At the beginning of November, I set a goal for myself and said, "On 5 January 2009 I am going to send a submission to an agent. Even if I'm not done writing the book. And since it will kill me to send a submission of an unfinished book, it WILL be finished by then."
Well, I was mistaken. Not to mention foolish. It happens.
The book is not done. And there is no way in hell I'm sending a submission of an unfinished manuscript. A writer pretty much gets one chance to impress an agent and I hope I've learned enough about the process not to take that lightly.
So I've granted myself an extension. Hey, the published authors I know get extensions all the time.
I expected I would feel defeated and demoralized if I didn't meet this deadline and I'm rather surprised to find that is not the case. This goal-setting experiment has left me even more determined to finish. It was also educational.
I have learned that December is probably never going to be a very productive writing month for me. I'll take that into account in the future when some publisher asks me how long it will take to write the next book.
I have learned that setting a goal with a specific date really does improve my productivity. I accomplished so much more in the last two months than I would have without a goal.
I have also learned that when my daughter is home for any length of time without homework, I will watch a lot of television. Whether I want to or not. And that Prime Time is in direct conflict with Writing Time. I am now caught up on all the happenings with House, Grey's Anatomy, some other show I can't remember the name of, AAC basketball, NCAA football, NFL football, various movies (the funniest of which was Little Miss Sunshine -- watch it if you haven't), Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune and Planet Earth (which is awesome). My daughter has thoughtfully set reminders on my cell phone so I won't miss the new episodes of 24 and Burn Notice. Sigh.
So, new deadline.
Scientific process at work here. Really. Jupiter (my, ahem, ruling planet) enters Aquarius today, which is supposed to be good for communications. However, Mercury goes retrograde on 11 Jan and this is apparently a bad time to, among other things, submit manuscripts. I kid you not. [I hope it's a good time for college students to return to campus, because that rare astrological event happens about the same time.] A writer friend said Saturn went retrograde a few days ago and that bodes well for finishing things. Like manuscripts. There is a solar eclipse on 26 Jan and the new moon also goes retrograde. Then on 1 Feb Mercury goes direct and the dish runs away with the spoon.
I have NO IDEA what any of this means. Except that it sounds as plausible as anything else and I have decided 2 Feb is my new deadline. Because I'm supposed to give Mercury an extra day to stabilize.
Whatever. You all should watch for falling stars and things that go bump in the night sky. I'm going to be busy writing.
3 comments:
Hey diddle diddle,
as Nero did fiddle,
the moon ran away with the sun
and when they got where
Ursa Major was there
And so poor Mercury got none.
ardwor - writing poetry is very 'ard wor' mate.
I thought Saturn went belly up, or was re-absorbed by GM, or something like that. Who knew car companies could be this confusing.
ditio -- I agree with McB, Daddy-O
The astrological stuff makes no since to me either, but you've made progress you are happy with and have an achievable deadline. Yay, BCB. I admire how much you've accomplished in the past two months.
So who are you going to submit to first. ;)
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