I got a good start on submitting a story every month, making my January submission on the 8th. However, it didn't occur to me until that moment what a rigorous schedule making one new submission each month is going to be.
My normal process works something like this: I write a story, taking as few or many days as the story requires. Then I let it sit for at least a month, giving myself some much-needed distance so I can more easily spot problems. I reread the story, make any revisions I feel are necessary, and then offer it to readers for critiques. After receiving those back (this can take 4-5 weeks if I'm using Critters) I make any more necessary revisions and then submit. Occasionally I will do serious revisions and then do another round of critiques before submitting.) What this whole process boils down to is that I need a minimum of two months to work on a story. What this also means is that if I'm to keep my goal of one new submission every month, I'll need to be working on three stories each month: one to write, one to revise and offer for critiques, and one to revise after critiques and submit.
Whew! That's going to be a lot of work. Fortunately, I have a backlog of things that are nearly ready for submission, but I've already started on writing new stuff s that I'll have something to submit come April.
The biggest issue with this realization is that I'll need to start working a little faster. It's very important that I continue to revise the novel, so I can't spend three quarters of the month concentrating on stories instead. I've got my work cut out for me this year!
On a related note, I've decided to replace one of my 12 stories this year with a children's book. It's an idea I recently came up with while my son was sick, and I think it could work really well. Which means more learning this year too, mainly about how to write a picture book. Whee!
How about you? How do you handle balancing multiple projects?
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