I wish I could help you with your quandary, but the world of publishing is very much outside my wheelhouse. I've never been published; I just enjoy writing when I have the time and energy. I suspect, if I live long enough, that I'll end up with a digital stack of manuscripts that will never be read unless I self-publish (and self-publishing doesn't really seem to be all it's cracked up to be, either). In any case, I wish you the best in publishing and marketing your short stories and novellas.

NaNoWriMo's website isn't as intuitive as I'd like. You need to create a new project and then log in each day and update your word count. They award meaningless badges along the way to try to motivate you, too.

I hear ya. Last year, I wrote 14 words and gave up. My heart just wasn't in it.

Congrats on finishing up your novel. I wish I had more time and energy to write. I find it's hard to be as creative as I once was when I'm as perpetually stressed out as I've been for the last several years. I really need to make time in my daily schedule for creative pursuits.

Do you have publishers in mind, or publishing strategies, for your novel and for your short story anthology? I'm interested in both forms for my own purposes -- see my post on this page. Any feedback welcomed please.

@resserts For me, writing is a HUGE stress reliever. Sometimes I get so deep into my story that I have a little difficulty getting back to the real world.

@resserts, @Garbonza I self publish. I spent a couple years beating my head against the wall trying to get a publisher. When I finally did, she worked for about six month trying to sell my book, then she died suddenly from a heart attack. I took that as a sign from the universe. Screw publishers. I publish and sell on amazon.

@mischl Do you feel that self publishing is working well for you? I've been under the impression that self publishing takes a knack because, in addition to being a skilled writer, you need to be superb at marketing yourself.

@resserts My attitude is: If you need to make money, don't be a writer. If I had taken all that time I spent writing books and instead used my riding mower to mow grass for people, I would be a LOT wealthier. I write for personal enjoyment. The checks I get from amazon are also an enjoyment, but I couldn't live off of them.

NaNoWriMo (National Novel-Writing Month) is a challenge each year in November to encourage people to write. You can meet up with other writers online or in person in your area, exchange words of encouragement, etc. But I've never been able to complete the challenge (50,000 words) in previous years.

[nanowrimo.org]

@resserts well all the best with it, sounds fun but a lot of work too.

@resserts I just went to this site and joined. In doing so they said to use Discord as the platform to use for contacting each other. Great program but I have not figured out how to contact the people on the site with it.

@girlwithsmiles Thank you. I have a little PTO this month, so I'm hoping that will help me make up for some time inevitable lost for my regular job.

@dalefvictor Hmm, they may have changed things a bit. The site isn't very intuitive to begin with, but I didn't know anything about using Discord to communicate; it used to be possible to message users directly within the site. If I figure it out, I'll let you know what I learn.

@resserts From what I can figure they have embedded Discord into their site.