Beginning Again, Again

Well, dang. Here it is, another two months, a new year, and I'm just getting back. I don't make resolutions, but I do set (movable) goals. The full moon coming close on the heels of Twelfth Night seemed a good place to start. Festivals over, and the first full moon of what may be the last year, if we're to believe some interpreters of the Maya forecast. For myself, I choose to ally myself with those who think it is the end of an age and the start of something new. Surely does feel as if things are coming to a head. (Why does that bring to mind John Belushi in Animal House?) 


So, the full moon comes, and true to my inner werewolf, I enjoyed the first night of insomnia of the year. Did I toss and turn? Did I get out of bed and write? No and no. I lay there waiting for sleep, and waiting, and waiting. Until 5 AM. But I did, as I lay there, determining I'd be more faithful to my writing life. I will blog more often than once every two months. I will restart the querying process. I will not hate my last novel, and I will begin a new one. I will revisit my query, now that I've slotted the novel into a different, more apropos genre and given it a new and darker title. And then there's that dreaded synopsis. But it’s a new year for a new start, right?


And I must get back to the community. I've not participated much at all. I will confess (see back a couple of posts) that I do see the new queries being posted for critique as they come into my e-mail, and I understand more and more the increasing number of agents who choose not to reply or do so with a very polite, generic, form rejection. Most of those, I read only the first sentence, and sometimes I don't even finish that much. If I read one more "The last thing MC expected…" or "17 year old MC never thought…", or even worse, some cute thematic sentence with no MC (main character), no stakes, no threat, and no reason to keep reading. And I'm only seeing a few a day. Agents are seeing 100 or so. Every day. Reject. Reject. But that's not helping anyone.


I think we help each other improve by simply supporting each other. It ain't an easy road, this writing path, and lately the landscape is changing so fast that keeping up with the publishing world is almost a full-time task, let alone reading and commenting on others' blogs and critiquing queries and synopses. I have no children to get to school or soccer or ballet or piano, no dog to walk. I do have a job, but its hours are variable. And yet I struggle to fit into the day all those things. And I didn't even include the most important—the sit your ass down in the chair and write part.


So, a new cycle begins. Nothing resolved, but goals in mind. And maybe something of value to give. Definitely a lot to do. But first, get some sleep. And then, as Yoda said, "just do."