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Friday, April 13, 2012

What are your goals?

My goals change daily.

When it comes to my writing goals, I have the goal to get a book out there into stores. To do that I have to get published. To do that I have to get a book deal/publishing contract. To do that I have to get a manuscript accepted. To do that I have to get a manuscript read completely. To do that I have to get an agent to either read it and or pass it on to an editor. To do that I have to send out a partial. To do that I have to send out pages. To do that I have to send out a query. To do that I have to have a completed manuscript. (I have 2 so I'm doing alright there, but I'm needing another to send out soon). To get a completed manuscript, I have to have a completed first draft that I can give to my critique group to read and make suggestions that I accept or reject. To do that I have to write the last chapter. To do that I have to write the chapters that come before the last one. To do that I have to write. To do that I have to stop this blog post.

To do that I will hit publish post and get onto the writing part of my day.

And one last thing before I go.

What are your goals?

Laura

Thursday, April 5, 2012

The more you know...

The more you know about writing the harder it gets. When I first started writing a few years ago (I can't believe it's actually been that long) it was so fun and easy. I just wrote what came to mind and let the ideas flow. Of course after reading what I'd written it was obvious that I was very much an amateur. I didn't know the rules and ins and outs of writing, but it was fun. I came up with a passable plot and some good characters, but it was lacking in conflict and wasn't more than a pleasant read for those I could get to read it.

Once I joined a writers group and started going to conferences, researching online about the whole publishing process and basically teaching myself about writing I realized I had a lot to learn. I was naive thinking that you could write a book, send it out to an editor, they'd tell you how to fix it or fix it themselves and it would be on the book store shelves in no time. (HA HA) that is definitely not how it works. I have been working on my craft for some time now and am still far from being published. But I'm getting better with each word I write.

Now working on this current project, I've begun to fear it a little. What if it ends up being no good? Why should I spend this much time on something that won't be seen by anyone besides my critique group and beta readers? Then I think to myself, if its just practice writing, then it's better than quitting. No one ever succeeds on accident. Athletes, artists, business owners, scientists, doctors, and so on spend countless hours perfecting their craft. And so will I.

Don't worry, I'll be sure to let you know when I do succeed but for now, it's back to practicing.

What are you working on?