I added a new section on the sidebar for the writing blogs that I like to read. I'm not sure if anyone will ever read this blog or care, but if they do, maybe they can stumble upon stuff that helps them too.
Reading about writing almost always inspires me to get up off my ass and write! TGFWB!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Querying!
Isn't it the thing we all fear and anticipate? Don't we have such a love-hate relationship with it? Okay, maybe everyone else doesn't, but I sure do!
I told myself I wasn't going to query Novel 1 (still nameless!) until I finished draft 3, but I decided that it couldn't hurt to put out a few feelers now. What if I spend months endlessly polishing and quirking only to discover that an agent would have been interested in January? It's all part of my weird self-perception as a writer. Sometimes I think I suck so bad that I could never be published (sadly reinforced today when I read the Scribophile blog), and other times I think I'm pretty damn good and certainly a couple notches above the other unpublished writers. (Objectively, the former is more probable.)
Anyway, so I decided to send out some queries. I worked on a query letter and synopsis, I trawled the Agent Query website for agents that might be a good fit for my work. I hit "send" and logged it and knew I wouldn't hear back for weeks. To my surprise, I heard back almost immediately from most! (I sent out 5 feelers this time.) They were all form rejections.
Sigh.
Of course that was exactly what I was expecting, but a little part of me was hoping that I'd get some little tidbit to keep my spirits up, to feel like I could someday see my books on the shelf.
Anyway, really am going to finish draft 3 before I try to query again. Doing a readthrough of draft 2 right now, taking notes about things I want to change (on a big-ish scale, like adding new scenes or deepening a recurring theme) and am going to go back and finagle around. Then I can go back and do a line edit for stuff like "Does a comma really belong there?" and "This phrasing is awkward."
In the meantime, I'm still working on draft 1 of Novel 4. Sure, at the end of the year I'll probably have 2 full, unpublished manuscripts and nothing to do with either, but I'm not ready to give up yet!
I told myself I wasn't going to query Novel 1 (still nameless!) until I finished draft 3, but I decided that it couldn't hurt to put out a few feelers now. What if I spend months endlessly polishing and quirking only to discover that an agent would have been interested in January? It's all part of my weird self-perception as a writer. Sometimes I think I suck so bad that I could never be published (sadly reinforced today when I read the Scribophile blog), and other times I think I'm pretty damn good and certainly a couple notches above the other unpublished writers. (Objectively, the former is more probable.)
Anyway, so I decided to send out some queries. I worked on a query letter and synopsis, I trawled the Agent Query website for agents that might be a good fit for my work. I hit "send" and logged it and knew I wouldn't hear back for weeks. To my surprise, I heard back almost immediately from most! (I sent out 5 feelers this time.) They were all form rejections.
Sigh.
Of course that was exactly what I was expecting, but a little part of me was hoping that I'd get some little tidbit to keep my spirits up, to feel like I could someday see my books on the shelf.
Anyway, really am going to finish draft 3 before I try to query again. Doing a readthrough of draft 2 right now, taking notes about things I want to change (on a big-ish scale, like adding new scenes or deepening a recurring theme) and am going to go back and finagle around. Then I can go back and do a line edit for stuff like "Does a comma really belong there?" and "This phrasing is awkward."
In the meantime, I'm still working on draft 1 of Novel 4. Sure, at the end of the year I'll probably have 2 full, unpublished manuscripts and nothing to do with either, but I'm not ready to give up yet!
January 2011 Wrap-Up
A few days late, but oh well!
This month was up and down for me. I did so good for the first half! I wrote at least 500 words almost every day--and the few days I missed were caught up for in the excess of other days. And then I just hit a wall. Two weeks of not a single word written. Between stress at work and at home, it just wasn't happening. I did manage to kick it into gear for the last few days, which meant I only ended up about 3000 words behind goal, but all in all I wouldn't call it a super successful month.
Words written: 11,590
So better hopes for February, of course! Although it's the 5th and I've only written about 450 words so far, I am not going to give up now.
This month was up and down for me. I did so good for the first half! I wrote at least 500 words almost every day--and the few days I missed were caught up for in the excess of other days. And then I just hit a wall. Two weeks of not a single word written. Between stress at work and at home, it just wasn't happening. I did manage to kick it into gear for the last few days, which meant I only ended up about 3000 words behind goal, but all in all I wouldn't call it a super successful month.
Words written: 11,590
So better hopes for February, of course! Although it's the 5th and I've only written about 450 words so far, I am not going to give up now.
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