Not So Motivational

We're being told we have all the time in the world. We sit at home, stay at home, and therefore we should be able get everything done we want to. But this is a lie. Whether it's our mental health on the fritz or our actual health, or worse yet, both—the illusion we can accomplish everything is just that. An illusion. 

As I sit down the write this a strange bout of depression has unwittingly snuck up on me, and the motivation I usually have to write and get things done is no where to be found. Allergies have clouded my head and are throbbing at one side of my partially swollen throat, and my beautiful book I've recently received in the mail and can finally hold in my hands needs to be edited but can't be right now because it also needs to be read. As I can't find an outside source to do both simultaneously, currently my mom is reading it through, a big thank you goes out to her right now, but we all know it's not the same. Especially since she's not an editor, and therefore she can't do both the way say, a professional would be able to. Meanwhile my deadline for my book continues to get pushed further and further as my original editor has gone into the wind and is no where to be found right now. 

I just feel lost right now. 

While I attempt to make peace with my current state of mind searching for new things to do to keep me busy that don't involve being outside, I'm realizing despite all these positive people out there telling us through the likes of social media that "We Can Do It All" and "Stay Positive"—it's okay not to be okay. I'm certainly not today. It's also equally okay to feel like you can't get something done. During these incredible times of low morale you probably don't have the same motivational level you would otherwise, and that is perfectly okay too. 

I simply hope tomorrow is better, and if not I suppose I'm binge watching Netflix until I can find my way back. I also know I will find my way back because I always do. There is a light at the end of my tunnel, whether or not I can see it yet. I know there is because I can sense it. But if you don't feel like you can see your light—that's okay too because remember, you don't have to be okay just as you don't have to know you're going to be okay. But you do need to know you're not alone in your dismal despair. 

I'm here for you 💖   

Playing With Words

Sometimes you can get the best ideas for things to either write about or use in your writing (locations, weapons, items, cars, etc.) by finding already preexisting items whether in the real world or in works of fiction, simply by redoing word order and making it an ode to the item from which you borrowed your idea. Take Skyrim for example. They undoubtedly created the Wabberjack from Lewis Carol's "Jabberwocky" poem which came from the preexisting notion of "jabberwock".

Allow me to break this down even further: Lewis Carol's poem "The Jabberwock" is irrelevant to play around with the preexisting "jabberwock" idea of nonsense and irrelevance. The Wabbajack (fictional Skyrim weapon) casts "random" spells that may be completely irrelevant to what you're trying to achieve i.e. defeating an enemy, and may sometimes be non-nonsensical. (i.e. turning a mad crab into a frost troll or a sabertooth cat into a chicken.) Similarly, on a show called Better Off Ted, protagonist character Ted had to create a distraction for his office and wound up coming up with a decoy project that didn't actually exist. He called it: Jabberwocky. When he was eventually instructed to come up with a presentation for this fictional decoy project, the presentation made zero sense and held no meaning for the non-existent context.

So here's my challenge to you: find a preexisting word, mix it up, make it your own, then incorporate it into your writing as an ode to the original word where your idea came from.

Think you're up to the task?

 

Exciting News!

My proof copy finally arrived in the mail today in all its glory! I'm letting it sit on the shelf for the next 3 to 4 days considering that it's been put together by Amazon who undoubtedly isn't making their publishing workers wear masks, considering the company hasn't been practicing any safe working practices among the COVID pandemic. Terrified to contract anything, I'm letting it sit the safety bumper of four days for the virus to die, though supposedly on paper it only lives up to 24 hours, but I'm not taking any chances. My family and I have made it this far without incidence (knocking on wood as I write this!) by being diligent to the point of what many might view as extreme paranoia, but hey, you know what? That paranoia has been working for us so I say let's stay fricking paranoid. Well, okay, we're calling it diligent, but that's a whole other can of worms I'm not opening right now. 

The point I really wanted to say is MY FREAKING PROOF COPY ARRIVED TODAY AND I'M SUPER FREAKING EXCITED!!! Can't wait to crack it open and start immediately critically tearing it apart with all my notes and edits. 

Yay!   

My Book Has A Cover!!!

This is my brand new mock-up cover I've created in order to receive a proof copy of my latest novel. BUT I do not currently have any rights to the cover art (which I obtained from an unknown source on Pinterest) but I'm hoping that will change as I won't be able to publish it without that permission.

Granted it may not be necessary considering my reason behind creating this proof copy is to ensure my book is up-to-par. Once I'm satisfied with it, I'm turning it back into an 8×11 coverless manuscript to ship off as I'm really hoping to go the traditional publishing route with this one. (If it ever gets accepted, depending on whoever picks it up will almost certainly assign their own cover art to the book.)

Anyhow this is my very round about way of saying check out this cool and probably temp cover!

This is also my formal announcement that I'm finally going for the big-time publishing! Wish me luck 💖🍀

© 2020 - cover art remains personally owned by an outside source; do not re-purpose

🌸 Happy May 🌸

Congratulations to everyone reading this, we've gotten through another month which in these trying and uncertain times is certainly no small feat. I wanted to reach out and announce that while we may not be able to connect on a personal face-to-face level as writers, there is a writing group we can all connect through, the Pen Guardians online writers & editors' meetup.

Currently as I write this I am taking a short break from my extensive project for which I have been hunkering down, preparing my current novel before I ship it off to a formal publisher—many publishers, I should say, considering just how many manuscripts you must ship out in hopes you might catch a single hit/acceptance.

And from there I hope to implement a new aspect of my writer's journey, whether it's through a rejection or—better yet and far more unlikely—an acceptance.

With that being said, I will let you in on a few key secrets within the Market [1]:

• You want your manuscript to be in as tip-top shape as possible before shipping it off to a publishing house
• Reason: even though publishing houses assign their own editors to an accepted manuscript, there are many manuscripts they must go through upon deciding on an acceptance. Having your manuscript as polished as possible could very well be the difference between your manuscript getting tossed into the shredder versus into the consideration pile, or better yet, into the acceptance pile

• To say the odds are not in my favor of getting accepted Round One [2] is not a pessimistic view; it is realistic 
• Reason: While no one really knows the statistics of how many first-time authors actually get published right out of the gate, I learned in a writing class of mine from a speaker who worked in the publishing market that about only 10% of fiction-genre manuscripts ever make it past the first review stage and go into the acceptance stage. Now most of this is because of submission error. Below is an example of submission error: Writer Barry wanted to submit his sci-fi genre-based manuscript to Lovington Publishing House. Only he didn't do any research before submitting to them. If he had, he would have learned Lovington Publishers only accepted romance-based manuscripts, which is why they disregarded his sci-fi. But there's also the fact publishers want something ready and "easy" meaning they don't have to put in a lot of effort to get it published. And this makes sense as according to the speaker of my class, publishing houses who specialize in fiction get anywhere between 250,000-1,000,000 submissions a year. That's roughly about 685-2,738 submissions a day! Granted these numbers are all merely "ball park" numbers, and may not actually reflect the real numbers, but that's still a lot of manuscript submissions no matter how you slice it. The other factor is this: publishing houses want manuscripts that will make them money. Seems obvious, right? Unfortunately for us writers we don't know what this criteria involves. But we can attempt to hit the mark by ensuring we have the appropriate word count the "house" is requesting, that our submissions are as error-free as possible, and that we're submitting to someone whose genre meshes with ours. But even then we may still miss the mark. 

So with that being said, I don't except to get accepted right out of the gate, but I'm still sure as heck going to try! And on that note I'm going to go back to work on my novel considering my deadline for "absolute completion", meaning when I'm hoping to send it off, is this Sunday (May 10th). Though I recognize I may have to adjust that.... 

Either way, wish me luck 💖🍀

>>> Here's an additional and wonderful resource into getting your manuscript ready for submission into the Market: Submitting Your Manuscript to a Publisher 101. I will also add this link to the list located at the bottom of my blog as a permanent resource. 

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[1] the Market with a capitol "M" encompass everything there is to writing including the publishing companies, the writer's market, and the editor's market 

[2] Round One refers to the first time you've submitted your manuscript