Friday, January 10, 2014

Making progress

Besides a brief scare when I realized that I had rather botched putting my recent submissions in proper Standard Manuscript Format (turns out that maybe there are some things that I should double-check after going two or three years without using at all), I think that everything is going pretty well.

My PDF on comparative mythology is growing and getting closer to completion. I should have all but one of the appendices done by tomorrow, and then I'll go back to the main text and finish it up in a process that should take three or four days. Then I'll write the introduction, finish the final appendix, and clean it up, all of which should take no more than two days. So if I can actually stick to that... then I should be done with this by the end of the 17th.

I made a few submissions to different magazines yesterday, and I'm feeling pretty good about it all. I originally intended to submit Finding Ginny to Pedestal Magazine but they just barely closed submissions. I consider it a good sign that I didn't feel any worry over switching to Strange Horizons. It's a slightly higher-paying market which makes it more intimidating, but I think that Finding Ginny can hold its own there.

By far the biggest problem that I have right now is the lack of reading time. It's a problem that is entirely self-created: Even though I know that reading is essential to improving my own work it's still difficult to get out of the "reading is a recreational activity" mindset and not feel guilty for reading when there are Other Things to do. Besides reading from the evergrowing stacks of books in my room I also need to read (and review!) stories online, participate in communities, and read blogs (especially those related to productivity and/or writing).

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