I actually hate the submission process. At the start it's all so bright, shiny and exciting, sending your baby out into the world. Then the knockbacks start...the waiting for partials to be read...the waiting, the waiting, the waiting. I go off the whole process pretty fast.
Then I have to figure out what to do while I'm doing it. Or waiting, because there's not much doing going on after the sending. I'm spending most of my time trying to decide what to do next. Revise my old beloved, 'Maureen', who I think I half-revised and then abandoned for some reason, but, hey, I still love her and I know somebody out there will love it too... (Hey, who wouldn't love a violent novel in Scottish dialect, complete with soccer and family tragedy?) Or should I leap into my next Big One - the village ghosts threatened by the building of a new dam? I mean, who can resist characters with names like 'The Mad Mother', 'The Drowned Girl in the Bath' and 'The Returning Soldier'. Or I could just write some short stories.
Or I could just spend so much time thinking about it that I do absolutely nothing.
Submitting is bad for my mojo. But nobody ever got into print by not submitting, right? Soooo...off we go again.
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Yeah, I hate this. My upper brain bits know I should keep writing, do something productive, don't keep checking duotrope every 10 minutes to see if something has changed. My lower brain bits say, who are you kidding, and foil every attempt to think of anything else...
:(
The village ghosts! The village ghosts!
And might I recommend lots of reading? That always recharges my batteries when I feel flat on writing for whatever reason.
I love the village ghosts one as well. High concept, don't ya know?
I understand what you're going through with the submission process as I collect rejection letters in apps.
It's good to see The Koala is self-spanking.
I wouldn't want to be the one to presume to say, "Hup! Hup! Hup! Get them manuscripts churning!"
If it wasn't The Year of Submission, I'd be pulling back and hiding my ms in a drawer to pull out months later and see if I could rewrite it - again. Of course, I'm in the process of rewriting it again, but it's not languishing in a drawer, 'cause I need to get it back out there again to gain me some points!
But I know exactly what you mean. Sort of. I have at least 5 books I wish I was writing on at this very moment, but, alas, I must earn a living for roof and food.
I look forward to the querying part, but of course that's because I'm havin' such a grand old time with my edits. Oh baby. One big good (X#@$%^) time.
Anyway, the village ghosts and the damn sound cool! Also, what happened to the one about the seal? Does that have anything to do with Maureen? You're prolific, you are.
I keep having these brain buzzes where I write scenes to follow-on novels, but I can't sit down and think them through yet.
All kidding aside about the querying process, I commiserate (ahead of time) with you. Any fool would know they should take your novel on, and be damn happy to have the chance.
Robin's comment makes me think the ghost novel could be called The dam and the damned.
Yeah. Nothing like a misspelled damn(n) to get those creative juices flowing, huh?!
Hm, there are real people too, so how about 'The Dam, The Dammed and The Damned'?
I think you're onto something.
I feel for you — and yet you're thousands of miles away on the other side of the world.
What a shitty game of Blind Man's Buff this is turning out to be...
Ooh, the Triple D ghosts one sounds yummy!
I still have a handful of queries to send, so I'm not *quite* to the sit-and-wait point. I swore, SWORE, this would be the last ms until I retire and have time to write. Right now I have spring cleaning to do, horse hooves to trim, a veggie garden to till and plant, online Scrabble games beckoning.
And yet.
There's that stupid siren call again. That plot formulating in my head. That new story begging for attention. How do you turn your back?
No, really. I have other chores to do!
you're awfly quiet, McK. You're not losing fur over this silly sub thing, are you?
Fabulous ideas there! You could write short stories for contests or magazines while you wait, that´s not a bad idea =)
How's it going, girl?
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