One Writer's Dilemma:Querying is the bane of my existence...

One Writer's Dilemma:Querying is the bane of my existence...

There is this thing we must do as writers if we want to get published traditionally.

That is...

you guessed it write a query letter.

(I think I just threw up a little in my mouth)

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I've researched, read, reached out, edited, edited, edited, bugged my beta readers, edited, reached out to Agents who offer their help in exchange for a little personal ridicule....edited, stalked agents, edited, read how to write blah blah blah... edited some more, stalked some more, made lists and lists and lists,  and edited.

Now, I have 8 different versions of my query letter and a very efficient excel spreadsheet

What have I learned?

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What I actually learned:

1. I think I wasted about three weeks of my life.
2. Half the agents contradicted what they want
3. Everyone wants something different
4. Your letter must be perfect or it's implied you suck
5. Don't expect a response letter
6. The response letters you get back will be few and far between
7. Some of the response letters are so poorly written it makes one wonder... I'm not going to finish that thought
8. Some of the response letters, were inspirational
9. I think the only thing getting published right now is young adult (seriously, I went to B&N today and the YA section had taken over the first three bookshelves. I had to ask for help finding an adult best seller, they had been moved to the back of the store)

With the success of Amazon and drama from the merger of certain publishing companies, I'm thinking Indie might be the way to go these days.

But who knows, I might actually get a response.

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Zombie Fridays: When the zombie apocalypse is beating down your door.

Because we all know it's coming...

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One Writer's Dilemma: I forgot how to socialize with real live people...

One Writer's Dilemma: I forgot how to socialize with real live people...

I guess it happens to most writers, I spend a good part of my day in front of my computer, interacting with fictional characters. And soon, I've forgotten how to complete a sentence. It's true, ask any of my coworkers...

Today just solidified the issue. I had a family member visit for a few hours, and then I talked on the phone for another hour. Needless to say, I didn't get much writing done today, and I'm exhausted from all the talking.

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When I'm not working, writing, or pretending to keep my house in order, 
I'm hanging out with these "friends"
---

These fish are my friends!

So are these!

And these!

This is how I spent my summer, socializing with plants...

No life is fulfilled without a few good dogs!

Which has resulted in this:

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And the reason why I drink so much at social events...

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Good thing I stocked up on rum last night.

One Writer's Dilemma: "We are waiting for something different and awesome..."

"We are waiting for something different and awesome..."

When I read things like this

I think to myself: 

Really.... really?...

Then I bite my tongue.

I want to write a psychotic, raving response to them all.

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Not for my writing

(Okay, maybe a tiny bit for my writing)

But  for all the stories out there

all the writer's out there

who are so much better than I am.

Whose amazing stories I've read and wondered why it hasn't been picked up yet

I'm sure their work has been sitting in your inbox for eight months
 

Now, I have to bite my tongue again, because an agent or publisher may or may not read this someday. And with all the recent posts out there, I guess I just broke the golden rule of etiquette... Oh wells...

 Is the liquor store open, yet?

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Today kicks off a month of NaNoWriMo:

Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. - Earl Nightingale

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One Writer's Dilemma: I fed my family cereal for dinner so I could write...

Let's face it, if you aren't a professional writer/author/getpaidtotypewords, then you struggle with the day to day tasks of working and running a household and finding time to write. And if you have kids, that just compounds the situation.

Enter me, and you, and 99.3% of those who call themselves writer's.

Some of my favorite blog posts from other writer's are the ones encouraging us to keep on writing despite all of the struggles of life. I bookmark those. I re-read those.  I think about them when I'm changing baby diapers at 3am at work. (I am a NICU Nurse during the night)

What I've discovered in life, is that you've finally excelled at a profession when you can joke about situations that would cause a normal person to blush cherry red with embarrassment. 

Examples:

I accepted myself as a Biochemist the day I got way too excited over a new mass spectrometry instrument and all the cool experiments we could do with it.

I accepted myself as a Registered Nurse when ran to my co-workers bedside to inspect a brand new ostomy post-op.

Will I put a Disney movie on, sit next to my daughter and lose myself in my work? 

Will I feed her popcorn for lunch and cereal for dinner? 

 

Yes. Yes I will. 

"How could I do such a thing?" you may ask, gasping in horror.

I've asked myself that a few times, until I realized this: the perfect manuscript is not going to fall from the sky into my lap. Neither is the perfect short story, the perfect query letter or the perfect synopsis. We write and write and write and edit and edit and edit. Life is a struggle, success is a struggle and nothing teaches our children better than them watching us live through that struggle and succeed.

My daughter has watched me leave for the night shift at 7pm and return in the morning to bring her to school and do all the mom things that society expects from me. She has seen me struggle. And she's picked up on it, there is a lot less whining, a lot more cooperation. I don't want her growing up expecting everything to be handed to her on a silver spoon, that tends to be a problem with a lot of people today. They give up too easily. 

Don't hide in your basement at night. Don't wait until midnight when everyone is asleep. Let them see you working. Let them see you writing. It's a good thing.  

When I'm buried in the ground I may not have published a best-seller, but my daughter will always remember sitting next to me as I followed my dreams. 

It will remind her to always follow hers no matter how hard the path may be.

Happy Impending NaNoWriMo!

One Writer's Dilemma: The death of a main character

Have you ever wondered when is the perfect time to kill off one of your characters?

I had a plan to do it. I had an outline written. I had my second novel figured out until the very end. I had myself prepared, the actions of my characters prepared, a lovely fictional ceremony prepared, how everyone would feel, what they would say to each other...

Then something crazy happened.

I saw the perfect opportunity to add more depth to story, to twist the characters lives into another direction, to add more drama to their lives. Because we all know, the drama is what keeps readers interested, it keeps them reading.

And I killed off a different character. A character that I loved. 

Now, being an introvert with a highly sensitive personality I should have prepared myself better for this. I should have known what it would do to me. Especially since I've struggled with the death of fictional characters before, for example: when I finished reading The Hunger Games Trilogy, it sent me into a book hangover for about a week. Okay, let's not lie... it was really about a month.

I couldn't cope with what had happened to all those characters who I had grown to love, and how their lives were forever changed.   

It's true. I've had this problem with television shows too:

So, after 3 rum and cokes, I moped around my house last night, mumbling to my husband that I killed a person, I killed them dead (FYI: I would never actually kill a person in real life. I do have morals). 

I think he laughed at me, maybe said something about getting over it. (It was a character he never liked in the first place). But I couldn't. I kept reading that scene over and over, thinking about how it would affect the other characters lives, how they would react, how readers might react.

 I tend to do this with books that I become absolutely absorbed in:

Then something amazing happened... 

I was propelled into an inspirational brainstorming session. I could barely write down ideas fast enough. Just when I was thinking I might have to stop this series at the second book!

So, what have I learned from this experience?

Death makes people think. It causes us to re-evaluate, change our life path, reconsider our goals, hope for a better future. 

Death is easy on no one, but like fear, death is an inspiration.

Or, maybe it was the rum...