Drawing from the Well
Queries Sent: 2
Total Queries: 40
Rejections: 23
Scenes Mapped: 1
Total Scenes: 361
Not a lot of progress, but it counts. Every little bit pushes me closer to the next end point. So I’ll celebrate it. I’m going to get some writing done right after I post this so I’m looking forward to having more complete.
As to querying, I’m sending out the new chapters and look forward to responses soon. I’m still praying for good representation offers, though.
Filling the Well
Bloodwitch: 47%
Panacea: 170/383
The Archived: 32%
The Archived by Victoria Schwab just got released on audiobook and my library had it so I’ve been listening to it all morning while handling other things. It’s a simple concept that’s steeped in history, History, and emotion. I’m loving it and can’t wait to see where it goes, how it ends, and how it feeds into the sequel, The Unbound (which I also borrowed from the library already).
Polishing the Well
Happy Fourth of July! Happy Independence Day!
And now I know EXACTLY what I need to watch today.
Well Chat
Don’t Despair the Crawl
Sometimes progress comes in a huge surge. Sometimes it comes in a trickle. Sometimes you’re moving forward by leaps and bounds and others you can only crawl. But what I want to talk about today is avoiding the practice of beating yourself up when it is a crawl because it’s still forward motion.
I’m talking about this because I often fall into this category. You’ve seen my surges forward when I manage to string together ten or more scenes. Those days are easy to celebrate. The problem is comparison. I’ve talked about comparison guilt in the past and self-comparison-guilt is just as bad as looking outward. When you have good days, you rejoice, but when the next day doesn’t measure up, it doesn’t feel as good. Instead of celebrating to a smaller degree, though, we often lament or berate ourselves for it.
Why is that? Americans are especially prone to focusing on the negative. Look at our news cycles and online forums and you’ll find a vat of vitriol without a bottom. We do it to each other, but, as the old adage says, we are our own worst critics. Do we delude ourselves into thinking that whatever we’ve created is the greatest thing since written language was invented? Sure, but that comes part and parcel with the self-criticism and it is oftentimes scathing.
The difference is in knowing this and actively combating it. At the end of the day, progress is progress. It’s not fair to measure your one scene or one page or even one paragraph against the book another author just released. You don’t know how many years or, more accurately, how many HOURS that author put into that book. You don’t know the emotional anguish they battled to bleed words to the page. You don’t know the revisions they made and soul searching they had to do to make them. All you know is that they sold a book and you didn’t.
Big whoop.
Focus on your efforts and celebrate them. If they’re not quite as accomplished as you would like them to be, try harder tomorrow. but let’s stop beating ourselves up over trying our best. That’s all we can really do.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG