I said I wasn't going to do this but I can't stop myself. I'm only doing it because I know there are only a few people looking at this blog (hello to you!).
I started the submission process last week. I've spent lots of time researching agents and whittled it down to my top 50. Last Monday, I sent queries to the top 10, with a plan to send 10 a week, giving me a chance to amend my query, synopsis, etc. if I needed to.
Within 3 days, I had three rejections (1 personal, 2 form), 1 partial request (from one of the 'uber-agents' I never expected to hear back from) and 1 full request!
WOO HOO!
I know it can all go terribly wrong from here. Up to now, the query process can be 'I don't like/rep your idea' which stings, but doesn't impugn your writing per se. But from the partial/full stage, it could be 'I liked your idea, but your execution...not so much.'
BUT... STILL!
It's nice to have that little lift in thinking that maybe, just maybe, this could happen.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
What do you do to clear your mind?
It is a stressful time and not for the right reasons. I had thought that these first weeks of October would be extremely stressful because I would be revising to my fourth (and hopefully final) draft and then sending it off for the first round of queries.
Not the case. I trying to finish up a number of freelance writing jobs, which started as one but turned into three, which is good from a money point of view, but not from a time point of view. I also have taken a part-time job, with thoughts that it would be an easy, fairly low-brain-usage activity, only to find that my organizationally-obsessed brain will not permit me to have a low-brain kind of job and I have turned it into an exercise in over-thinking as only I can. I have not had time to work on query letters at all, let alone the revision (which is OK, I guess, as my readers have not gotten back to me). My ears feel stuffy all the time, which is a sign that my blood pressure is rising.
So I need to clear my mind. I used to play solitaire on the computer. Then I moved into computer puzzle games like Jewel Quest and Ancient Wonders of the World. I would download a different 60 minute demo everyday. It bogged up my laptop something terrible and drove my husband crazy. And now my latest thing, Poker. Texas Hold'em actually, on one of those Play-for-Fun websites (no real money -- WAY too dangerous for my obsessive little brain). I've gotten to be pretty good at it, but just good enough to let me win large quantities of chips, only to turn around and lose them again. But that is OK, because the point is that it lets me switch my brain off. Which is what I need these days.
So how do you clear your mind?
Not the case. I trying to finish up a number of freelance writing jobs, which started as one but turned into three, which is good from a money point of view, but not from a time point of view. I also have taken a part-time job, with thoughts that it would be an easy, fairly low-brain-usage activity, only to find that my organizationally-obsessed brain will not permit me to have a low-brain kind of job and I have turned it into an exercise in over-thinking as only I can. I have not had time to work on query letters at all, let alone the revision (which is OK, I guess, as my readers have not gotten back to me). My ears feel stuffy all the time, which is a sign that my blood pressure is rising.
So I need to clear my mind. I used to play solitaire on the computer. Then I moved into computer puzzle games like Jewel Quest and Ancient Wonders of the World. I would download a different 60 minute demo everyday. It bogged up my laptop something terrible and drove my husband crazy. And now my latest thing, Poker. Texas Hold'em actually, on one of those Play-for-Fun websites (no real money -- WAY too dangerous for my obsessive little brain). I've gotten to be pretty good at it, but just good enough to let me win large quantities of chips, only to turn around and lose them again. But that is OK, because the point is that it lets me switch my brain off. Which is what I need these days.
So how do you clear your mind?
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