Itching to write

I'm still a novice writer based on how many stories I've had published, but I have this internal urging almost every day that I need to be writing something. Some days, thanks to a long work day, I don't get the chance. At this point I can't afford (literally) to write too much at work. I want to write full-time someday, but I want it to be on my timing.

I've got one novel in the works that some of my writers group, which is 440 miles away, has seen, and one that no one has seen. That's mainly because the first half of it is on 100 handwritten pages in a notebook. And who's got time to transcribe that much?

For me the easy part is writing the first draft. After that I let it set for a few days or weeks, go over it again, and email it to one or two of three friends who are gracious enough to critique and edit stories for me. Then comes the tedious process of adding, or more often, subtracting words, lines, or paragraphs. Ideas for new stories usually pop in my head while I'm in the revision process. So which do I do? Edit? Start with a fresh idea? Both? D - all of the above.

The next part is my weakest stage - finding a market and submitting my work. Occasionally I have a contest in mind when writing, but more often than not I've let manuscripts from 1,000 to 20,000 words sit around without ever giving them a chance to be accepted or rejected.

I need to win the lottery so I can write like I want to. Me and about a million other writers.