Some Changes Are Coming

 I have been doing a lot of thinking about some things lately. I have so much going on in my life right now that every single day I am faced with some type of stress. I have to admit this is stress that I am causing myself by taking on too much at once. I don't think it's necessarily burn out per say. More like time to focus on me. What exactly does this mean for my writing career? I'm not really sure, but things will be changing. 

These changes are starting with writing stories for anthologies. I mean let's face it I am like the queen of the anthologies at this point. I am always deciding why not add one more? Well, I now have 8 that need to be written this year. Only two have been started so far. I'm thinking I need to back away from so many anthologies for a bit. Why this decision? Simple I have stories of my own I want to write that aren't for a specific prompt. I want to get my own books written and published. Does this mean I'm walking away from anthologies permanently? Absolutely not. I love doing them, but need to focus more on my own stuff.

My second major issue is school. Now that I've started I can't walk away and not do the work. I am going to make time daily to do homework and study so I don't fail not only the classes, but myself. Yes, there are those voices that tell me I'm too old to go back to school. I should just give up on it. I don't want to do that. I want to prove those voices wrong, along with everyone who says I can't do it.

Also I am going to be focusing more on being a reader as well. My Beta and ARC reads are super important to me. I don't want to get behind on them so I want to get more of them done. Not writing as much will give me more time to do that. Let's face it we all know how hard this author thing is. We also know we are readers first and writers second. I need more of that in my life. More reading, less stress!

I am not walking away from my writing or my readers. You all make me feel prouder than I ever could on my own. Hearing that you enjoy what I'm writing makes me feel so amazing. Without readers I wouldn't be where I am now. I feel I need to take this step back so I can create better stories and find more time to interact with all of you. 

What this means is I need to go through writing projects and decide which ones I want to do and which ones might be more harm than good for my mental health. Some of those anthologies aren't guaranteed anyway. I submit to them hoping the stories will be accepted, which they are sometimes. Those anthologies are the ones that I don't need to put all my time and energy into for now. I need to stop worrying about getting these deadlines met if I don't need to actually meet them. 

I hope this is something that won't be a problem for anyone. I don't know if I can even accomplish writing all of those stories this year as it is. I have literally finished one story completely this year and it's already March. If there's time later this year I might try to fit them in, if not they'll have to happen regardless of me submitting to them.