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Nova Terra

~ Just another way of stalling on my other writing

Nova Terra

Tag Archives: agents

Back to the Grindstone

28 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by lionsofmercy in Blog

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Tags

agents, depression, forms, NaNoWriMo, writing

Now that the pleasant obsessive flurry of NaNoWriMo is over (at least for me, ha ha!) I went back to Max, who needed a few stitches as I ported over the wrong version from the machine I needed to reformat last week. This meant tweaking all his agent files, including taking out scraps I just thought were stupid and the piece bragging about his sequel, which my main beta reader pointed out at length is pretty sucky and needs a lot of work.

All this took only about half an hour, and yet my brain hurts and I’m tired. Why? At which point does writing click over from being fun to being work? That word again.

I think for me, at least part of it is tied into (let’s be honest here) my illness. I have no idea what part of my complex of diagnoses it is, but I have a morbid phobia of anything like filling out forms. I have a simple and important one going to the IRS out in the living room now. So far, I’ve filled in my name and the first part of my address. This form is not scary. In fact, seeing as it clears up a minor misunderstanding, it’s un-scary. But it makes me hyperventilate. I don’t know why. I can fill out forms for other people, but as soon as I’m involved, my gut tightens.

And, Best Beloveds, sending out query letters to agents is the worst sort of form-itis I know. I have a neuronormal writing buddy who can pump the things out like popcorn. I just don’t get it. It would be bad enough, knowing that 99.9% of all these people are going to reject me–and only about a third of them will be polite enough to tell me so–but they all want something a little different. And this makes my ADHD brain go into whimpers and curl into a fetal position. (Maybe the form phobia is just ADHD, mixed with the PTSD of having had to fill out SO many to get into The System.)

I just have to get to the bottom of my agent list, and then I can give up, admit I’m a professional publishing failure, and self-pub poor Max, who will then be bought and read by fewer people than have beta read him. Depressing or what? I know I have to change my attitude, but you see, it was a dream, back when I was brand new and naive. I thought of course I’d find an agent–I actually thought a Famous Professor from school would be glad to help me–and then I’d be catapulted to fame and fortune at last.

None of that happened, nor, statistically speaking, is it likely to. Depressing, or what?

Or what. I have to change my attitude. I’ve done it before; I can do it now. Sempers toujours, as Podkayne says.

 

 

 

 

Sequel Done. Trilogy?

28 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by lionsofmercy in Blog

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Tags

agents, sequels, trilogies, writing

Does there always have to be a trilogy? Did you know that people became addicted to them before sf/fantasy? In the 19th century, books were expected to come out in three volumes to be somebody.

Max Draconum is finally done, after at least two and a half years of being poked at on and off. Now I need to go tackle my Wri-Mo from last year, although right now I sort of feel as if I could never write anything ever again. But Guardian isn’t a Max book, per se, although he is a supporting character, and it takes place between-ish these two stories (Sober as a Sorcerer and Max Draconum). My son thinks there’s still plenty of Max story in there, but I’m a little tired of him at the moment (though this can change).

Think the ever elusive agents will nibble more at two books done than at one? (I’ll just be mentioning that the sequel is complete in my query letter.)

Nova Terra

just another way of stalling on my other writing

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