A Round of Words in 80 Days

                                                                                               

“Destiny is not a matter of chance,

It is a matter of choice;

It is not a thing to be waited for,

It is a thing to be achieved.”

--William Jennings Bryan

 It is not often I will quote a politician who fought against Darwinism and was a staunch supporter of Prohibition, but what the hell.  The quote has been staring me in the face every time I open my St. Claire’s Organic Throat Soothers box and I thought it was apropos for the moment.  (FYI: I don’t have a cold; I keep my knitting stitch markers in it.)

So, yes!  Sign me up!  It is with renewed zeal, grit and a true sense of community-mindedness that I join up for ROW80!  Thanks to my fabulous CP Debbie for recommending it and a big nod to Kait for her lovely, inspirational blog about Ghandi and Ten Rules for Writing.  It has moved me to new levels of determinationedness--and making up new, long, important sounding words.

My goals for the eighty days:

1)      Re-edit my MG fantasy manuscript “Dreamwalker: Isle of Glass”, putting in all the stuff my beta-readers called me on—including my overuse of hyphens and misappropriation of commas!!!

2)     Learn exactly how to use a comma and a hyphen. (Thought I did know.)

3)     Write and submit a magazine article. (Trying my hand at something fresh—if you will.)

4)     Put the spit and polish on query and synopsis.

5)     Get everything ready for querying by September 1^st.

That’s all folks.  See you in the ethers.  And, thanks for having me.

 

http://aroundofwordsin80days.wordpress.com/blog/   To learn more about this fabulous group of goal-minded writers click here.  It's not too late to shake off the summer writing slump and join up for the fun! 

 

What if I just suck?

People!  This “writing thing” is a lot of work!  Nobody told me it would be this hard!  I just thought I would put my half-baked little words down on paper, edit it a couple a times, drink lots of coffee and “Wham!”—Best seller, right? (Insert sounds of doggie-whining here.)

I wonder what’s happening in the stars right now, because it seems to me that many writers (and agents…but they write too) are blogging about the challenges of writing.  And I seem to be doing my fair-share of whining about it.  These blogs have been instrumental to me as as I have found myself, as of late, in the Dark-Hole of Inadequacy and Self-Loathing.   (F.Y.I.  Not as fun as Disney-World though it is located in Florida.) 

 My instincts (and others) inform me this is a natural process which occurs around the fourth full edit of a manuscript.  Let's hope.  I thought to share with you all some of the cheerleaders that have spurred me on to greater feats of bravery and fearlessness during the last week.

So perhaps you are feeling the pinch of fear as your CP lets loose with a manuscript which makes your own MS appear sophomoric at best, and you are wondering why the hell you ever thought you could write in the first place?  HiYah!  Take that fear!  Check out Kate Brauning’s blog entitled "A Writer's Poison: Fear" and get yourself a new pair of huevos. 

 

Think your manuscript is as slow as molasses in January?  Finding stinging criticism in your inbox flaying apart your most cherished passages and characters—or “your little Darlings”  as Chuck Wendig refers to them?  Ka-Chow! To that!  Get Busy!  Edit without mercy and do the nasty wherever and whenever necessary in your manuscript! Purge it in the fires of hell!  (Read how to do it here at "Terribleminds".)  And...save the liver!

 

 

Terrified to rewrite a scene?  Second verse same as the first?  You can rewrite!  You did it once, now do it again but be better!  Be Inspired (with horses), as Alex Yuschik advises in this marvelous blog . 

We can do this, right? 

Write.

What do you do when feeling blue?  Have you ever succumbed to the pits of dispair and just gone back to being a regular old non-writing mortal?  (Gasp!) Please share with us your tricks for getting through the fog!

~Just Jill

P.S.