Monday, December 19, 2011

Gratitude, an epiphany and a publishing opportunity

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who commented on my last post.  Your comments were helpful and encouraging and just what I needed.  Thank you so much.  I took a week off and while I'm still having a rough time getting momentum on my WIP I think I figured out why.  If it hadn't been for your comments I wouldn't have given myself a break and perhaps wouldn't have figured out the reason for my funk.

So here's my epiphany.  All the work I've been doing on my WIP has somewhere inside made me feel like I'd given up on SEEDS.  And somewhere inside I wasn't prepared to do that.  I still believe in SEEDS.  I still think it's a good well-written story that deserves to be published.  I've got to somehow strike a balance where I put time into finding a home for SEEDS while still doing work on my WIP.  That's going to be tough.  Finding time to blog and work on the WIP while taking care of two young kiddos with all that entails is tough enough.  I'm not sure where I'm going to find the extra minutes and hours it takes to ferret out possible agents/publishing options for SEEDS, but it seems I'm going to have to try unless I want my writing to be on permanent hiatus (shudder).

On a semi-related note Dragon Moon Press is open for submissions for the month of December.  They are only looking for novel length (85,000 to 110,000 words) fantasy, but if you have a manuscript that fits those specifications this is a great opportunity.  Their submission guidelines are very specific, so if you're interested go here and read them carefully before submitting.  It was this tidbit of news and my subsequent submission of SEEDS that led to my little epiphany about the reasons for my funk.  I hope you find it similarly helpful in your pursuit of your writing dreams.  Good luck!

Monday, December 5, 2011

In a funk.

Do you ever find yourself going through your daily routine and thinking 'what's the point of this again?'  Yeah.  Today is one of those days for me. But I haven't been questioning everything today, just those things that relate to my writing life.

I logged on to blogger at few times today to do a post and that's the question that kept running through my mind.  Don't get me wrong.  I've met some great people and made some good friends through my blog and I love it for that reason, but I started my blog because of my writing.  And as I said, I've really been questioning the reason I'm putting all the time and effort I do into my writing.  That encompasses the blog as well.

I don't know, I guess it's just one of those days when I'm doubting my ability to get published, heck, even my ability to write anything worth giving to my critique group.  I'm sure it will pass, but for today I'm in a funk and I think instead of working on my WIP tonight I'm going to take a long hot bath and get a good night's sleep.  Hopefully that will be all I need to recharge.

How about you guys?  Anything you've found particularly helpful in banishing self doubt or getting out of a funk?  I'd love any suggestions.