In the last week or so, a few friends have asked what’s
up with my blog. You haven’t written anything in a while, they’ve said. It’s
like they think I’ve gone rogue or dropped out of the writing thing, given up
on my dream of someday finding an agent and publishing a book.
No worries, friends. I haven’t given up. Not by a long
shot.
In actuality, I’m not trying to be stealthy or give off
the impression that I’ve tossed in the towel. Things are just super quiet on
the writing front these days. I’m not entering any contests right now and my
critique partners are in about the same place I am. I’m querying and writing,
querying and writing, querying and writing.
While I could write a post about querying, give you an
update on my query stats (like how, on the flip side, some agents do), I’m
better at talking about those things after the fact. And I don’t want to jinx
anything. I send out queries and cross my fingers and toes, dimming the lights
and looking away from the computer like I can pretend I’m not putting myself
and my manuscript out there. When my email pings with responses, they’re
sometimes days, sometimes weeks later, at which point I like to think I’ve
dulled my sensitive side to whatever the response might be. That’s not always
the case.
Still, when I read the emails, I scan for important
words. Is the email addressed to me or to Dear
Author? Does the first sentence contain the word but? As in, thank you for submitting to me, but I’m not interested? Or does the word love appear? As in, I’d love to
read more? Within the first second I usually know what kind of response I’ve
gotten. And as I file that email in the appropriate folder, I also file away the
knowledge the email contains.
And then I go back to writing.
It’s funny how writing works. Some manuscripts, like THE
BUTTERFLY GHOST, are so easy to write that you can’t wait to get home at the
end of the work day and dedicate your next couple of hours to 1-2K words. And
then there are others, like my current work in progress, that take a little
more effort, a little more thought. I’m a pantser, meaning I don’t outline heavily
before I start writing. For THE BUTTERFLY GHOST, that worked to my advantage.
For my WIP, not so much. But I’m pushing through. I might not get my writing
goal every day, but I do what I can.
With the WIP words so hard to find, the creative part of
my brain is pretty much exhausted by the time I’m through there. That means I’m
not up for a blog post, which contributes to my blog silence. But don’t worry.
Like I said, I haven’t given up and I’m not going to. My blog posts may be less
frequent, but when I’ve got something to say, I’ll post it here.
