enough by then that it will carry me through.
Okay, been avoiding my short story long enough, time to get to it.
