I mean, if someone who has an awesome agent and a book deal already in the makings can still get rejected, what chance do I have?

I overlooked my query letter and it no longer seems witty or seem to have that X factor. It just seems gimmicky and stupid.

The paradox of being a writer is this kind of thinking:

I am brilliant.
I am crap.

My writing is amazing.
My writing is worthless.

I will sell a book and be an author!
No one wants to read this junk.

Yes, it goes around and around in my head. Over and over and over.

Checking my email is no fun anymore because I’m cringing, waiting for another rejection to be sitting in my inbox. The first one was nothing. The second one upset me for a few hours. The next one–I don’t know how I’ll handle it.

Now I am in the self-doubting phase. And I want to write. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will have time today, not without sacrificing sleep and my job and other things that need to kind of take priority right now.

Lord, help me.

Last night, I managed to get quite a bit done. Relatively speaking, anyway.

Even though my mom is coming down to visit me and I should have been making the house spic and span, I decided to revise my query letter and also scribble out a few more notes for my next novel. I also tweaked my synopsis a bit.

Indeed, I was a lot busier than normal with my writing last night.

It was a challenge too, what with Star Wars Episode I BLARING in the background (thanks a lot, Chris) and Aidan wanting attention at random times throughout the evening.

I feel excited, though. I’m ready to keep pressing on in this journey.

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

Got my first rejection! I’ve been initiated! I’m really an aspiring author now!

Pressing on…

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

Rewrite a common phrase, such as “It’s raining cats and dogs,” in the style of three famous authors.

Meg Cabot:
What the heck? Of COURSE it would rain on the most important day of my life. Okay, so maybe not that important but it was a big enough deal. Why today?? And whoever thought of the phrase “raining cats and dogs?” As if cats and dogs have ANYTHING to do with the weather.”

Stephen King:
The rain pounded against the roof. The literal sound of cats and dogs crashing against the top of the house. Jack could almost imagine Percy falling through the ceiling. Stupid cat. Stupid bastard who killed him.

E. Lockhart:
“You’d better take an umbrella, Roo. It’s raining cats and dogs out there (1).”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I swear, sometimes I hated being an only child.

(1) A very old, very trite phrase used to describe an incredible amount of precipitation falling from the sky. Rumor has it that the cliche came from the olden days when cats and dogs would literally fall from the roof onto people’s heads or some such craziness like that.

Whew. That was tough. Fun, but tough. The last thing I want to do is insult anyone! What a mind stretching excercise–definitely outside of my comfort zone. I’m so busy trying to find my own voice that it’s weird to try to imitate another’s.

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)