Mojo
Yesterday I spent three writing hours literally lying down thinking.
I always feel bad when I do that, like I’m not actually working – but it almost always pays off. At about 10:30 last night, I realised that not only could I solve the major problem of my NaNoNovel, but I could send it off. Today.
And this morning, I woke up brim-ful of mojo.
Side note: I read a story about a man who needed to climb over a fence to get something he wanted. Unfortunately, there was a vicious dog on the other side. But the thing he wanted was important enough to take the risk, so he needed to overcome his fear. So he threw his hat over the fence. That way, he had to climb the fence to get his hat. Every time I mention online that I’m going to do something, I’m throwing my hat over the fence – now I HAVE to do it. It works wonders for me.
Remember how Publisher E said they’d actually not been able to open the “Waking Dead Mountain” document, way back last year? They’re not accepting manuscipts at the moment, but by way of apology they said I coudl resend it if I wanted. But I wanted to send that book to the Publisher A competition – which I did. But my NaNoNovel has been edited up to chapter 5 – and Publisher E only looks at the first three chapters to start off with. So I’ll “throw my hat over the fence” and send them that much. Then all I have to do is fix the rest before they reply.
Since I wrote the NaNoNovel more recently, it has more action in it (a lot of people have said I need more action in ym books), so it’s quite likely they’ll prefer it anyway. I’ll make sure I say so in the email.
In other news, my absolute favourite quote of the day is from Donald Miller’s blog: “In other words, if you were the person God designed you to be, you’d be in an insane asylum singing Third Day songs only wearing a keytar.”
Although it’s not at all the point he was making, I like to feel that as a crazy person, I’m closer to that picture than most.
Good Morning
I’ve successfully entered the Publisher A editorama contest, and I know the book is good. Hopefully I’ll be editing it with Publisher A people this October (after visiting my sister for the birth of her first child – it could be an exciting month). This is a solid backup plan for if/when Publisher B rejects “Stormhunter” and “The Monster Apprentice”.
Today I received an email saying the first chapter of my realist novel placed third in the 2010 InnermoonLit Best First Chapter of a Novel Contest. I get a small amount of money, some online advertising, and a little bit of writerly street cred next time I send it off (I plan to send it to a Publisher B editorama in a few months, so the street cred won’t come into play for quite a while).
Yayness.
How to not be manic
I handled yesterday’s workload quite well, although I’m exhausted from not sleeping right (this morning I woke almost two hours early and couldn’t get back to sleep). I feel cold (the heater is on) and hungry (despite eating plenty) and my eye is twitching at a rate of about once an hour (yesterday it was twitching every fifteen minutes while I was at work).
Today I don’t have students at all, so it’s a great opportunity to stop being manic. I’m tempted to do heaps of stuff – write, do something big from the awesomeness list, swim a kilometre, or clean the house – but instead I’m going to do nothing.
No washing. No dishes. No cooking. No exercise (I have one day off a week – may as well make it today). No writing. No new awesomeness (unless I really feel like it, and it doesn’t involve leaving the house).
I’m going to watch no-brainer TV, tease my cats, and take photos of my fish. And probably have a nap. Hopefully after this I’ll be safe to drive again (I tend to crash – literally – when I work too much).
As of this morning, I’m allowed to eat chocolate again. But I’m going to try not to binge again until I’m well inside the healthy weight range. My rule now is to stick to 50 grams of chocolate, plus whatever I’m offered (so I can eat at parties, etc). That’s a maximum, of course 🙂 (Or 100 grams lollies, because they don’t metabolise into fat as quickly as. . . well, fat.)
After three days with absolutely no chocolate or junk food, I now weigh 80.5. It could be a lot worse. I’m waiting for Auntie Flo to visit, then after that I’ll launch a major offensive. I stumbled across a patently incorrect BMI calculator that said I only need to weigh 78 kilos to be in the healthy weight range, so that’s what I’ll go for in this offensive. Two and a half (or three) kilos in three weeks should be achievable.
Oh! And I’m getting a new student in about a fortnight (which is great timing, because I’m about to lose three-quarters of my income due to my two adult students finishing their courses).
I’ll post fish photos over at http://twittertales.wordpress.com as soon as this entry is done.
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I just (after writing the above, then falling asleep) heard back from Publisher A (who I thought might be sick of me now, but who I emailed to ask if I could send them “Farting My ABCs”). They said,
Back to the writing board
Publisher A hasn’t replied yet (the ones who may or may not be sick of me), but Publisher B (“Stormhunter” and “Monster Apprentice”) has. I expected them to say, “Oh dear, has it been that long? We’ll get right on to that!” (lies, all lies) but they went one further and said, “We’re really busy at the moment with this sales thing.”
So. . . nothing will be happening for at least another month or three.
In the meantime, I have two adult students who need huge amounts of help at the moment, so I’m working a LOT. The good thing is that they finish in a matter of weeks, so this is a crisis rather than a regular thing (I generally handle crisis far better than everyday stress). The bad thing is that when I work a lot, I tend to crash my car or make other serious life errors.
Last week, every hour was torture, and I cried a lot. This week my brain chemicals have done me a favour and gone manic – just in time for the heaviest week of all. Since I only go mildly manic, it’s a reasonably good way to cope with life (particularly since I always observe myself carefully and predict when the crash will happen – I’m betting on Friday). The worst part is not being able to get to sleep (too busy buzzing about things to do), not being able to focus on what I’m doing (always focused on the next thing, and the next thing), and of course the high risk of injury to myself/others, or suddenly plunging into uncontrollable violence, swearing, or crying.
Normally my work limit in a day is three hours with students (I quite often push to four by not doing anything else that day, by having breaks, by having two hours in one location, or by having a student at my house). Yesterday I had over seven hours with students. If you add an hour of writing, half an hour of exercise, and all the driving between students, I worked for eleven hours. Because of being manic, I handled it fine. Today I have six hours of tutoring (plus exercise, writing, and driving), and I think I can stay manic enough to handle it. Tomorrow’s just three hours, so I should be tired but okay. And Friday I don’t have students, but do have a birthday party to go to. But on Friday I’m allowed chocolate again (I’m going three days without any junk food of any kind – today is day two), so I’ll have something to lean on if things get bad.
As with many mental illnesses, someone who is manic is able to think rationally (logic just feels utterly incorrect). Other than the creeping dread of the consequences, I really enjoy being manic – it’s deeply satisfying to be able to do a full day’s work for once. It’s a whole lot like being a normal person for a while.
A time to write
It’s time to make up consistent fake names for my publishers.
Publisher A: I have three direct contacts with them, and so far they’ve let me email them any full manuscript I want (after I email to ask). Since “Farting my ABCs” was rejected, I emailed them asking if they’d like to see it. That was last Thursday, and they haven’t replied yet. Last time I sent them a book (which I received back over a year ago) they hinted that they didn’t have time to continue reading my nearly-but-not-quite-good-enough books. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what they were saying.
Publisher B: I have two direct contacts with them, and they currently have “Stormhunter” and “The Monster Apprentice” (ie the first books in my YA and childrens’ Rahana trilogies), the first of which they’ve had over a year. I emailed them this today: “I’m just dropping by for my three-monthly check that things are still progressing with “Stormhunter” and/or “The Monster Apprentice”. I hope you’re well and enjoying the great weather.” If they reject those two, they may not be willing to look at any others. If they accept them, they’ll probably accept the four other books in the two trilogies. Exciting stuff.
Publisher C: The one I originally sent “Farting My ABCs”. They generally take six months to reply, but they do generally request the full manuscript.
Publisher D: They generally request the full manuscript.
Publisher E: Has had the first three chapters of “Waking Dead Mountain” for five months – presumably a good sign for the book, and a bad sign for how long I’ll have to wait if they do request the full manuscript.
So, in conclusion: I’m waiting for Publisher A to let me know if they still like me, and for Publisher B to finally tell me if everything is about to change (or not). And waiting for Publisher E, but not holding my breath.
Strange
Today turned out weird. I’m not sure what to make of it.
“Farting my ABCs” was rejected (darn), but although it was clearly still a form letter, it was a friendlier form letter than the other one (so perhaps that publisher has a range of form letters – that’s a positive sign, while not actually being at all useful). Obviously this is bad news, but I actually find rejections always perk me up. I can edit (fun, especially after an eight-month break) and send it to someone new.
In the same lot of mail I received a kind of prize for “winning” the national Novel Writing Month (ie, I did successfully wrote 50,000 words in a month). Every winner who wanted to could get one properly-printed copy of their book from Create Space. So, although the editing is far from over, I have a shiny physical object with my name and photo on the cover, and my words filling the inside.
I also impulse-bought a fish toy – one of those logs with holes for the fish to swim through – and the fish to go with it. The previous plant died (apparently it’s the nature of that type of plant) so I bought another (allegedly hardier). The log is so my tetras have somewhere to hide if this plant dies, too. Right now they’re acclimatising to my tank – VERY slowly, so they don’t die of shock (I believe that’s what killed Sam and Frodo).
I’m delighted to have more than one fish once more, but also nervous. Since some difficult-to-grab remnants of the previous plant are still drifting about, and Gandalf (the fighting fish) still has odd colouring, I wonder if I’ve doomed five more lives. But all I can do is be super careful of the tetras and hope for the best (Gandalf is definitely stable, and moves around quite happily).
I’m also slightly faint with hunger. When I get tired enough, my vision tends to waver and/or cause brief hallucinations (mistaking a tree for an elephant, etc). Today I saw a sign that said, “We sell boxes” and read it as, “We sell blokes.” Hmm.
I also had a rather weird errand to run – but that’s all part of Secret # 6 and I can’t talk about it for at least twenty-four more hours.
Oh! And the http://twittertales.wordpress.com blog hit a new high in sheer numbers yesterday, and I think it’ll go even higher today.
We can still hop
After leaving an answering machine message with the “Farting my ABCs” possible-publisher, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever hear from them again. But I did. They emailed me today, making it clear that the book is NOT rejected, and they’ll try real hard to get back to me as soon as possible (so, almost definitely within six months then).
So I have a lot more waiting to look forward to – but the book still has a chance.
Aieee!! F%#*!
Have had some internet/work issues this week. (The subject line is a summary thereof.) Nothing too serious though.
I’m writing from my parents-in-laws’ house (hi Barb). Today I phoned the “Farting my ABCs” possible-publisher again and. . . . left a message on the answering machine. Arg!
I didn’t quite make my weight goal, but caved in on Wednesday and bought a huge pile of candy anyway. After three kilos, it’s not a fail – it’s a temporary suspension of success.
http://twittertales.wordpress.com is doing a roaring trade, which makes me feel that I really am getting somewhere. It’s wonderful to know so many people are reading my inane babbling. I love this millennium.
Friday Afternoon
It’s Friday afternoon, which means two things: excitement, and depression. The excitement is because I know that publishing execs have meetings to make the final decisions on whether to publish books or not, and it seems to me they’d have those meetings on Friday – and then call the authors they’d chosen to accept. The depression is because the weekend comes next, where there’s a guaranteed lack of answer for two days before the mail starts up again.
I’ve done very little writing the last few weeks, due to the Daily Awesomeness Plan (new obsessions take a lot of brain space that’s usually occupied by writing), being sick last week, and spending time exercising (half an hour every day). But I wrote for seven hours yesterday (finishing the first draft of next month’s twittertale – a post-apocalyptic tale inspired by a TV show I won’t mention by name because if I don’t mention it the spoilers won’t be noticed) and I’ve spent three hours writing so far today.
I’m perilously close to finishing my final solo edit of last year’s “National Novel Writing Month” book. One of my friends is already helping me edit it. After that I’ll most likely enlist a professional editor, then send the book to its first rejection. Oh! I mean its first possible-publisher. Excuse me.
I’m not sure what to think of the book’s chances. It has more of an action focus than my other books (generally people say I need more action) and the beginning and end are rather good (in my opinion) but the rest of the book can be summed up as, “Hero runs away a lot.” Still, it’s a plot that has worked for many others before me. Who knows? Maybe this is what readers want.
I am a little excited, I confess. It’s a new book, after all!
Maybe I’ll be twelth time lucky. Apparently people who write books sometimes do publish them.
Fart Fail
I’ve heard back from the “Farting my ABCs” possible-publisher. . . here’s what happened.
As usual, my ears pricked at the sound of a low-grade motorbike. I was near the front door, so I opened it, and actually saw the postman at our neighbour’s mailbox (which is good, because it means that even if there’s nothing in the box, I know the postie has already been). I emptied the hoover bag, and went to the letterbox. There was an envelope. A big one. For me. From that publisher. I could feel that it had about twenty pages in it, which is another Bad Sign. It meant they’d returned the manuscript.
I walked inside, put the vacuum cleaner away, and sat down at my computer, ready to immediately document the results.
It was a rejection, and very clearly a form letter (always disappointing to get no feedback, even though feedback is EXTREMELY rare – in my case, I only get it when I have a contact in the company). I sighed and opened up the blog ready to write.
Then my eye fell on the manuscript itself. It isn’t “Farting my ABCs” after all. It’s the first few chapters of a different book (one I sent to them in November, and which wasn’t written specifically for them – so not something I was holding my breath about).
So I’m still waiting. I’ll let you know when “Farting my ABCs” gets an answer. It’s still probably a “no”. Even “Stormhunter” (best chance this year) is probably a “no.”
Following on from yesterdays blog. . .
Probably the most useful things I discovered from the baby book were:
1. Colick isn’t hereditary (CJ and a cousin of his were both very colicky babies, so that lessened my sheer abject terror slightly).
2. Roughly when to start on solid food, and when kids are old enough to begin destroying things.
3. You need to change nappies 5-10 times a day for the first little while after getting home from hospital (that would have freaked me out).
Felicity Banks 