Here’s what I’ve accomplished this week:
I finished the first draft of my story submission for Wyrd Warfare, due August 21st, and have set it aside to edit in the coming weeks.
I wrote the next story for Deep Blue, due in October. It is still 1000 words short (4000/5000) but I will go back and work on it over the coming months. Meanwhile, I have set it aside to work on other things.
Received a rejection letter for That Bites! Which I’d already pretty much given up on having posted it to Substack a month ago.
And I received my author’s copies of Wyrd Warfare: Forgotten Fronts and enjoyed a brief victory lap.
A Tim Ferris clip suggested asking AI what to do with the next 5-years of your life. So I did. Based on the past year of conversation, ChatGPT suggested not taking on anything new; I have enough going on for 3 lifetimes. Agreed. It also identified my three strongest assets: the gym, my fitness, and my writing.
Because I agree and feel on track with the first two, I asked it to expand on the third and detail what my aim should be with my writing over the next 5-years. Here’s the plan it suggested:
5 Year Goal 2026-2031
One novel per year
One short story collection every 2 to 3 years
One Substack story per week
Six magazine submissions (but I think I can and will do more)
One professionally produced audiobook every year or two as the catalogue grows At the end of five years, I will have:
5 novels
2 collections
250+ published short stories
A substantial Substack archive
A recognizable catalogue
The short story goal feels doable. I’m less confident about the novel. Soiled Undies is my first, and at barely 50,000 words, some publishers don’t even qualify it as a novel.
Also, I’m not sitting on any novel-length stories. Maybe my Tormac Sword and Sorcery could be expanded, and Kid Quick may be close to novel length. I have a short story that ChatGPT believes needs to be novel length.
In any event, 2026 has been a good first year. Lots of accumulated experience. Two published stories and three encouraging rejection letters. The Substack experience has been enjoyable. As has the experience of writing to themed anthology open calls.
These writing exercises have proven my fear of running out of stories to be ill-founded. My mind is a story-making machine. Whatever strange subject or offbeat writing prompts I’ve challenged myself to take on, a suitable story has emerged when I needed it.
One other suggestion from ChatGPT is to stop thinking as a writer and begin thinking about IP ownership. To that end, I have some creative ideas that frighten/excite me regarding world-building.
As a rule, people overestimate what they can accomplish in the short term and underestimate what can be achieved over the long term. The year is not done and already I’ve enjoyed significant progress. If I can stay steady on for another four and a half years, perhaps I will have moved the needle more than I can guess.
This week I added a new Substack category, Random Ramblings, for stories that do not fit into my existing collections. First up will be Pannus Envy: https://brainsoupfic.substack.com/p/pannus-envy
5-Year Plans
July 31, 2026
