One Year Later

A year ago, at the beginning of June, I decided that I wanted to be an author.  I mean, I've always wanted to be.  I'd written a completed manuscript in the prior years, and even got a little interest from agents (ended up trunking it).  But this was different.  No more diddling around, no more halfhearted goals.  I wanted to shoot for the moon.  Publication or die trying. A year later, I'm still not published.  But I think I'm a lot closer.

In that time I've: -finished writing the 150K rough draft of Lestoor's Chosen in 3 months -revised Lestoor's Chosen (bringing it down to 140K) -finalized a query letter and synopsis for Lestoor's Chosen -neared completion on the rough draft of Loose Changeling -written multiple short stories, subbed them, and received personal rejections from pro publications -received a full request on Lestoor's Chosen from my dream agency, got rejected, decided to rewrite the first 1/3 -made good headway on rewriting the first 1/3

I fell short on my ultimate goals, but I set the bar so high, I knew that if I got close, I'd still have done something worth being proud of.  I have worked a complex, and at times demanding, full-time job at the same time.  I've traveled.  I've helped my husband maintain our backyard micro-farm.  I still have a social life.  I play a lot fewer video games though, and watch less television.  I don't miss it much (okay, I miss Mass Effect a little).  I mean, if I could do this, so can you, right?  I'm scatterbrained, disorganized, and easily distracted (my husband can attest to this).

I have a good feeling about this next year, June to end of May.  I want to turn those personal rejections into a short story publication.  I want to pick up representation for Lestoor's Chosen.  I want to polish up Loose Changeling and write the rough draft for Windrider.  And then I'm going to dream big.  Really big.  I want to go back to my roots - 3rd person, multiple POV, epic fantasy with intricate, interlacing plots and subplots.  It's percolating right now, so I'll see where I am in a couple years.

Keep dreaming, keep writing, keep trying.  I think success in this business takes a ton of endurance, persistence, and a refusal to give up.

I'll tell you where that gets me in another year ;)

Distractions

Well, I haven't finished the rough draft of Loose Changeling yet, though I'm close. I've run into a number of distractions, some good, some bad.

Good?  I have some new revisions I want to make to Lestoor's Chosen, based on beta reader feedback and some of my own analysis.  People seem to like the first third, but have a hard time putting the book down once they get to the last two thirds.  They take a week or two to read the first third, and finish the last two thirds in a couple days.  So...while I'm happy I'm doing something right for the last majority of the book, there's still that pesky third that isn't quite up to par.  I want to make it hard to say "no" to.    So I've been writing notes, jotting down ideas, and re-outlining.  I expect it'll take me a couple weeks of intensive work to implement the changes I'm considering.

I've also been writing short stories.  I'm trying to pick up a couple publication credits before I start sending out my query en masse.  I'm to the point where I've gotten personal rejections from Daily Science Fiction, F&SF, and Clarkesworld, so I think I'm close.  I'll file this distraction under not-a-time-waster.  I also think honing my short story skills is making me a better writer.  Can't waste words when you're writing a short!

And then there's Words With Friends.  Damn you, Words With Friends!  I'm logging on to Facebook less just to avoid the temptation of clicking on it and playing some words.  So fun, and so terribly distracting.

How do you deal with distraction?

I like to go to the coffee shop down the street on weekends, where I can't get an internet connection because they changed the wifi password (and I haven't asked what the new one is).

What I'm reading right now: Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett

Brain Dead

Last week was one helluva week.  I'm moving into the busy time at my day job, I had house guests, and I was occupied after work with finishing another round of revisions on Lestoor's Chosen.  I've been getting feedback from beta readers, which I've incorporated into the manuscript.  It's always interesting to see what people think.  Some of the criticisms overlapped, so those were no-brainers - fix 'em.  Different people had different things that bothered them, so I used my discretion.  And some criticisms contradicted each other.  I mostly left these things as-is. It is officially out on submission now, so here's hoping!

I usually write intensely every day, but I'm exhausted at the moment.  I suppose a couple days off from novel-writing can't hurt.  I'm very excited about finishing the rough draft of Loose Changeling.  I had to adjust the outline a couple times to fix plot problems, but I think it's solid now.  And I've been cheating and writing little snippets of Windrider.

I'm still working on some short stories.  I have a couple out on submission right now.  Got a personal rejection from the editor of F&SF a few days ago, and I'm hunting for another place to send that one.

I think in 2013 I'm going to move back to my roots and plan out a multiple POV epic fantasy.  Unless, of course, I can sell Lestoor's Chosen and they (the nebulous they) want the other two books.  Though it's a standalone, I've got two more swirling in my head.  Ah well, I can dream, can't I?