Monthly update

January new word total: 9,105
January goal: 25,000
Rejections: 2 personal rejections (really good in a way)

This has been a bit of a rough month for me (whine, excuses, whine). The whole family has been sick for the last couple weeks, which chewed away at my writing energy level. Plus, it is the middle of the term which means that there is lots of stuff to grade.

So, I still wrote 9K even in the throes of a new term. I found a new direction for the book I am writing (titled Something...I know. Illuminating.) and I am excited about it, even though (especially because) I don't know where the book will end up. I received personal rejections that were written by kind editors who saw enough in LSCTS that they felt the need to encourage/direct me.

I've also discovered that I am doing too much to maintain a good writing life. Aside from the 2 year old and my farm, I am teaching four classes. I can control how much I teach, not so much the 2 y.o. or the farm work. Unfortunately, I have committed to teach 4 classes through June, which is five long months away. I plan on refusing to teach more than 3 classes then now on, though.

In the short term, I may have to consider putting the child into another morning/afternoon of daycare. I don't like that option. I want to raise my child. That's why I had her. But writing keeps me sane and happy, and our little Agent of Entropy deserves a sane, happy mother, right? Right?

That's what this guy says:

What Happy Women Know: How New Findings in Positive Psychology Can Change Women's Lives for the Better

Until then, I really need to learn to say "no." It's the hardest word for me to say, because I've always been super girl who can do anything and everything. Heavy on the everything. You would think I would have learned my lesson by now.

m

Weekly update #3

New words: 2,067 (last week0+ 1079 (so far this week)
Rejections: 2, both personal

I'm fighting a cold, so I probably won't be particularly eloquent (though perhaps a teensy bit bitter) today. Sorry.

A word or two on rejections. There is a hierarchy of rejections. At the bottom, there's the slip of paper that says something generic about how the magazine/publisher didn't want/need your work (or waste a whole 4 cents on a full sheet of paper on you). Some Ed. Assistants soften the blow by writing "Thanks!" in loopy letters and signing them with purple pen.

Next up is a rejection printed on letterhead with your name and address and the title of your work included in the text. Somebody had to put those things there (though I suspect that there are computer programs that may do this). Bonus if someone signed a name in blue pen (not purple). At least you warranted five minutes of someone's time to fill in a form letter. And it's on a full sheet of paper.

Finally, as rejections go, the two I got this week were wonderful. Both of them were on the aforementioned full sheets of paper with my name spelled correctly, etc. The bonus is that each of them gave a brief critique of the work by way of explaining why they passed on it! One actually complimented my "voice" and hinted that another publisher might very well be interested (though she didn't mention any names...damn). The other suggested that I was hunting in the wrong genre (she didn't really like anything but the concept of the book). Still, good advice.

This is truly useful information!

The thing about editors/agents/publishers is that "it only takes one." That is, it only takes one person to fall in love with the book and push it through the publishing process. The editor who complimented me on my voice is getting more of my work in the future because she likes the way I write, even if she didn't like that particular book.

For more on "It only takes one," read this post by Dean Wesley Smith (search the text for "It only takes one."). Yes, I posted a link to this post a week or two ago, but it's worth reposting.
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=720

So, those are my thoughts on rejections. I'll take any win I can get, especially on a day when I don't feel well.

m

Week 2 update

Words this week: 5,092 all of them for the new novel.
No contact from publishers this week.

I had a bit of an epiphany this week, too, thanks to reading Dick Francis. In the novel "10 lbs. Penalty," Francis condenses three years in a span of a a couple chapters and a light went on in my head. When I "finished" the novel on Nov. 30, I thought I had a book I needed to fill in plus three or four ideas for a sequel. Francis showed me that a story can have a lull of months or years, after which the writer can pick up the threads and continue the story.

In my case, I don't have ideas for a sequel, I have ideas for the next 30-40K of the book. Yippee! This means that I have abandoned the idea of revising the first part of the book until I'm done with this second part. I'm pretty excited by this.

So, I met my goal! Hooray!

m

Weekly update #1

(1) Story finished, mailed to market
(1) rejection for LSCTS received.

School started this week, so I've felt slammed, so not much writing has occurred. However, the story mentioned above was completed and mailed this week, so I'm counting it, even though it was actually written in December.

I am nearly done with whatever it is I'm doing with Something. Mapping out the chapters is somewhat useful, but now I need to get them in order and fill in the blanks. I do want to finish the book by the end of the month (which, if you look in this blog's archives, is what I wanted to do with LSCTS, last year...not very successfully).

I have a friend who says he wants to trade a chapter for a poem. He likes the way I edit/critique/revise his poems, and I value his opinion on writing, so it might work out. He's not much of a genre fiction fan, though, so I have to remember that when I read his responses. :)

So, not bad for the first seven days of the month. whoopee.

m