Whew!  With only a handful of days left in 2011, I’ve met my final writing goal for the year.  I finished the first draft of my untitled science fiction novel.  I need to get a little distance from it before delving into the revisions, so I’ve set it aside and will work through my backlog of short stories that has accumulated over the last seven weeks.  (I have four that need revisions and at least two waiting to be written.)  I’ll return to the novel in a month or two (or three) with the goal of revising and submitting it in 2012. 

I’m looking forward to getting back to writing short fiction.  While I enjoyed the challenge of writing the novel, it was a large investment—it seemed to require a greater concerted effort than writing  a series of short stories that totaled to 90,000+ words.  I’m not exactly sure why.  Even so, it was an exhilarating experience, and I’ll do it again, probably next year.