It’s funny how you think you had an unproductive year until that year is over. I lamented over 2017 because I couldn’t finish a WIP I wanted to submit—Life in Another ’Cosm: Jinny from the Blog—and spent what little energy I had on crafting short stories. Then, I thought I’d kick my novel-writing butt back into gear by trying NaNoWriMo for the first time.

It’s now March 2018, and I’ve realized this about last year:

• One of my short stories was purchased by Exile Editions and will be published in the Alice Unbound: Beyond Wonderland anthology in May 2018.
  ..
• Writing to a smaller word count improved my ability to tell a story.
  ..
• Deciding to use the legend of Xax and Viv (The Stealth) as my NaNoWriMo 2017 project worked, because the chapters read a bit like short stories.
  ..
• My publisher has already expressed interest in The Stealth Lovers.

That’s not so bad after all! I felt inspired to create an action plan for myself this past week:

• Spring 2018: Finish first draft of The Stealth Lovers.
  ..
• Summer 2018: Submit manuscript to beta-readers.
  ..
• Fall 2018: Submit manuscript to Renaissance (my publisher).
  ..
• 2019: Complete and submit Life in Another ’Cosm.
  ..
• 2020: Compile my anthology of space opera short stories.
  ..
• 2021: Write first draft of Life in One Last ’Cosm.

It’ll be interesting to see how I can keep to this plan. As always, I need to manage my spoons, but it feels nice to have writing projects on the horizon. I look forward to taking on this adventure in alphabet arranging.

Next time I feel like I’m in a slump, I’m going to try to encourage myself to hold off on feeling bad until I can reflect the following year!

Cait Gordon is the author of Life in the ’Cosm, a story about a little green guy who’s crushing on the female half of his two-headed colleague. Cait is currently working on a prequel to ’Cosm called The Stealth Lovers, a rom-com military space opera. When she’s not writing, she’s editing manuscripts for indie authors and running The Spoonie Authors Network, a blog whose contributors are writers with disabilities and/or chronic conditions. She also really likes cake.

_{(Featured image: “Dream Big Tablet Means Inspiration And Imagination” by Stuart Miles.)}