I am halfway through my year of writing children’s books. That’s what I got in May of 2019, one year. And I had some incredible goals.

One was to write 10 publishable children’s books by May 2020. I think I am well on the way to doing that. I have seven I wouldn’t be embarrassed to show other people as “finished.” I have five others that need some polishing.

I didn’t know anything about the children’s book industry on May 1, 2019, but I knew about other publishing. Why did I think “get three books published” was anything like do-able in a single year?

Instead that goal has morphed into the more realistic, and self-driven, send three books off to agents &/or editors. I’ve sent two.

I also decided I would do a couple of conferences. I did two and one writing-intensive workshop for my MG novel, even though I wasn’t ready for it yet. Apparently getting over my head is one good way for me to learn to swim.

This year I am going to

• finish my MG novel, which has been lacking the last 2 chapters since I finished Nanowrimo.
• join the Picture Book Idea Month and come up with x number of ideas.
• find out what the published author friend recommended and join that, too.
• create a list of possible agents.
• attend at least 2 conferences and 1 writing-intensive event. (I did that last year.)

These are not New Year’s Resolutions. These are part of the plan to finish up my year of writing children’s books as strongly as I possibly can–hopefully so that I will discover that my new career is writing children’s books.