Let's get back to work.

2016 wasn't a great year for my writing. It was a great year for me as a human though. I got engaged. I moved in with the love of my life and we've had fun figuring out how to live with each other. We both went on an amazing cruise (note to self - write about the cruise sometime) and got to meet a myriad of other great writers and also said hi to some old friends from last year. I went to SFWA and attended a fancy awards dinner with the love of my life and saw amazing things. My family didn't suffer any big losses though my Dad did try and scare everyone with some heart surgery. My 2016 was ok.

My writing suffered though. I've been working on the current novel since November 2015 and I still feel like I'm barely half way through the first draft. At some point I lost the love of this one and it's been a real struggle. It's purely a motivation problem. Not finding an agent for my second book has been a real bummer because I know that its my best work to date and nobody seems to want to buy it. Also, I've realized it's more likely that I don't know how to sell it. One of the things that became clear during this year's cruise was that I still need a lot of work and training on writing the pitches and query letters for my books if I want to keep chasing the dream of traditional publishing. And I do. I've tried self-publishing and I don't think that I've got the wherewithal to push hard enough to make it work. Or the energy, especially while I'm trying to write something new.  

So 2017 I'm going to teach my self the grind again. Write on a regular schedule. Word count is less important then repeat-ability. So I'm going to get regular with this thing. I'm going to have a plan. I'm going to remember that effort is the shortest way to success. Let's get back to work!