Bad Writer Days...and Good Ones

Trying to find an agent and get published is the hardest long-term thing I’ve ever done. Some days are really bad, and others are really good. Lately, I’ve had my share of both.

BAD DAY: I realize that one of my critique partners isn’t, at least momentarily, on my side. We’re supposed to support each other—which we totally do and I wouldn’t be where I am today without this one and the rest—but when we query the same agent, things get rough. Things get rougher when that agent asks my CP for the full manuscript…and I hear nothing. Silence from that agent doesn’t mean I’m out, but after a couple of months of nothing, I start to think it’s a bad sign for me and my query.

GOOD DAY: Any day I get to read is a good day. I LOVE TO READ. I wish I had more time for books because I have so many I haven’t read and there are so many more I want to buy.  I read a book or two a week, but this is NEVER ENOUGH. Still, every borrowed reading moment is a good one.

BAD DAY: I get so wrapped up in writing my newest novel that I kise track of everything else. I get all excited, thinking that this WIP will someday soon be THE ONE—the one that gets me an agent and a publisher and a book on a bookshelf in a bookstore. Then, something jars me out of my writing fog and I remember that I’ve done the whole query thing before and it wasn’t successful. I’ve done the whole contest thing and it wasn’t successful, either. I’ve thought that novel was THE ONE when it really wasn’t. I start to wonder if any novel will be the one, if my words will never meet the right agent at the right time.

GOOD DAY: I come home to find mail from Lorie Langdon, which turns out to be a bit of Doon swag including a personal note welcoming me to the Doon street team and the Dooniverse. I have to smile because it reminds me why I’m in this even on the bad days.

BAD DAY: I send out three queries. I put significant time into researching the agents and the other books they represent. I stalk the agents on Twitter and on their blogs and find personal touches to add to the query to (theoretically) help me stand out. I send out the queries. The next day, I receive rejections from two of those agents. I’m disappointed, but I hold out hope for the third. I really think the third agent will be a good match for me and my manuscript. The next day, I receive a rejection from that third agent.

GOOD DAY: I come home from work, sit down to my computer to write my WIP, and the words just pour out of me. I get so wrapped up in a scene that I’m writing that I go way over my goal of one thousand words. I can’t stop writing and it feels so good. This is the part of my quest that I love the most. Days like these are the reason I started doing this and the reason I’ll keep on doing it. Days like these are the reason the bad days won’t stop me.