So. It must be said that Fridays have special meaning to writers who are waiting to hear from agents or editors. The special meaning? It's the end of the week. Accordingly, the workday is usually cut short. And there won't be another workday for more than forty-eight hours.
In other words, if it's past 3:00 or so in New York, chances are you won't hear a thing until Monday at best.
You're dead in the water for another weekend.
Admittedly, this deflated feeling comes and goes with the ebb and flow of attempting-to-publish-one's-work. Lots of partials and fulls out to agents? Friday double stink. Running a bit dry and not caring a whole lot what happens to your current project? This Friday may not be so painful. Just hit the three-month-mark with your agented submissions to the Top Three editors of your choice? Friday overflows with suckage.
You all know what I mean.
Unless, of course, you are fresh from the typewriter, eager to embark upon this perilous journey for the first time. For you, Friday is simply...Friday.
I wish I were so un-jaded.
(Un-jaded?)
For me, this particular Friday isn't so bad. My prospects have fizzled to one outstanding partial, and I'm not too hopeful that this one will go any further. I've nearly spent my list of appropriate agents for this particular project, and I've got to decide what to do next. Do I:
1. Go back through the personal feedback I've received and decide if I should do some re-writing to accomodate?
2. In particular, should I revisit the comments from the editor who didn't like my protag's voice? (Even though nobody else seemed to dislike my main character?)
3. Move on to the new project I've got simmering on the back burner? (What a tired cliche...)
4. Set everything aside and focus on something un-writing-related for a month or two?
5. Throw myself from the nearest bridge?
And what about you? What are you going to do this Friday?
Miss Snark's First Victim
I'm house-flipping. Want to know more? Come visit a blog I co-host.
ReplyDeletehttp://takeittothestars.blogspot.com
Anyway, life has been insane. I've got a couple queries out. One partial that fell flat and about twelve projects screaming for my attention.
And here's something fun.
http://queryshark.blogspot.com/
Check it out.
Dawn
Dawn, I've been meaning to add a link to Query Shark on my sidebar here -- thanks for the reminder!!
ReplyDeleteI watched Iron Man today and quite enjoyed it. Explosions! Flame throwers! More explosions. Can we say a "Merc movie"? :P (Okay, plus it wasn't half-bad as a superhero flick, despite the bland villain.)
ReplyDeleteAnyway. Authoress, in answer to your questions, I say work on a new project or an old one for awhile and let the current one sit. When you've had some breather room, THEN come back and look at the comments and decide whether or not you wish to rewrite and revise, or set it aside.
Sorry, no jumping off bridges. %-) It's against the health codes in the city.
As for this Friday... well, I'm sorta surprised I've gotten no new rejections yet. Seems they were showing up every other day or more for a week or so. (I have a lot of shorts circulating.)
I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. A couple are nearing the RT so I'm getting antsy waiting for a reply so I can re-sub.
So for now I'm distracting myself by writing more shorts, revising a couple so they'll be ready to send out, and one of these days I really WILL finish those series reviews for the TS...
Where do we petition for 28 hour days?
~Merc
Your advice is excellent, of course.
ReplyDeleteI'm heading toward minimum RT for a PB subbed directly to a publisher (as recommended to me by an editor at another house who rejected the manuscript...not that that really holds all that much water, but at least it's a legitimate name-drop in the query). Of course, the grapevine tells me that actual RT is much, much longer. So I can't afford to think about this one, either.
Sounds like you've got LOTS of balls to juggle; I wish I were a better multitasker!
28 hour days? I think I would use the extra 4 hours for sleeping!
LOL on the dogs, Authoress. They scared me to death. It's why I threw the ham and ran. I was sure they'd bite someone. Good news is that the woman has managed to keep them in since my husband had a heart to heart chat with her. And the building isn't leaning as much as it was before. Yay! If you didn't see the pictures they are on the side bar under Houseflipping.
ReplyDeleteGot another reject today, but was expecting it. I'm not going to let it get to me. I have plenty other stories to sub once I run out of agents for this one. They are going to see a lot of me until someone says yes. I'm not going away. LOL
And I believe my stories are good enough to make it, so that's reason enough to keep going.
Merc's right. Keep working on the next. Helps the sanity and improves the writing IMHO. Think of it as stocking up for a rainy day. You can always break out the rejected ones and tweak after you nail down an agent or publisher. :)