Christmastime is here...

And that means I have about ten days to finish editing my WOTF entry for this quarter. I have also gone through a year in review of my work, since I'm pulling out a story that I wrote back in February and dusting it off. Since starting the "serious" side of my publishing life, I have written 43 stories, six of which I am actively trying to sell, and seven of which are in my "half breed" lists, stories which I need to finish. I put 17 stories on the table at Wordos, and have considered jumping back into the online critique world. I have an account on Lit.org, but I haven't touched it in a while. I am a few stories short of Jay Lake's "Story a Week" goal, but I have also written 40,000 words of one novel, and 10,000 of another thanks to NaNoWriMo. While I love writing novel length pieces, November is, for me, a crappy month to write one. Now that I'm working part time, I have even less time to write, but hopefully our family schedule will solidify in January and I'll have a daily scheduled time to write.
I have learned that there are too many rules of writing that people take too seriously. I have learned that I have a unique voice (just like anyone else, I'm not being egotistical here) that I have to use. I have learned how to give good critiques, and I need a few stories to practive on. I have learned that my brother, as encouraging as he was all my life, can give really good feedback now that I'm a "serious" writer. I have learned that piles of books on building plot, creating characters, and techniques of functional fiction lead my wife to ask me if writing is any fun. If there was a point in the year I would have stopped writing, that question would have been it. Writing is an art form, not a chore, so when I think of writing as a quotidian duty, it becomes less fun and I work on other projects, like programming my submission database manager or trying to get my l25 Bowazon through the 2nd world Boss Monster in Diablo 2.
I have also learned that Jay Lake was right when he said "the best reason to keep a bunch of stories in the mail is to a)sell them, and b)make individual rejections hurt less than they already do.