Restless and Disgruntled

This afternoon I've been thinking about my writing and feeling more and more disgruntled. Mostly with myself, because I feel that I'm not applying myself to it the way I should be if I want results--real results.

This could be because I haven't written anything during June and July...June was simply too busy, July was filled with getting ready for vacation and then going on said vacation and then recovering from said vacation, at least until today. Today I'm thinking that I could, should start working on something again. I'm just not sure what I should tackle, I suppose.

I seem to see a pattern with my novel-writing: I write the first draft, work diligently on the project trying to get it closer and closer to submission-ready...and then some reason crops up that I have to leave it for a while, and it goes cold. The task of picking it up again is so daunting, my mind doesn't want to take it on. Or possibly there are other reasons hidden deep in my psyche that are holding me back. Whatever the cause, I feel very annoyed with myself because of it.

I'm considering giving myself an ultimatum--that I won't be allowed to participate in NaNoWriMo this year if I don't have ONE of these projects finished and in submission before then. It's drastic, because I love doing NaNoWriMo so much, but I'm thinking about it. Maybe the threat will make me buckle down and get to work.

I did send a sub out to Strange Horizons this afternoon, so perhaps that's something.