Pushing

During the concussion, I've had a lot of time to think. (This is only day three, and I'm feeling a lot better, if you were wondering.)

When I was 16, I smashed my knee in pretty bad. I remember falling, getting back up, and riding the rest of the night. When I got off the hill and went inside my knee was the size of a soccer ball. My roommate had to help change my pants, and take off my socks. In the morning (because I'm an idiot), she also had to redress me. I went out that day and continued riding.

Two months later, I tried to run...made it less then 400 meters, and had to stop. I went in, told my mom to take me to the doctor. Her response, "I was just waiting for you to tell me when." In another month or so, I got my first surgery. It was found that:

*I had more scar tissue than any other patient

*I had a partially torn ACL

But I continued snowboarding. And after this concussion, I'll continue to snowboard. Why?

Because I love it. Because falling is a part of the sport, and you have to get back up, and keep going.

This picture is me getting ready to hit a jump. Yay!

Writing is a lot like that. We're all healthy and happy and nervous when we start submitting, right? And then we get rejected.

And rejected.

And rejected.

And at some point it starts to feel like a concussion, or like we can't walk all that well anymore. Maybe we need a trip to the doctor (revising your story/query/synopsis), maybe we just need to prop our legs, our head, up (take a break), or maybe we need to get a brace that we wear for a bit (know that you have something written, but start a new project and go back later).

Bottom line: PUSH through all of this. Rejection, like a concussion, hurts. But if you love it, if you love your characters and think they deserve to be heard, keep pushing, keep editing, don't give up. Get back on your board (or your computer) and keep going.

All injuries heal, and some day, you'll be rocking your way down the mountain.

Concussion

So there I was, in the middle of a lesson, teaching my student stuff when

WHAM

I dropped my heel edge and tumbled backward down the hill. My stomach ended in my throat, my teeth smashed together. My student stops, "Lynne! Are you okay?!"

I laugh, looking around for my hat and sunglasses that had flown off my face in the fall, "Yes. Do you know where....?"

"Under you," he says, with a look of worry still on his face.

The urge to vomit takes hold of my body, I tell myself it's from jarring my stomach. We finish the lesson, we high five, my head starts pounding. I go to line up to see if there's another lesson, there's not. Instead, there is a fresstyle training, so I grab a helmet (since I hadn't been wearing one before) and start learning to how to hit rails. I fall a few more times, I hurt a little bit more, I ignore it.

This morning, I get to work and my vision isn't quite...right. It kind of fades in and out, the way it doesn't when you've had three drinks too many and are going to black out at any second. I take a run on a green trail, hear rumor that maybe, just maybe I have a concussion.

At line up, I hide behind other instructors so I don't get picked. I sit in the locker room, munching on trail mix until my vision gets really blurred. I head down to patrol, and they confirm, it's a mild concussion. They give me the options:

1) Stay off snow for a couple of days. If I vomit tonight or tomorrow, if my headache and tummy ache don't dissipate by tomorrow, I MUST go to the hospital and get a cat scan.
2) They'll call an ambulance for me today, right now, and I go to the hospital for the scan.

I choose option 1, check in with my managers, fill out the paper work and head home. I've spent the rest of the day resting with Baxter.

Moral of this story is...this isn't my typical Monday post. The above text is the reason why. Sorry! Will recover soon! Real life gets in the way sometimes!

The Idea Behind Querying

Being in the agent game is hard work, no? The query letter takes a million drafts, the query specific query letter takes even more. But there are reasons why this is done:

1) You know how you say, "My novel is complete at x-amount of words"?
2) You know how you say, "This is the genre of my novel"?
3) You know how you say, "This is a simultaneous submission"?
4) You know how you wrote a million drafts and edited the heck out of your novel?

We do these things, we write these things, so when an agent says, "Please send me fifty pages," or "Please send me your entire manuscript," you can push, "Upload Document" without flinching, or without having to go through and edit your 200+ page novel.

You make sure your word count is in the query, so the agent knows what they're getting into. You know your genre so your agent can start figuring out how to best market your novel. You drop the "simultaneous submission" to let the agent know that you're not putting all your eggs in one basket.

Even if your request gets rejected, keep your head up, allow yourself the 15 minute window, and start sending queries again.

Happy submitting! :)

Writing Books II

Welcome to round two of the Writing Books Series. What does this mean? Basically that each Thursday (ideally, sometimes real life gets in the way) I'm going to post a book I've found helpful in my writing career, tell you why I found it helpful, and try to tell you a price range. I'll try to keep this up until I run out of books, or lose motivation, whichever comes first :)

So, Book Two is:

  The Writer's Block.

This small book is filled with stuff like word prompts, story prompts, pictures, and random advice. In mine, I'll use a page, and date what day I used it. (Some pages have more dates than others). I like to go through, open to any page, and use that prompt/word/image and try to go from there. When your idea pen is running dry, this is a nice boost.
Price ranges from $5-$10, but usually not much more (or less) than that. It has helped me shell out a lot of short stories, I would recommend it for those of us whose muses like to run away.

Stealing From Other Writers

Note: Plagiarism is bad!! Don't steal crap...sort of...

Note II: It's my sister's birthday, so Happy Birthday, Laura!!

On with the blog!

For the record, I do (yep, I do) endorse stealing from other writers. I'm not telling you to go to the store, grab a Nick Sparks book and steal whole sentences to put into your work and claim it as your brilliant writing.

So sneaky...

I mean, if you contact him, ask permission, go through all the legal loops and get permission, good for you, that's awesome.

But, what I'm talking about is ideas. Steal ideas. This right here, is why we read so much, why we decide what we like in other author's writing, and why we implement it in our own.

In a simple example, I like blogs with pictures. It breaks up all the writing, it makes it more personal, so I also started putting pictures in my blog.

In a slightly more complex example, Sharon Creech writes middle grade novels. (Favorites: Walk Two Moons, Bloomability, Chasing Redbird.) In said novels, characters from other novels will drop into the one you're currently reading. It's brief but they're there; maybe they're friends, maybe they went to the same school.

Either way, I really like this idea. It's like writing a sequel without having to write a sequel. My good friend G. K. Byrne did a couple of rounds of beta editing for me, and it was awesome because she went through both Character Defects, and My Sister's Memories. As I wrote My Sister's Memories, I was thinking a lot about Ms. Creech and the characters popping up later in novels.

So what'd I do? I wrote a scene in where you'd see Destroyer and Sarah together (but I won't tell you where, in case they get published, you know :) ). The best part? Ms. Byrne recognized the scene and in her notes wrote, "Hiya, Destroyer!" and I got that warm fuzzy feeling we get as writers when someone pats us on the back and says, "Well done!"

So what about you guys? Which writers influenced you?

Blog Comments

Before I start the blog, I'd just like to state that my blog has officially been up for a year. So, thank you guys for coming by, leaving comments, and helping me learn and grow as a writer. Okay, enough mushy.

Short one today.

Back in March, Rebecca Rasmussen had a guest blog about Literary Citizenship. Now, almost a year later, I think about this post a lot. It shared a lot of, "If you want to have the writing community excel, push it along" types of advice. Step one, was to write charming notes to writers.

So let's think about this. I'm assuming most of you who drop into the blog, have your own blogs, no? What does this mean? This means, I take that citizenship to another step, it's called being blog friendly. If someone comments on my blog, I try to return the favor.

Why?

Because:
*I love comments. I feel other writers feel the same.
*It helps establish a connection to the people commenting.
*It may help develop friendships. There are a few people who comment pretty regularly, and I look forward to what they have to say (thanks again!)
*It's kind of like being a pen-pal. You gotta write back, you know?

Basically, I'm not saying you have to comment back. I'm just saying it's a nice thing to do, and probably makes other people happy, too. Plus--if you actually go through and read the blog post, most of the time, there is something worthwhile to read.

:)

Chapter to Chapter Reading

It was a long weekend at Sunday River, made up of awesome snow, awesome lessons, and even better riding. However, come this morning...I couldn't get out of bed. Actually, come last lesson yesterday, all I wanted was to go home and pass out....

Me (on the right) on an awesome run.
Photo Credit: Mike Foley

The bottom line is, a novel can be a lot like snowboarding. I've already made THIS reference about trusting yourself, so now, it's time for a new one (of course it's riding related :) ):

The start of your chapter is kind of like starting the morning on a big beautiful powdery mountain. (Yay!! It's so fluffy, I'm so excited!!)

If you do a couple of green, easy runs, you'll be able to go for a little longer, take a couple more runs, right? But, if you start the day off doing super hard double black diamonds, you get really, really tired, really, really fast.

When talking to my good friend today (see photo credit), we discussed the way we read books. I told him that I have a tendency to read from chapter to chapter. I hate stopping mid-chapter, and will usually push myself to make it all the way to the end, no matter how tired I am.

It turns out, he does too.

If there is a really long chapter (30+ pages), we'll usually duck out for the night. If it's like a 4-10 page chapter, we'll stay in. When finished, I go through, flip the next couple pages and if it's another 4-10 page chapter, well, I'll read that one, too.

Moral? Long chapters are like starting the day off with a double black diamond. When you stand at the top, it's really steep and you wonder, "Do I really want to do this?" You open up the book to where you last left off, flip through the pages, and think..maybe I'll read this tomorrow...

Instead, if you stick to the green runs, the 4-10 page chapters, your reader (if they're anything like my friend and me) will stand at the top of the mountain and say, "Yep, I'm going balls out."

Happy Monday!

Words And Spelling

When I was young, the first word I learned to spell was S-H-I-T. Maybe it was because my last name is Schmidt, and if you cross out every other letter it spells S-H-I-T (I'm not kidding here), and someone taught me such things. Maybe because I was a bit of a rebel growing up *see: bad kid*. Or maybe because my sisters were bad influences on me, and wanted to get me in trouble. Who knows? But the first word I remember being able to spell is the word shit.

I remember being so proud of the fact I could spell this word:
"Jim, Jim!" I yelled through the house. "I can spell a word!"
The man who was the closest thing to a father I had, looked at me with pride, "Oh? What word?"
"Shit!" I exclaimed, and with my youthful ignorance, began, "S-H-I-T."
I remember him struggling for a second while I just wanted a pat on the back, or a cookie, or something. Instead, he said, "Do you want to learn a new word?"
I shrugged, I was still stoked about my SHIT.
"Rather than S-H-I-T, put an R between the I and T," he told me.
I looked at him, "S-H-I-R-T." I allowed the letters to roll over in my head for a few minutes, "SHIRT!" I exclaimed, "I'm spelling the word shirt!"
He smiled, "I think that's a little more acceptable than the first word you spelled, no?"

Now, a million years later, sometimes when I get bored, I pick three basic words, words like THE CAT SAT, and see how many words I can spell using only those letters: THECATSAT:
The
Cat
Sat
At
Seat
Heat
Hat
etc

It's a good exercise when you get bored. I also have an affinity toward word games; scrabble, banana-grams, scrabble slam, words with friends, etc. I completely blame Jim for this affliction and my obsession with words.

I think a lot about this moment, the moment I learned how to turn shit into shirt and consider that maybe...just maybe my writing is like that. That that's what editing does for me; turns my shit into shirt, because it's much more acceptable, no?

:)

Writing Books I

I'm going to start a segment on writing books that I've found very helpful in my career. Ideally, I'll post a book each Thursday (until I run out of books I own....which may happen sooner rather than later), but...forgive me if life gets in the way....which it tends to do:

So Book One for this series is:

The Market.

This book comes in many editions. Children's Market, Poet's Market, Novel and Short Story Market...etc. You'll see I have the 2009 and 2011 editions. The cool thing is, one is usually published each year, which means it can continually be a Christmas present.

The Market has writing conferences, contests, and pretty much everything a writer could ever need. It also usually comes with a membership to the Writer's Market.

This is something I look forward to every year. It's usually about $15-$30 depending on where you purchase it from. Definitely something worth investing in, at least once.

Train Your Brain

There's a quote somewhere that says something like, "If you want to be a writer, treat writing like a job." I can't remember where I found this quote, otherwise I'd give it more props, but either way, here is my writerly advice for the day...

In one of the books I've read, or one of the quotes, or blogs, or...some source of entertainment that is wiser than I am, I found something about writing. Yes, we all know that we should write every day to keep our skills sharp (one of those use it or lose it types of things), but did you know that you should also try to schedule a time, and keep to that time every day?

Why?

Because you can call it your "Creative Hour" or "Creative Time". In example, if you do it between 9am-10am, your brain eventually will start to expect that, 'Oh, this is my time to be creative, I must make something up'. It's a way to keep your muse in check when he or she tries to run away.

But here's the truth; most of us have real lives, outside of keeping up our blogs, our writing, our jobs, our twitter/facebook/goodreads...It's hard to schedule a time. It's hard to be able to stick to that time.

If you're able, rock it. If not, then you're with the other 95% of the population.

:)

More Blog Awards!

In case you were unaware, I love blog awards...like, love them. Not quite as much as Mint Oreos....but I mean, it's up there :) (I also love new followers, comments, and....shiny objects :) )

Anyways, Krista over at I Take the Pen gave me the Inspirational Blog Award! Thanks, Krista!

This one actually has rules attached, so here they are: 

Answer the following questions.

Pass it on.

You ready to  learn more about me than you wanted? Good, I'm ready to share :)

1. What makes you laugh, smile or giggle?
When people fall snowboarding (when it's a safe fall, not a slam). I taught a kid last week, who just kept falling, and falling, and each time, he laughed so loud, I think the entire mountain heard him. It made me happy to know that he was still having fun, and more that he was learning.
My dog also makes me smile a lot, because he's a talker. I feel like I can have endless conversations with him.
Cute things make me smile; like when boys walk me to my car, hold doors for me, when my favorite song plays on the radio.

2. What are your dreams for the future?
I want to get published. I want to be happy. I want Baxter to be immortal. It's not too much to ask, right?

3. If you were going on a cruise where would it be and why?
So...you guys may judge me for this...but I'm kind of against cruises (don't get me wrong, if I won one, I'd still go) but they're terrible for the environment. Like....TERRIBLE. But, if I won one (this way I'm not supporting it), I'd like to go anywhere, like an island, some place I've never seen. (I'm not very hard to please)

4. Who would you spend your vacation with and why?
The vacation listed above? Well, with Baxter, of course :) (Read commitment issues....:) )

5. If given a life, what life would you chose and why? Past or future? 
I would pick past, I think. I mean, I like my life where it's at, so I'd want to be something else; a bird, a dog, a cat. I'd want to know how they live, what they say to each other. But if I were forced to stay human, I'd go back, and take more pictures with Kellie, my best friend who died in a car accident when she was 17.

Okay, so Krista gave the blog to four people, so I will, too:


Jess @ Falling Leaflets
Cari @ Cari's Book Blog
Chantele @ My Writing Bug
Sarah @ Sarah Belliston

Hope you guys are having a stellar day!

Sites To Be Aware Of

Whew, that was a long weekend. Did everyone make it through? *Looks around for half raised hands* Barely? Close enough.

Me...well...I was late for work for the last three days, but that's here nor there :) (Thankfully, my bosses rock, and I wasn't in any real trouble.)

Now, on with the post:

While I enjoy a lot of blogs (see tab to the right), and follow a lot of blogs (find my profile), there are some websites that I check into pretty regularly, and I think everyone should be aware of them:

*PostSecret
Everyone has secrets, right? Everyone has those things that we think, that we feel, that we remember that only our closest friends know. For some of us, we don't even tell our closest friends because it would hurt too much. Frank Warren started PostSecret as a release, a place for those of us who have these secrets but can't tell anyone. You find a postcard, put your secret on it (without your name), and mail it. I've only sent one in, and just making it felt freeing.

*The Burning House
When I was a kid, I'd take all of my favorite stuffed animals, put them in plastic bags, and keep them under my bed in case of a fire. Those were important to me. I'd imagine my house catching fire, getting stuck in my room, popping the screen out, and getting my animals out as quickly as possible.
This website does that. The question is: If your house were on fire, what would you take? You take a picture of the items, and send em in. It's amazing when you sit there and think; My dog, my camera, my computer, my....

*To Write Love On Her Arms
For me, this and PostSecret go hand in hand. There are a lot of people in the world dealing with mental health issues. This website, this foundation, isn't afraid of those issues. It helps to face them head on and say, 'Hey, you're having problems dealing with life? Cool, me too.' Look around, learn something, accept the way people are. I was really, really excited because during my melt down in October, my good friend Patrick got me a shirt from this website, and wrote a note that said something along the lines of "Keep fighting." It was one of the things that kept me going.

Those are my three recommendations for the day. Have an awesome week!

Critique Groups

Firstly, I'd like to apologize about falling off the face of the earth this week. At Sunday River it was Kid's Week, which meant that I was and am one exhausted instructor. (But, it was an amazing experience, and my kiddos were awesome, so it was totally worth it)

I'm going to need this many energy drinks tomorrow to function like a human being...

Now for the post. I had an interesting learning experience this week, and thankfully, it was writing related...

About a month ago, I'd joined a critique group. We kind of all stumbled through how we wanted to set things up, corresponded through e-mails, and swapped about a chapter a week (or...whatever we could get done, whenever we could get it done).

Round one, I was a bit apprehensive. The person 'in charge' of the group sent me his work, and it was a LOT of telling rather than showing. I wasn't being drawn in, at all. I went through, did some line edits, highlighted paragraphs, said "You're telling me, bring me in..." etc. I tried really, really hard to find tactful ways to tear his work apart.

And then I get his edits back. It was about two-three sentences of 'I really like the plot set up here, I only have one suggestion'. I balked. There were no line edits, no "I'm lost here" "Strengthen this section". Nothing. Just two or three sentences that didn't really say anything. I had worked sooo hard on his story. And what did I get in return? Two sentences? Really, man??

Still, we continued along, I found myself repeating my edits over and over, as though he wasn't forward editing, as though...he wasn't trying. I'd work really hard on his, I'd get back three-four sentences.

This last round, he sent his work (another paragraph), and I sent mine, which started doing line edits, but (after a really long day with a million kids) I had to stop. I could no longer continue reading his story. I finished reading (no longer line editing), and did what he'd been sending to me, thinking it'd be okay, "There's still a lot of telling here, it's really hard for me to get through this because as a reader, I'm not being drawn in, at all."

The following day, I received and e-mail ending our correspondence.

I was a little sad, but after I stepped away from it for a second, I was really okay with it. Why? Because I hadn't getting the feedback from him that I'd hoped for. I was looking for more in-depth criticism than he was willing to offer, and I feel that he, too, may have been looking for something else out of the group, out of me.

The truth:
You're allowed to be in more than one group. You'll find people you like, and people you don't. The good news is, with mine I was still able to secure a reader, whose novel seems fantastic thus far, and also gives amazing feedback, so, I'm incredibly grateful for that. She's not afraid to tell me something is weak, what needs work, where I'm losing her.


So, my advice for the day:
Be aware of what you want out of critique groups. Do you really want people to tell you what they think, or are you just trying to see if your story makes sense? If you're not getting what you want, find a new group.

Great Comments Award

Huray! I got another award (is this really considered a blog award? I'm not sure, but I sure like getting stuff! Comments, especially!)

To me, getting a blog award, or heck, even getting comments, is like Christmas Day (if you don't believe me, check out THIS blog).

This award was given to my from Hope Roberson, check out her blog at My Proctor: The Calling. Thanks bunches!

It didn't seem like the typical tell peeps about yourself, so I'll avoid that and have a quick pass off. The following people are people who have had great comments, and have had fantastic things to say (Hope picked five to pass it on to, so I will, too:) ):

Krista, at I Take the Pen
Gene Pool Diva, at Diminishing Gene Pool
Ninja Girl, at Ninja Girl Reads
Peggy Eddleman, at Will Write For Cookies
C. Lee McKenzie, at The Write Game

I would also like to give a shout out to Cassie Mae, who I know already got this award, J.A. Bennett, who just recently closed her blog, as well as Hope. You guys rock!

Thanks for commenting on the blog!

Withdrawing A Submission

Whew, that was a long weekend. At some point, my roommate's dog ran away, but the good news is, he spent the night with some friendly people from New Hampshire and arrived safely home this afternoon. (I made sure to cuddle Baxter extra tight because I couldn't imagine him being gone for any length of time.)

Other than that, I received an e-mail yesterday from a gentleman asking if I had any advice on how to craft a letter that withdraws a submission. (This is kind of the flip side of Nudging an Agent :) )

So here's my advice (Fancy style):

Dear Baxter* 

 It is with great regret (or some very eloquent word here) that I must withdraw my query/submission/etc, The Night Baxter Slept on the Floor**, from your agency. 

Thank you for your time and consideration (this is always my favorite closing),

Lynne Schmidt


Another way (Super simple):

Dear Baxter*,

 I would like to withdraw my submission/query/etc, The Night Baxter Slept on the Floor**. 

Thank you so much for your time and consideration,

Lynne Schmidt

*Baxter is not actually an agent. Well, I mean, I do read some of my stuff out loud to him, but in all reality, he is my dog (see his page above?). So, with that--Be sure to address it as Mr. or Ms. Agent, but use their actual last name.

 **Include the name of your submission


Here's the key:
You don't actually have to say why you're withdrawing it; you just need to tell them that you are withdrawing it. You can thank them for their time, you can wish them a great day. It doesn't really matter, just be sure to get it to the correct agent (and agency), make sure they know which work is yours, and that you're withdrawing it.

I hope this helps :)

Reading Critiques

"I think this sentence could be stronger if...."

"Awkward sentence...."

"I don't get what you're saying here...."

This is the look I tend to give the computer as I read critiques

I have a moment when I read what my critique-ers wrote and say, "Psshh, that sentence is fine, you don't know what you're talking about." I will actually start talking to my screen sometimes (which I did in front of a friend the other day, oops!) and say why what I wrote is fine, and why what my beta reader is saying is crap. And it's for this reason, and this reason alone, that when I get my edits back from people I read through them...don't make any changes, make the face you see above, and close the browser.


Honestly, I think we're all entitled to this. I think it's okay to defend your work, your writing, and get mad at the edits people give you. But give it time, go back to it.


For me, it's usually two days later. I re-read what I've written, and then with a face more like this:

A little more submissive...

I open the edits, and with a little less confidence and a little more openness, I read what they wrote, and find that 8 times out of 10....they're right. That sentence DOESN'T make sense. I DID use Barley instead of Barely. Oh...and I did forget that I mislabeled a chapter/changed a character name except in that one spot...etc. Once I start opening to that, I open myself to scenes I should have added in, things that I can clarify. This is why we need people to read our work, and why we need to be willing to change things.


As writers, we're protective of our work, and we should be. We've put in a lot of time and effort for those sentences. But, at the same time, step outside of yourself; sometimes outsiders (especially when they're readers) are able to see things that you can't because you're too involved. I know I'm guilty of this. Are you, too?

On Blogging

As you write, a lot of people tell you that the best thing you can do is read, read, read. Why? Because you get in tune with what's selling, what you like in other people's work, sentence structures, what carries a novel, etc.

But blogs aren't really all that different. When I started The Submission Process last year, I kind of just....blogged. Then...I started learning.

I followed agent and editor blogs. I started looking around at what else was out there, and I found Books of Adam. (If you haven't read his blog, you should, it's hilarious.) Just one read, and he made a follower out of me. Why? Because it's down to earth, it's real, and it's spit your milk out funny.

I also started thinking...what else drew me in?

Right....There were stories, and yet there were pictures. It wasn't just pages of endless text. I found myself paying more attention to blogs I followed; the ones with a lot of text, I'd read the first few sentences and then stop. Mainly because I was bored and overwhelmed. The ones that had pictures, I'd actually read. Thus, I started posting pictures, too. Like this one:

Because every step you take, is a step in the right direction :)
Climb those mountains!

Plus, pictures make it personal, you know?

I also found that the more I spanned and commented on blogs, the more people commented on mine. The more I put my posts on twitter, the more people stumbled across me.

So my advice of the day? Read other people's blogs. Figure out what you like about them, and implement it on your blog.

Recap: 2011

Overall, I would say that 2011 was a productive writing year for me. I didn't get published, and really, I'm okay with that. Here's why:

Confessions of an Immortal Heart advanced to round two of Amazon's Breakthrough Young Adult Novel Contest. Not only that, but I also got a full manuscript request by an agent. It was rejected, but it gave me intense amounts of hope. (Now that I've had time to digest and attend more conferences, I know EXACTLY why it was rejected. Oh....too much telling and not enough showing... :) )

I wrote Igniting a Firestarter in 28 days. I wrote Character Defects in just under a month. And My Sister's Memories took just over a month.

I had three agent requests for Character Defects (rejections, but the hope keeps piling on), and two editor requests (still waiting to hear back).

In the last year, I also read my work out loud to a crowd of people at an open mic night. I joined a critique group, and landed some stellar beta readers. There were also conferences. Lovely, lovely conferences.

At this point, I'm really okay getting rejected in 2011, and I'm really stoked to be getting requests. Why? Because it means I'm doing something right enough to get people who say "I'd be wiling to take a look at that," and something wrong enough to push me to take another look at what I've done.

Remember:

Each rejection is a step in the right direction. Be brave, keep pushing, don't give up. 

Writerly Wresolutions

Yay!! My first post of 2012! How exciting!

Anyways, enough rambling...I've posted a bit about having goals (see HERE, or HERE). I think in every aspect of your life, you should always make goals. They help to keep you on track, they help you to look at where you are and then....






..Where you want to be (see how big that distance can be? Yikes!).


So, it is officially 2012, and yea, the world may end. But...my car also may not start in the morning. The world is full of "What if"s and really, we don't have time to sit here and worry about what's going to happen. This is what I know right now:

*I want an agent
*I want to get published
*I want to attend as many writing conferences as humanly (and budget-ly) possible
*I want to write another novel. At least one.
*I want to be able to edit more of the novels I have written
*I want to be better at speaking in front of crowds (or reading out loud)
*Blog more (sorry I was slacking this year!)

So...Those are my goals.
Now, I'm gonna say they're my Writerly Wresolutions. Because...we all need something to keep us focused.


Happy 2012, guys. Hope this year is better than the last!