Me and my Timing

So... How 'bout my timing, huh?

After thinking and contemplating over where to go next... I've decided to go ahead and submit my work to the Edit Fast novel writing contest... Of course, this gives me about, oooh, five days to get everything ready for submission.

Am I crazy?!

Absolutely. But that's irrelevant.

I'm not so silly as to think that a manuscript I've been working on for more than six years will magically be finished with time to spare in four days and 22 hours...

So, I highly doubt that my manuscript will be submission-worthy by that time. I can try - but I will likely fall completely on my head once Saturday's Dungeons and Dragons group gets here. So, since they do hold a contest every four months, I will be entering into a contest of theirs - just not the one for August :)

The Official age of Old

Ugh... My birthday.

This year is hitting me harder than most years. I'm 35 now.

35

Two years ago when my husband turned 35 - he deemed that as the official "age of old". Of course, now he is regretting that conversation - now that he knows I remember it and that, since it applied to him, it must now apply to me as well.

I'm officially at the age of old... still not published. This is just not my year.

Of course, I know that it's not too late. Pfft, I've probably got another, well, 47 years before I really have to worry.

Why 47? Because that would put me inline with Myrrha Stanford-Smith who, if you'll remember from last year's news, received a three-book deal to publish her trilogy at 82 years young.

So - not too late, not yet. But still, the clock is definitely ticking and the years are going by faster and faster. Maybe I'll feel better about being 35 sometime after I've been published. Or maybe after I give up on the fight against fine lines and wrinkles (no gray hairs just yet... but I'm sure they're plotting).

For now I'll try to get by with simply looking at this as the snooze alarm to my wake up call... Time to get writing!

Kiss Your Spare Time Goodbye

Earlier, I had described why this manuscript sat unfinished - forgotten in a sea of files left on my computer.

And, as you can likely tell, it's still happening. Even with the new status as a necessity, I'm straining to find the time to finish it. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

I know, it's so clichéd to use that excuse - and far overdone. Though, that really only makes this complaint sound trite - not any less true.

The sad fact is, I just have too many necessities going on right now. Clearly I need a better way of prioritizing my life or things just aren't going to be done. I just don't know where to start with that. So how do you set writing aside as a priority when it's really little more than a glorified hobby?

I mean, at least at this point, writing this novel is not producing any money. And there's no real guarantee that it ever will. There is a very strong possibility that once I finish this novel it may never be published in the fashion that I am hoping. And an even stronger possibility that if it does get published, it will be purchased by about ten people.

Ugh, ten people. Do I even know ten people? Make that eight.

At any rate, so now I need to physically make writing a priority. Clearly, it can't be placed ahead of other things, like my income-generating job or my family. But certainly it's more important than some of my other projects that I have going on?

So, here are some tricks that I have been able to put into place over the past several weeks. Clearly there are still a few bumps in the road that I need to work on... But, as you can likely tell by my return here, these tricks have been helping me prioritize a bit and get the time back where I needed it to go - to my writing.

Step One - Admit that Life Happens.

First, Life Happens. Well, duh. Life is always going to happen. Life is always going to fight for my time. There is never going to be a great time to be a writer for me - that time left back when I was in high school and filling our my spare time with naps, the cross country team and cheerleading practice. Now, spare time doesn't exist.

That's not just for me, that's true of anyone post-school. Upon graduating school - whether it be with a diploma or a degree - kiss your spare time goodbye because that is something handed out only to students.

And it took me a long time to recognize and accept this... too long. Now it's time that I stop making that a reason to procrastinate. There is no spare time - so there's no way to wait until I have spare time to work on my writing.

There, simple, right?

Step Two - Carve out a schedule

This might be one of those deals where it's easier said than done. The problem with this little step is that as of right now, I work from home. And as such - people already have a really hard time remembering that while I am working I am working.

So my best guess is that whenever I am at the computer writing, the same interruptions and distractions will apply as they do now when I'm working. And I mean all sorts of distractions - not just the little ones.

"Oh, well, you're home anyway so I called the electrician and made an appointment for him to come by on Thursday and told him you'd meet him there since I won't be home."

Seriously? Okay - that's for a whole new rant so I will stop now. But, yes, this next step entailed writing, with as much detail as possible, everything that I do within a given week and finding out where I can cut back on another project to devote that time to writing. Essentially carving time out of my schedule - not something that is easily done, by the way. But, by rearranging a few other projects and carving a little time from them, I did manage to find anywhere from one to three extra hours a week that I can devote to writing.

So, you hear that appointment-maker? Devoted to writing... not maintaining your appointments. Which brings me to the next step:

Step Three - Enforce my Schedule

I have always been soft and flexible when it comes to my schedule. Clients email me on a day that I wasn't working and I would hop onto the computer and get to working on their issues. It didn't matter if it was two in the morning and all they needed was to have a typo fixed - I was there and hopping online to find and fix that renegade typo.

Now, reenforcing an actual schedule is proving to be a challenge. For so long, my clients have been able to write or call me at any time for changes, updates, and general support and I have been overly accommodating. Now as I try to explain the changes in my schedule and let them know that I will not be available during certain times, well, they aren't really taking too well to that. Don't get me wrong, they aren't being rude about it or anything like that. In fact, most of them actually like the idea that I am trying so hard to uphold a more defined schedule so that I can fit other sorts of projects in.

But, it's still rather inconvenient for them; and they still sometimes forget and send me those text messages at two in the morning. But, then again, I still have trouble not answering said texts.

Definitely have a little work to do before this step is done correctly - but I'm getting there.

Step Four - Hire Myself

I know, right? If I'm so willing to take a text at two in the morning from a client, then why can't I motivate myself to take on a few extra tasks at the end of the day for myself?

I don't know about you, but for me the only time I jump through hoops to get my writing done is in November... It's time that I started doing things like that every time I have a writing project that I want to finish.

And, that about sums it up. I'm sure there are about half a dozen other ways that writers have found to help them prioritize their hobby-like writing over certain aspects of life... But so far these are the steps that have really helped me.

So now all that's left to do is to go out and get a hoop ;)

Suvudu Writing Contest, It was worth a shot

Well, it's over and done.

The powers that be at Suvudu have released the names of the winners of their writing contest... Congratulations Richard Gropp. I am sufficiently jealous of your success.

:)

Actually, Richard's submission sounds absolutely intriguing:

About a young photographer who travels to the barricaded city of Spokane, Washington, in hopes of gaining attention for his work by photographing the bizarre incidents occurring there. No one knows why people seem to vanish from the city, or why some eyewitnesses report strange manifestations while other onlookers see nothing.”

And from the looks of things, it wasn't exactly an easy contest to judge. 700 submissions to go through in roughly two months... Yikes!

So now I've got to get to cracking on what's what with my own writing... I have a few ideas and of course there is always Plan B. But I need a little more refining with my manuscript - something that will really get my creative juices flowing. And I think if I take a quick break away from the "must get published!!!!!" mindset and just start trying to write - I would do a lot better.

Of course, publication is still the ultimate goal. I just need a less stressful way to go about it.

So I started looking at other writing contests that I could find. Here's a list of what I've found thus far:

Edit Fast is a complete writer's resource that offers proofreading, editing, a list of literary agents and publishers and now writing contests. In fact, they have another novel writing contest in about a month or two.

The International 3-Day Novel Writing Contest - in short, this contest is NaNoWriMo on speed. Labor Day weekend, 72 hours - Write! Okay, so clearly this novel would not be eligible for that contest; but the contest itself is interesting and it might just be worth it to take a break from this one and see what I can do there.

Last but not least, Writer'sType is holding a first chapter competition. Essentially, if I choose to enter this novel into their competition, I can only submit the first chapter... From there I'm not really sure what would happen but it sounds interesting to say the least.

Time to find myself a celebrity!

The Internet is just filled with... um... I'm not even sure what to call it, really...?

Like everyone else, if I have a question I tend to go online first. Even knowing full well that half (if not most) of the information that I'm going to find is going to be wrong, poorly researched, based on opinion and bias, or (of course) so not even close to what I searched for as I typed my keywords into Google.

Which is probably why I didn't even bother searching for anything on April 1, but that's a whole other story.

Anyway, so most of the past few months I have been on the Internet seeking out advice about writing, more specifically about how to get my writing published. Finding the names of literary agents and checking out tips and tricks, aka advice, about how I can get this novel finished after reading the winner's name of the recent Suvudu writing contest. (Finger's crossed, still a month to go!)

I did come across several pieces of advice that probably work well for a lot of people. But for a young(ish) girl living in PoDunk, Midwest - it just seems nearly impossible. So let's go through this advice.

First, there was attending writing conferences in my local area. According to this article, conferences are a great way to network and get to know other authors and publishers in the business. And of course, just like every other business, the more you network, the better chance you have of connecting with someone that can (and will!) help you out. Sadly, the only writing conference in my local area this year is a three hour drive away for non-fiction writers and - at least last time I checked - Sci-Fi / fantasy does not qualify. Perhaps in 60-70 years when it's all been invented, but as of now, no.

So, the next piece of advice was to attend a writer's workshop since, a lot of times, these workshops are offered by authors and publishers who have had varying degrees of success. Unfortunately, just as with the the hurdle of the conferences, there are none in my area, unless I wish to enroll as an under-grad at the local University.

Another piece of advice, and one that's much more doable for me, is to enter your writing into a high-profile writing contest. Well, I've already done this as I entered this year's Suvudu writing contest. However, I can't submit my writing to anyone else, in the very least, until after I have heard from them. So, at least for now, this avenue is closed.

And finally, get a celebrity to read your novel and give you a review to send in with your manuscript.

Well... Let me just reach into my pocket and pull out a celebrity! Much less a celebrity who has the time and desire to read a Sci-Fi / Fantasy novel written by a nobody. No... I won't look like a complete stalker or anything. "Excuse me, Mr. Clooney, do you think you could read this between takes?"

Okay, so this last piece of advice, though I laugh at it, might work for those of you in New York or L.A. where celebrities are much more commonplace. But here in PoDunk - not so much. And as much as I would like to have a celebrity read my novel and tell me how much they love it (thinking positively, of course - I'm awesome), how exactly am I supposed to pull this one off?

I'm not entirely sure this advice was meant for everyone... Clearly it doesn't work for someone living in the middle of Middle America. But, for those of you in places where there are more opportunities to make such connections, there you go. I hope that the advice I found serves you better than it can serve me :)

Traditional or Self Publishing?

One idea that has been suggested to me several time is the option of self-publishing my novel. Of course, I have several friends that have gone this route. And there are certainly benefits to getting this done... Not the least of which is, you guessed it, you get published!

And I do have to admit, as an option it is intriguing. The more I look into traditional publishing and all the hurdles and steps that I will need to go through to realize my dream through this avenue, the harder it seems to be. Traditional publishing is like the writer's version of an awkward catch 22.

To get published, you have to already be published. It's an annoying, vicious circle that works well if you're already well-established.. The Stephen Kings of this world will never have to worry about whether or not someone will be willing to read and publish their manuscripts.

But when you're not a Stephen King - when you're just a Naomi living in a po-dunky state covered in snow with no real publishing houses any where near you... it becomes a huge obstacle.

So, yes, self-publishing definitely seems like a doable alternative At least I could get my book published, right?

But, that's not the extent of my dream, so I don't think I want to settle for that. My dream is to walk into a Barnes and Nobles or Borders and see my novel on their bookshelf... my name written along the spine in gold-plated letters... I don't even care if it only sells one copy (my husband has to buy one, right?) - I just want to see it there. And getting Barnes and Nobles or any other mainstream bookstore to carry a self-published book is nearly impossible.

So, at least for now, I'm set on going the much harder, much longer route of traditional publishing. I'll never be a Stephen King... But it'll all be worth it if I can see my name on the shelf at my local Borders store.

From Hobby to Priority - My novel is upgraded.

I think I'm starting to remember, now, why this manuscript hasn't been published in the six years that it's been in existence. I never classified it as a necessity. I have a tendency to to that, to classify my activities as either "necessary" or "hobbies". If it's necessary, then it's deserving of all my attention, blood, sweat and tears. Hobbies are activities I do to relax at the end of the day.

And in this case, finishing a manuscript and getting it published was definitely not a necessity, it was always something that "would be nice if it happened". Well, I can be really stupid sometimes... of course it's not going to happen - not unless I do it.

So, I've changed its status. I can do that too. It's no longer simply a hobby without stresses, deadlines and repercussions. It's something that will have consequences if it is not finished.It must seem silly, I suppose, to see someone who already has so much going on actually instilling deadlines and issues onto herself... But trust me. If I leave this manuscript to get finished during my spare time, I might as well toss it now.

I don't have enough spare time to see it get done, for one thing. I'm going to have to set some time apart from other activities if I want to do this. Plus, what little spare time I do have is already getting split up between so many other hobbies. No, if I want to get this manuscript published - if I ever want to realize my dream of walking into a Barnes and Nobles or Borders and seeing my name in gold plating along the spine of a novel... Then finishing this novel and getting that manuscript finished has to become a priority.