Sunday, July 18, 2010

A Challenge Issued

A member of one of my writing support groups – Broad Universe – has issued a challenge to other members, of sorts. We're supposed to set a goal to hit for words written in a day, for five days a week, for ten weeks. Keep track of how many words you write, and report your progress to the group every week. It's intended to give people a goal, support if they don't meet it, and congratulations if they do.

I'm off to a very rocky start. In six days, I've managed to write 453 words, 484 words, and 1006 words. I was hoping for 1000 words a day.

In my defense, I've got a lot going on in my life right now. I'm on the committee for OSFest 3, a local sf convention, and that is coming up in about four days. I was finally tracked down by my high school graduating class (not that I was trying to hide), and I spent the last 2 days traveling to and attending our class reunion. And my free-lance business does require some time. Which is exactly why this 'challenge' was issued. It's supposed to make us not be satisfied with a few stolen minutes of writing, but get us to actually devote some time to it.

That's actually what I'm supposed to be doing. Having retired from my day job, I was going to spend mornings on my free-lance stuff, afternoons on my writing, and maybe actually talk to my family in the evenings. Somehow, things have gotten all scrambled up, and I'm back to those 'stolen' moments for my writing.

I will be lucky if my numbers are even that good this next week. But the week after that … well, I'll have to wind things down after this year's convention, but at least I won't have people wanting answers at all hours of the day and night, and then I can try to straighten out my schedule, concentrate on getting some real writing done. Wish me luck.

Oh, and by the way, since I expect to be crumpled into a small fetal ball by next Sunday, after 3 days of convention, I probably won't manage a blog.    Trudy

Sunday, July 11, 2010

What to do, What to do?

Daw decided they did not care to offer for my maiden book. They weren't sure they could make an economic success of it. So, I'm back to the same question that has been bothering me since I finished it – what is my best option for getting this published?

This question probably faces every writer who finishes a story of any size … Who would be most likely to publish it? It's tough enough when you've finished a short story, but when you've finished a novel, you often feel befuddled, and keep second-guessing your choices. At least, I have. By the time I finished this novel, I'd been hearing that 'the big boys' of publishing no longer had a slush pile; that you had to have an agent. So for three years, I have sent queries to over two dozen agents. It would have been more, but it takes time to shuffle through long lists to find the ones that are not only legitimate but good, and who might be interested in representing my efforts.

When I saw an announcement that Daw was opening its slush pile, it seemed to be a sign to me. Since they have passed on this opportunity, what do I do now? Do I continue with the other two 'big boys' who still have slush piles? (One of them has been taking 'a second look' at a friend's manuscript for five years now.) Daw was quite speedy in their rejection, but that doesn't mean any others would be.

Still, I can't just sit here on my thumbs. I won't make any progress at all if I don't make any effort.