I’m 75% done with the truth handbook. My estimate - I’m 10-12 poems away from being finished with the first draft. It’ll probably take me writing 20-25 poems to get to those 10-12 that actually fit with the rest, but so be it. There’s light at the end of the tunnel, I’m almost at the finish line, insert appropriate cliché, etc. My goal is to have the manuscript tight and refined by April or May – then I’ll have two poetry manuscripts to throw at the book competitions and open calls for submissions. Plenty of unpublished material to submit to lit mags and contests as well. After that, I want to rededicate myself to writing fiction for the remainder of the year.
When putting together my first (still unpublished) book, My Own Brand of Blues, I used to just write poems that were eventually drawn together into a manuscript. Now I'm writing poems to go into a book - though of course not just for the book, but in large part, most of the new pieces I’m composing will go into it. I find this somehow focuses me...even if there's not even a chance anyone will publish these manuscripts at all. Sigh.