I’ll admit it. I woke up this morning and thought, “Wait! It’s Friday — I have a blog post due today.” (There might have been a curse word in there somewhere.) But there’s a reason I forgot; actually there are several.
If you’ve followed any of my posts, you know I have a love/hate relationship with workshops. I love learning more about my craft. but I dread putting my work out there for review. My track record hasn’t been that great. Usually I get “huh?” or “that won’t work” or “why don’t you try this instead . . .” But I’ve used those workshops to learn.
And guess what? I’m in another workshop this week. Closing my eyes, I sent my work and I got “good job — just one question.” And I could easily answer the question. Ya-hoo! I’m actually doing better on my plotting.
I also still have a submission request to fill, and I’m working on those pages. Last weekend, my best friend took me along on a six-hour road trip and graciously let me read aloud to her for three of it. I had never realized how much hearing my own words could call attention to structure and to missing words and errors.
As always, when I’m working I have several different stories running through my head, and the outline for one is hovering in my subconscious. It is rapidly taking over space I need for other things, which is the key to getting it on paper. Thank goodness we have a retreat next week.
Between road trips, editing, reading homework and . . .oh, yes, my day job and my husband . . .I’ve learned what else I have to do to make a serious go at a writing career. So this month’s plan is:
- finish my edits and read my entire manuscript aloud
- finish my workshop and the rest of my self-assigned homework
- find an editor to read my submission request before it goes in, hire that editor and send him/her my pages
- build my website and my platform so the company I’m submitting to has something else to see about me
- RETREAT and hopefully get a head start on a story
And if you’re me, that’s not nearly enough. I have two days to decide if I’m going to enter a contest with my first “well done” fifteen pages. Hey — I can’t succeed if I don’t keep trying. At least my blog post is done.
Have a great month!
Tina