Not writing but resting!

I suppose, like an actor, I am resting right now. Unlike the last few years when I was pounding the keys daily and my life revolved around writing I am taking a sort of break. Yes, still! However, while not actively writing anything new I have been submitting the odd thing since the beginning of February - four short stories and a smattering of poems. The stories have been edited from previous work, and I now have a friend who often looks over my pieces for errors and tells me if she doesn't understand something. It helps to know that technically there are no stupid missing words or misplaced commas. However many times I read my work I don't spot them all.

I have also been mulling over where I stand with the various novels I have written. Currently they are festering in stages on my laptop. I have five of them. Sounds a lot but two are in real rough draft form while two are complete but need some major editing to the beginnings. I feel there is too much backstory so I need to strip it out and feed it in somewhere else (some might not even been needed at all). I am still not ready to tackle this but at least I know which one will receive the treatment when I do start.

At present I am juggling too many other things in my life to give the time needed for writing and big reworks. With so many pieces rolling around I feel I should concentrate on getting them up to a publishing standard even if in the end I self-publish. This is looking a lot like the right option right now but I will explore all avenues.

I've just started reading a book about trees. For a while I have felt drawn to trees and writing about them. I have a few completed pieces from last year and I today I came across a great title for a poem, as yet unwritten! I shall see where it leads me.