NaNoWriMo withdrawal

The first year without NaNoWriMo is hard. I feel left out, left behind; I feel like the kid who can't come out and play because she has homework, or like the grownup who can't go on the fun trip because she has a day job. (Boy have I been THERE too many times.) I didn't think I'd miss NaNo this much.

If it's that fun, maybe I want to keep doing it... after I figure out how to make progress on the stuff that's harder for me. Last night Rob and I brainstormed a little about goals. I don't yet have something to commit to. I'm flailing and not sure how to decide. More on that later.

Unless I'm suddenly a busy busy world-famous author by this time next year, I may come back to NaNo.

Writing goals

Quote from Rob: "If this is a bit scary, it's probably the right thing for you to do."

Could my goal be "Get a novel ready for submission somewhere, and submit it, within one year?" Last night Rob and I handwaved some length constraints, pace estimates, and rewrite-time guesses. We're hindered by not knowing much about what it takes to get something submittable, but on the other hand, we do have some constraints we know about. We decided that:

1. Standalone novels are not 50 kwords. The shortest fiction book I can find on my shelf is maybe ~75 kwords, and it's a really freakin' simplistic book.
2. The pace must be maintainable (alongside a day job, square dance calling, and swimming) and must produce writing I can hand to critiquers. If I hand out stuff I should be ashamed to have my cat read with her butt, I won't have readers the second time around.
3. Double the estimate, at the very least, to add a first pass rewrite (section by section or reworking major structure) based on critiques.
4. It's reasonable to assume that if I join a writing group and get feedback, I'll spend a bunch of time reading and commenting on others' work as well. This stuff doesn't come for free.

It looks like a year just to finish the second draft, and it will likely still be shitty at that point. So in short, no. At my skill level, I can't create a submittable novel in a year.

Could my goal be "Get a short story ready for submission somewhere, and submit it?" Welllll... far fewer short story anthologies get published than novels. Yet I do enjoy working on shorter stuff. Not sure how or whom to ask about this one.

What if I hope to get good at humor? Welllll... there aren't many openings for newspaper columnists. Besides, I'd rather tell a story. Books with humor/silliness and little else are, to me, like eating a room full of candy for dinner, so I'll have to get good at the "else" (the story) either way.

So I'm still confused. I don't yet have something I'm willing to commit to.