So, it’s probably easy to tell that I never ended up finishing NaNo. The lack of posts tooting my progress, explaining my struggles, and cheering my victory? They never came. Truthfully, a lot never came.

I could go into reasons, and I could give excuses as to why the words didn’t come, why the blog didn’t get updated, why I haven’t been on twitter all that often. But really, at the end of the day, I don’t want to get caught up in the past.

I want to get back on track.

I want to leave the past in the past.

I want to move forward.

So this is me, shaking off the past. I’m going to shed it, kind of like a second skin and leave it where it belongs. Behind me. This isn’t to say I’m going to forget why and what all happened. After all, those that forget the past are doomed to repeat it. But, I don’t want to focus on it.

I have a couple projects that have been sitting by the wayside for far too long. One novella needs to be finished – a cutesy cozy mystery, and one high fantasy that needs me to actually go through and do structural and line editing on it so it’s polished and I can finally decide once and for all if I’m going to be self publishing or going the query letter/traditional publishing route.

I know people have strong opinions about both, but after attending a panel at a convention where an author basically said you can do either/or, or be a hybrid, it’s up to you and what you feel is best for your novel, I’m back on the fence with trying the traditional way.

At the same time, I just watched a friend query a book and she had three agents write her back to tell her that they loved her book, but they wouldn’t be picking it up.  And it’s left her wondering, if they loved her book enough to say so, why. Because the letters don’t say. It’s a little disheartening to hear that, and my heart goes out to her because she’s trying to take a critical eye to her story and make some changes in the hopes that next time she sends out query letters maybe someone will love it AND pick it up.

The question for me is, do I really want to go that route? Spend time querying it, potentially not get any takers, and even if I do not see it released for a year or two based on any publishers wanting it, and if they do having it fit into their schedule for release and marketing. It’s a lot of time to sit on a finished product.

Truthfully, I don’t know. I’d love to see it published by a company, and on the shelves in stores. But at the same time, I want to see it sell period. And sitting in a publisher’s cue for one to two years, that’s a long time to wait for it to be released.

Choices, choices, as they say.

I guess I’ll mostly cross that bridge when I get there. When the novel is as good as I can make it after some heavy editing.

Right now, the novella needs to be finished. So my goal, I’m setting one officially, is to be finished writing the novella by the end of May. That way I can take a breather and then circle back to it mid-June for edits. This seems like a super short timeline that I’m giving myself, I’m sure. But truthfully, the novella is about one or two chapters from being done. So I’m hoping by setting this deadline I can really strive and push myself to get it done.

Here’s hoping, at least.