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Anyway, this is how the novel is going.

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A bit of meta for y’all today.

Maybe–just maybe–not everything everyone makes is tailored to your exact experience.

It’s cool if some of these do not resonate with you at all. It’s not meant to appeal to every writer, nor is it implying that you’re not really a writer if you don’t find these relatable.

It’s just some stuff that has gone through at least one writer’s head. And it is definitely often exaggerated. I assure you I have never put someone in a trash can or rolled on the ground in a computer lab. I have, however, climbed on a refrigerator to get a character’s point of view.

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Nothing I’ve done in public but sometimes the emotions that make sense when you’re writing wouldn’t even occur to you in other situations.

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Sometimes it is hard to have a parallel struggle with someone else and watch them shoot past you when you used to be, I don’t know, peers. But even if I wish my success had been similar to someone I was on even ground with once upon a time, I can’t seem to spin it into proper jealousy. I’m glad they did so well and they deserved to. (A lot of people deserve to who never will be at the right place at the right time for it to happen, and that’s very frustrating, but all they–and we–can do is persevere.) I love seeing ridiculously good things happen to people I know, so close to home, and knowing that’s out there–that’s real–it’s not a one-in-a-million occurrence or a thing that only happens on TV. Whether it does or could ever happen for me isn’t really related to how I feel about them. (Though I’ll be honest, it did sting a little when I saw the deal announcement from the very editor who had stalled for so long on answering my agent on MY trilogy. She ultimately rejected it. However, that does not mean it in any way turned into resentment for my author friend or toward that editor.) And though I haven’t become a household name for my writing (yet??), I do think it’s pretty special that I’ve been able to do some things tons of authors dream of doing–getting signed to an agent (I’ve done it successfully twice!), getting a book deal, winning some awards, and selling short fiction and other short pieces to paying markets. I’d love to go bigger and better, but I’m pretty happy with how well I’ve done too!

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It’s #140 so you get another long one!

And before anyone tries to eat me, I’m sure some people can cherry-pick times where cold-e-mailing someone who’s expressed no interest in reviewing for you has resulted in a sale or a review. As for me, I specifically state “do not contact me to ask me to review your book, even if it’s free” in my Amazon profile because I hate it so much. You at least want to avoid spamming people who have tried to opt out or whose information is gathered from places that explicitly forbid what you’re doing. For instance, sometimes you see authors commenting on Goodreads reviews of similar books trying to get readers to read theirs, and it’s very much against their policy! Don’t do this!

The secret lies in sharing your work with people who love to be excited about books. People who are there because they want to be. People who have asked for work like yours, or are happy to review it, or will be paid (by you) for their time. It’s very common for unprofessional products to be pushed through unprofessional tactics as well, so if you don’t want possibly interested people to look at your book and think it looks cheap or low quality, GET PROFESSIONALS (or at least other book people) INVOLVED IN VETTING YOUR STUFF. If your book is so important that you’re trying this hard to get it out there, it deserves the best resources you can find!

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No lie.

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When your previous self knew better than your current self does how your book should end. . . .

How the heck did I have it all figured out and then totally blank on where I was going with that??

This literally just happened to me and I am still suspicious of how my previous self knew what she knew. . . .

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Who says the extra little plot I wrote and forgot about is unimportant? It totally ties in! Somewhere! Or at least I’m going to make it look like it does!

That or make it important in the sequel! Yeah, that’s it, that was the plan all along. . . .

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So are writers overusing these bits or do we all just read too much?

It’s them. Definitely them.

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Well I guess I need to accept that I have no judgment whatsoever as to which of my stories are any good because this is 100% a true story. (I’m not kidding about 7 years and 27 rejections. And I’m not kidding that a story I didn’t even like when I wrote it got accepted to the first place I sent it. Why.)

A small caveat, I guess: I have somewhat high standards for where I send stories; I only approach markets with decent pay because I think that correlates well with a publication’s longevity, and I want the places I sell my work to to be around for a long time. So yeah, the story that keeps getting rejected is getting rejected from some competitive magazines. Maybe it’s not terrible? Somehow?

Then what’s your explanation for the one that sold immediately, genius?

This is also the second time this happened