Doldrums

I'm feeling kind of at sea. Not a rough sea, but one becalmed--the doldrums.

I'm nine weeks into the query process. Two-thirds of my queries have received responses in the vein of, "Not the right fit for me." I get that. I certainly want an agent who's excited about my book. And while I haven't felt sad per se about any of the rejections, I am feeling a bit blah.

A factor I hadn't considered, being new to the process, was that many agents take 2-4 weeks off during the summer, which slows response times down considerably.

I have one query that's been sitting idle for 55 days. When I look on Query Tracker this agent has replied to very little submitted to her in the past 90 days. In all fairness, judging by the number of queries that QT lists--and I suspect that a great deal more come through that don't get logged on QT--she must be swamped.

For three weeks I stopped submitting any queries.

But my husband has a saying: Action conquers fear.
I figure action also conquers the blahs. Time for me to be proactive and put some wind in my sails, so to speak. In the past 3 days, I've researched agents and sent off six new queries. It feels good!

Now to get myself out of my story funk 😉

Crossed a Threshold

Whew! In early April I crossed the 80k word threshold and I'm feeling pretty good about my book.

I just finished reading it to my husband. (I love reading aloud.) I started reading it during Snowmegedon, but then I got to a part that I knew I still needed to fill in and we had to put the reading on hold. But I finished bridging the plot hole chasm and in a three day readathon, I finished reading the story to my beloved.

While Phil reads a lot, 98% of it is non-fiction. Lots of science, business, and psychology stuff. But, he was engrossed by my story. I even made him cry at the end! That is quite the compliment.

Now my critique group is telling me to stop bringing re-worked bits to group and start querying.

I'm terrified.

But, Heather has set me a deadline. I'm to bring my query and a list of agents to start with by the end of May.

*glup*

Now I'm off to read everything I can on crafting a query letter.

Yikes! I Have a Blog??

Sorry little gal, I kind of forgot you were here.

Major life development: I've stepped back from teaching for now. It's been a stressful decision, but I think the right one. But, this isn't a blog about teaching.

What it means though is that I now have time to focus on my writing again. All my projects have been getting cold on back burners that ran out of gas.

My goal is to finish writing Water, Water, Never There. I've done editing in bits and pieces over the past two years, but little more than that. It still sits at a bit over 51k. So now, I'm off to fill in plot holes, flesh out the battle scene, and get a better handle on the Long Day.

*cracks knuckles*

Now it begins!

Laser Focus

I love Camp NaNoWriMo.

The thing about camp is that you can do pretty much anything related to writing. This will be the third summer I'm using camp to edit one of my WIPs.

Of course, I can edit anytime, but that's just it, it's so easy to get distracted by shiny things. Camp gives me a goal. I'm accountable to my NaNo buddies. I can't let them down!

Now, where was I...

Brain Puddle

I haven't touched this blog in quite some time.

This past school year sapped all of my creative juices. I took a position working with at risk youth. More specifically, I have a K-3 class comprised of kids who were "asked to leave" their neighborhood schools because of the degree of misbehavior they exhibited in the classroom/school. While my class is small number wise, every one of them is defiant and oppositional. I come home wiped out. I don't even have the energy to cook.

Thankfully, my son, Josh, has come to my rescue. He has made me dinner practically every week night this year, for which I am eternally grateful.

What does this have to do with writing?
Nothing and everything. Nothing as in, I've no creative energy left to write.

Whine, whine, whine.

Actually, while immensely stressful, I love the challenge of my job. I feel like I'm making a difference in the lives of kids who have been cast aside. Hopefully next year I'll be able to find more balance!

Now, that summer break is here I'm looking forward to turning my writer brain back on!

Made It!

*Brushes off hands*

Another NaNo done and I achieved my goal. My story now is at 51,213 total words, or about 28k written in November. I do feel a bit guitly about going rogue, but I accomplished what I wanted to--for now. After all, fifty thousand does not a book make.

Thank you NaNo for giving me the encouraging place and a deadline.

I'm still not quite sure what The Long Day is, but I've put some ideas on paper. Now to go back and properly flush them out.

Kick in the Pants

Man, I don't know how the rest of you who have full time jobs find the energy to write. After a day of teaching I have no creative juice left. Granted, I work with emotionally, and physically challenging students with behavior issues. Still, I'm sure many of you out there have stressful jobs too.

*shakes out limbs*

Okay, now that I have that out of my system...

I've decided to cheat.
I'm going to be a November NaNo rebel.

One of the biggy rules for NaNoWriMo is that you are supposed to work on something new: no writing before Nov 1, except plotting. But, I'm going to come clean here, I'm going to use NaNo this year to see if I can push Water, Water, Never There over the 50k mark. The point of NaNo is to get the writer to commit time and to focus on a goal. I'll be doing that.

Mea Culpa.