So the exciting news is that my wife and I are expecting a baby girl any day now.
With two young children and another one the way, it’s safe to say we’ll be pretty busy for the next, oh I don’t know, twenty years or so.
But in the meantime, the next few weeks are going to be extremely crazy eventful.
Obviously, this means that I’ll have to scale back my writing schedule a bit as my writing will need to take a back seat to my real life obligations. But it doesn’t mean that my writing schedule will diminish into nothing.
I’ll simply need to prioritize and reevaluate my writing goals for the next few months.
My plan right now is to look at things in one week blocks after the baby is born. If I set a couple of weekly goals that I aim for (as opposed to regular daily goals like I do now) then it’s okay if I miss a day every now and then, as long as I can stay on track for the week.
One thing that will remain a priority over everything else writing related is my online magazine, Theme of Absence. Since other writers are involved, maintaining my publishing obligations with that site must be a top priority.
After that, I’m going to set some smaller goals. I enjoy sharing the Five Links Friday posts here, so that is something I shouldn’t have any trouble working on while I’m watching the baby.
As for my fiction, I’m going to set a very small goal of a mere 500 words per week for a while. I know that sounds like next to nothing, but if you think about it, it does add up to 2000 words in a month, which is a good start to a short story, or even a complete one. It could also be two or three flash fiction pieces.
I’m also going to try to continue posting here as much as I can, but I can’t beat myself up if I gets to be too much and I need to spread out posts for a little while.
That’s about all I can plan on for now. If time permits, I’ll do other things, such as sending off more queries to agents, looking for freelance work, or writing more fiction.
But the most important thing for me to do is accept the fact that things will be busy for a while and I just have to do what I can. I’ll have a tired wife, a newborn baby, and two other young kids that will need as much of my time as I can give them.
And they’re worth every second.
Image by Robert Couse-Baker
Proud of u Jason u come from good stock just keep believing that and doing what u can as i can see u are. Congrats on new little Nora Belle.
Thanks for the kind words. Baby Nora Belle is doing pretty good. She’s almost already back up her birth weight.
Her brother and sister have been great with her so far, too.
Congratulations, Jason! Your growing family will give you growing fodder for stories. And about that twenty-year thing … Your life will change forever.
Thanks Kathy for the kind words. I can’t believe little Nora Belle is almost a year old. She’s walking all over the place and loves chasing her older brother and sister everywhere she can. Fun times 🙂