Showing Up

Ten minutes.

If I show up, and I do the work, I keep the gates open.

It's been ages since I've written a short story. I seem to be stuck in editting everything from short pieces that are years old to novels I'd love to finish.

I would like to get as comfortable with submitting as I am with writing. I am much more comfortable with the creation part of the equation than I was say five years ago, because I keep doing it. Despite threats to stop cold, and times when my mind doesn't seem to want to stir up anything creative, I always come back to writing. As a result, first draft efforts aren't quite as mish-mashed as they used to be.

Now wouldn't it be neat to feel the same way about submission packages. Query letters are old hat. Synopses are snaps. Postage is always on hand, as are envelopes, SASEs and personalized post cards. Guidelines are easy to find, and I actually have a need for a submission tracker because I have several different things cooking in the stew.

The only way to get there is to do it. Again and again and again. And you know what. I might even get an acceptance in there somewhere. Wouldn't that be something!

And so that is my only plan for this year. Not a very fleshed out plan at the moment, but a plan none-the-less.

I've been toying with joining OWFI again. Need to check out what the conference is supposed to consist of this year. I missed it last year. Not the banquets or the brouhahah, but the writing focus and the fact that the contest would make me write.

That's it for now. I'm learning that now isn't the time to make all kinds of plans. Resolutions--or goals--each have their own best time to be started. I've already started on what I affectionately call "The House Project." It mainly consists of throwing things out. I want to get rid of half this house in the next ten months. Dh keeps talking about building and every time I think about packing I shudder. Might as well start "slimming down" the house now. That project is well under way. The taxes, whoa! I might be throwing the balance of the entire universe off, because I about have everything categorized, organized and ready for the software.

Dh put his arms around me this evening as I stood in the middle of my dinner-is-over-but-proof-of-preparation-is-still-visible kitchen and said, "It's a new year. Didn't we do this last year?"

To which I replied, "Yeah, I think we did. Seems like yesterday."