Hello, fellow scribblers!
Seriously, some Fridays I sit here and have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SAY. I've already covered the BAKER'S DOZEN EVERYTHING-YOU-NEED-TO-KNOW, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to hear all the hairy details about my latest revision round.
(Suffice it to say that Agent Josh and Minion Danielle required of me a sex change. After four days of staring blankly at the world, I'm on board. This draft will surely be peppered with his/her errors.)
I could tell you about all the FREE CHOCOLATE I got yesterday. (I paid for 3 truffles and ended up with 17, plus 2 other chocolate yums--simply because the gal behind the counter was feeling generous.)
I could squeal about my BALLET CLASSES, which have finally resumed, and how I'm still terrified to leap (because that's how I injured my calf in March).
I could lament at how furiously I'm struggling to find work/life balance. (Because I am seriously invested in power-revising this novel--I'm living and breathing it right now.)
But instead of all that, I think I'd rather talk about YOU instead! Let me ask you this: In all your ups and downs and laughter and tears and struggles and triumphs, is it worth it in the end? Do you see yourself pushing through toward publication NO MATTER WHAT?
And if the answer is YES, what keeps you going?
Share share share! I love juicy Friday comment boxes.
Have a glorious weekend!
For me it (all the early, EARLY mornings of writing, editing on lunch breaks, late nights of researching, daily coffee overload) is worth it. If I were lucky enough to one day become published, besides all the obvious validations, excitement, sense of accomplishment, etc., I'm also looking forward to being able to look my kids in the eye and tell them (from experience) that if you work hard enough at what your passionate about you WILL accomplish it :)
ReplyDeleteI believe I'm struggling with "I've been writing this for a year so I should be done." July marked a year for my current manuscript. I felt it had been too long and that by all standards I should be finished. So I finished it b/c I felt I should. I got a request for a full from someone I really wanted to request it-but now I find myself seeing EVERYTHING that's wrong with it. I'm restructuring and although most of it's the same...it will be different. I hope I do get a rejection b/c this is better and had I allowed myself to go beyond my own deadline, this version would be it. I see a long road ahead of me but this is what I love and right now it is my life so I will persevere. Sorry for the rant...
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. Writing is what I do for myself. I juggle a day job, a toddler and a husband, but the writing feeds my soul. Of course I'd love the validation of publication, but I'd do it anyway. Even the edits. And more edits.
ReplyDeleteAn agent asked me to rewrite my novel in first person. Not an easy find/replace. My five POV characters had to be condensed into two. It took two rounds of beta readers to catch all the his/her/my errors, and I would kick myself every time the POV character was caught scratching other people's noses. But I fell in love with the manuscript all over again as soon as I rewrote the first chapter. Why didn't I think of a POV change when I was struggling with the character's emotions?
ReplyDeleteWhen things seem overwhelming, I tell myself the scenic route is worth the drive. I learned a lot from writing my first novel and I'm applying what I learned to the next manuscript. This time I decided to switch from past to present, but luckily I was only 15K into the MS before I realized it wasn't working.
Definitely yes.
ReplyDeleteWhat keeps me going? That's a good question. I guess because it's my dream, and if i gave up on it, what would i do then? Just sit at my 9-5 doing nothing? Blergh. How depressing
I've been writing for a while now, so far, without success. It's funny but my sole regret is that I didn't start sooner. I conclude from this outcome that I write because I enjoy it. That's enough for me.
ReplyDeleteIt IS worth it, even when I'm angsting over the whole process and industry and ups and downs.... The writing itself makes it worth it, and I can't NOT write. I love the challenge of backing myself into a corner with the story and freaking out for a few days before finally coming up with a solution. I love when characters surprise me, or I "overhear" dialogue that gives me new insight into their emotions and/or the story. I love the very process of writing words down on the page, even if they're all followed with brackets like [ugh, fix that later]. I love the community of writers and how we help and encourage each other. In the end, it all comes down to me, a pen and a notebook, and the joy of getting a character's story down on paper in the best way I know how.
ReplyDeleteI find it's worth it because it is a personal thing. It's my words on the page, my characters, my world. That's a nice break from the constant shared life of being a wife and mother (which is wonderful in it's own way).
ReplyDeleteI keep at it because I'm stubborn, but I've seen it mentioned elsewhere that one of the key traits between those who are successful at something and those who are not is perseverance. And I see glimpses of that in my own pursuit of a writing career: short stories that sold to the 12th or 15th market after a string of rejections; a novella that took almost three years to write but sold within a month of starting the submission process; receiving a rejection on my novel that just gutted me and then getting an instant full request that same day (from sending out a new batch of queries).
It's hard, but I remind myself (sometimes every minute) that the next response could be yes even if all the previous ones were nos.
Maybe! I've been in a funk for a while and just taking time to reevaluate my writing life. Okay, I'll get back on track one day, I always do, and I've been doing some research on publishers, crafting a query, and all that jazz . . . oh, and paying for someone to edit my work so she can buy truffles. : )
ReplyDeleteI usually just lurk but the talk of truffles roused me. Plus, the whole keep-on-pushing-forward thing has kind of been my mantra lately.
ReplyDeleteThe book I'm querying isn't doing as well as I'd hoped. And . . . there are days. There are always days. But I push through the moments of doubt and despair, because of all the times in the past when I didn't. Because of all the times I gave up when things got hard. Because of not wanting to be that person anymore. Friends cheer me on as if I'm amazing, but the truth is, I'm fighting against my nature every single step of the way. I'm a quitter who's trying to stick with it, a whuss who's trying to be strong. Some days it's just exhausting, but some days . . . it's hope-inspiring. And I think, maybe I can do this. Not the being published (though that would be awesome), but transforming myself into someone other than who I used to be. For me, that's a big part of what this journey is about. It's about doing hard things, because not doing hard things has made me a sad, unaccomplished person. I want more for myself than that, and I want to set a better example for my kids than that.
I like to think that I will always continue toward and strive for publication. For me, the thing that keeps me going is my desire for the world (or just a few non-related people) to meet and fall in love with my characters. That, and I don't want to be a quiter in the eyes of my children, who happen to be my biggest cheerleaders. And even if I don't ever get published and my words are never seen by anyone other than my family, I will always write. It isn't really even an option to stop.
ReplyDeleteWhy do I keep going? That's a good question. I use writing as my stress reliever and if I don't write or I'm not working on something, I get so grumpy my family says, "Mom, go write something, you're in a bad mood." Hee hee. I've been writing since I was a child and if I didn't write, I agree with one of the above statements, what would I do? I'm actively looking for an agent to take me to the next level and each novel I write, I think, "This is the one." I keep going because I am a writer and that's what writers do.
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ReplyDeleteI always wanted to be a writer. But I was afraid of being penniless and on the street. I turned to journalism. I had a byline, but it didn't feel like real writing. Plus a lot of what I wrote was negative. So I turned to the happy world of PR. Lost my byline, but wrote creatively about nice things. Still didn't feel like real writing. I plunged into the scary world of fiction. I am stunned that it is is taking me years and years to learn how to write in scenes that show emotion. I'm from the South. I should be a natural. What keeps me going might be shame. It might be delusion. It might be that humans were created to create. Whatever the big *it* is, it is enough. I experience joy when I read fiction. I write to attempt to deliver joy to others.
ReplyDeleteFor me publication is something I am working toward, but because of certain things at the moment I know I can't put in the time I need to reach that goal right now. So I squeeze out time to write and revise and I know that when I need to I will find the time to push this dream further. But for me, the thing that makes me keep going forward are moments such as the one I had last Sunday where a song brought a character from a story I'd set aside to "rest" became so vividly real to me that I almost cried and wanted desperately to run home, pull out the manuscript, and attack it again. Those are the wonderful moment when I know that, no matter how long it takes I'll keep plugging forward because these people that live in my head and on my computer screen are screaming to be heard and read by others.
ReplyDeleteI'm happier if I'm writing or revising. When I Use my creative side of my brain and get lost in a fictional World, only then do I feel like I'm operating at my full potential.Anyway,the more novels I write and learn from, I feel I'm getting closer to my dream of being a published author. I really appreciate the encouraging community you have started here. Best of luck with your endeavors and have a fabulous weekend.
ReplyDeleteKeep on writing? Yes! Push through to the end? Yes! But I'm finally accepting that this is a looooong road.
ReplyDeleteI've been writing seriously for four years now while my little kidlets were toddling around. My youngest just entered Pre-K and I decided to go back to school. So this past month, I started juggling 12 credit hours in addition to 5 kids' homework, homecooked meals and writing. I put away the manuscripts during the week and pulled them out on weekends. I find I'm more fresh and I can see the structure and the other stuff my crit partners have been saying.
I'm giving myself time to let things percolate and get it right. Publishing is a slow market, but if it takes a few more years, that's okay. I'll have a degree and another marketable job skill. (I'm taking classes so that I can become a registered interpreter for the deaf...it uses totally different muscles and parts of the brain.) I think I could become frustrated and feel I'm "giving up on the dream," except I'm not. I'm pursuing another dream at the same time. These are two different skills I truly love and I feel blessed that I can do both.
I do see myself pushing forward toward the finish line. Ever since I started publishing flash fiction on my blog, every time I get feedback that my writing has connected with a reader, I feel a rush of exhilaration.
ReplyDeleteI know it takes time away from my novels, but I'm learning a new type of storytelling, and the comments I get really motivate me when I'm slogging away on the nth edit.
At this point, I keep going because it's easier to just keep putting one foot in front of the other than it is to close up shop and admit I couldn't do it.
ReplyDeleteBefore that (when it was easier to quit than put one foot in front of the other), I kept going as long as I could think of a cool new idea I wanted to try. I still do that :-)
I'm in the middle of revisions on a book I'm writing with another person. I was really worried that it would be crazy hard, but I have learned that having someone you like close by really helps to keep you moving. So cheers to our wonderful support groups!
ReplyDeleteThough sometimes I feel like quitting, too many members of my family and too many friends inspire me to go on. The novel I'm going to submit for Baker's Dozen went through a page-by-page edit by a class of high school juniors who don't know me from Eve or Taylor Swift. They all had great input for me and most of them liked the story and related to the characters. I can't let them down, now can I? But I also write because all these stories bounce around in my head and what am I do to with them, if not write them down.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to us all.
Also, Authoress, is your character going from he to she or she to he?
ReplyDeleteThe major character is going from he to she. But I also have a secondary character who is going from she to he. It's...a mess. ;)
ReplyDeleteit's absolutely worth it! Putting your all into something and then watching it come to fruition is wonderful! What's the point of having a dream if you don't stick to it?!
ReplyDeleteI just want to say thanks for all you do :)
ReplyDeleteI'm working toward publication no matter what both in lit mags for my short fiction / poetry / non-fic, plus traditional publishing for several of my novels.
Sometimes, (read: all the time) it's hard to balance my writing with everything that is not writing, but I want to hone my craft enough to publish and get my work out there :)