I know I don’t update anymore, I’m sorry to everyone who is still following this blog. I’ve sent out 5 more queries to agents. Got one back, and it too, was a rejection. That’s okay, I’m still going to push on. There has to be an agent out there who’s willing to take a chance on my story, I just have to find them! There are so many agents out there, it’s crazy! I’ve been using the site: Agent Query, to find people. There are pages upon pages of agents who are interested in fantasy/adventure and I’ve just been picking and choosing different ones.
I’m also in the process of editing my book. Wow, this is a very huge undertaking. I thought writing the book was hard, but I think editing it is even harder. I have tons of spelling and grammar mistakes, let alone a lot I need to fix about the plot and theme, and also fix the things in the beginning that I’ve added to the end. I also came up with many different character names farther in the book, so I’m having to change all of my “Boy #1” to actual names!
I press on in my agent search and editing process. It’s only a matter of time! Every blog or article I read about publishing a book said after you write the book, it’s a waiting game. Be prepared to have plenty of patience. Now, I see what they mean. Good things come to those that wait, right?
I’m about to start reading one of my favorite novels, On Writing, by Stephen King. This book, if the only book, is essential to any writer’s library. In it’s meer 296 pages, King taught me more about writing and the passion of writing than any other 500 page idiot’s guide to writing has ever done. I have so many highlighted passages in this book, and one in particular strikes me at this moment, so I’m going to share.
In writing classes, if nowhere else, it is entirely permissible to spend large chunks of your time off in your own little dreamworld. Still-do you really need permission and a hall-pass to go there? Do you need someone to make you a paper badge with the word WRITER on it before you believe you are one? God, I hope not.
His words really struck me when I first read them, and they ring true in my ears right now as I progress forward on this incredible journey. No matter what happens with this book or any other book I may write, I am a writer, through and through, and no one can tell me different. I love escaping to that other world where anything and everything can and does happen. I love imagining crazy scenarios or impossible odds. Good triumphing over evil. The dreams of children and adults alike, coming true. It is where I belong, sometimes I believe I belong there more than the real world, and is that a problem? NO! Absolutely not. To build a world and a story that I can call my own is a triumph in and of itself, and, for that, I am forever grateful to my wonderful imagination and the ability to do what I can. I feel sorry for those that don’t have the ability to escape like I do. Sometimes to deal with reality, an escape is needed, and I can do that whenever I want. I dream while I’m awake and I live while I sleep and I have no regrets!
Carry on my fellow writers, and keep pursuing your dreams, because you are a writer and you are a dreamer, you just have to let the world know it too!
I’ll leave you with another quote from On Writing that makes me smile:
Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. It’s getting happy, okay? Getting happy…The rest of it-and perhaps the best of it-is a permission slip: you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will. Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.
Rejections (agents): 2
