A year and a half ago I began this blog for a myriad of reasons. It’s a great way to build an audience, or as other writers told me, creating exposure. I write conversationally, as comfortable as I can, to provide the best possible window into who I am. I also wanted to have something else to occasionally write, thus taking a break from my novel which I’d been attempting to write for years. It was Summer 2015 and my original plan, naive as it was, was to have written it in time for publication that Fall. I failed at that but did manage to complete a full first draft that November.
I kicked off 2016 revising and re-writing. I worked with an artist, my amazing daughter Anni, on special characters and came up with an idea for the cover. I even went so far as to announce it publicly, for a second time no less, that it would be ready by May. 
Meanwhile I was pouring over the first few chapters only, attempting to make them perfect. In the process I watched May come and go, once again without having reached my goals.
After that failure, I set a personal one for Fall again. This time keeping it mostly to myself due to losing a little momentum and even some faith in my ability to finish. Clearly I didn’t make that goal either.I took some time to begin a new novel rough draft in November then a break from writing all together through the Holidays.
When I sat down in January this, I had a epiphany of sorts. I felt like Neo in the Matrix as I suddenly could see how my story is to come together. What is going to fit and what won’t. 
Where a certain scene is needed while removing another, or combining multiple characters into one for clarification. I began making real progress. I’m over half way through the book now and moving along a good pace. Enough that I’m starting to believe I really might make my latest goal date of mid-to-late March for beta readers. Originally, I chose March due to a Self-Pub book contest in early April. A potential new possibility has presented itself making this newest deadline attempt still valid, but a bit more fluid. My main goal now is to finish with the best product I can at this time and we’ll see where it goes from there.
In the past year and a half, from 2015 to now, I’m amazed at the transformation my writing has gone through. I have to thank my failures for showing me the right way (write way?) to do this crazy thing I dream of accomplishing. I’m learning from failure and not failing to learn. How about you? (Side note, I actually wrote this a week ago and for some unknown reason, believed it to be posted already. Oops! Thankfully I’m hanging in there and still making great progress with my novel. I’ll keep you posted!) 
Jason A. Meuschke 