Setting and meeting goals: SFWA membership

A little over a year ago now, I decided to start writing and submitting fiction.  Because it's the kind of person I am, I had a "master plan" for how I was going to get my first novel published. A key part of that plan, of course, is actually WRITING a novel.  I haven't manage to finish one yet.  I'm working on it.  However, a step on that path to getting my first novel published was joining the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America group.

I did that today.  Yay! 

It's not like I get a magic pony, buckets of cash, an agent, or a huge contract just by joining (yeah, learning I wasn't getting that pony was pretty devastating).  I won't even get those things when I'm a full member with at least three SFWA qualifying sales.  I have one sale now. When Digital Science Fiction gets SFWA status, shortly after their one year anniversary, I imagine, I'll have two (and hopefully a third or more in the meantime).

Succeeding at anything is often about setting and meeting realistic goals.  Honestly, I didn't think I'd make it into SFWA as fast as I did, but count that as one goal met.  So now what?

Today, my next goal is going to be finishing a novel in the next year.

I also have some short stories in the works I'd like to finish.  I'd like to take as many cracks as I can at the Writers of the Future Contest before I become ineligible, so I'll split time between working on my novel and my stories, but I think I can manage both.

The one BIG thing complicating all of this is that I'm also an undergrad again, working on getting a nursing degree and qualifying for my RN.  Getting that day job MUST be my first priority, and I'm not settling for just qualifying for the BSN program (I'm pre-BSN now), I want to be among the best students in the program.  Plus I want to be the best father and husband possible, and lose sixty more pounds--I've lost 95 so far--not have the house fall apart around me, and accomplish a lot of other things(like earning straight As, so far, so good). 

I honestly don't know how the heck I'm going to do all that AND write a novel that doesn't completely suck, but I'm going to try.  Go me!