I haven’t entered many contests this year. My last round severely turned me off. But I knew I wanted to enter the Golden Heart.
Unfortunately, the year from hell reared its ugly head once again, and I’ve found myself sick quite a bit lately. So I’m behind on my book and it won’t be ready to enter in time. At least, not the GH.
But I have the book I wrote last year, which could be ready to go with just a few slight edits. The first chapters of the current book could be entered a few other contests. Hmmm… decisions, decisions.
With decisions come consequences. If I enter the older book, I must stop and edit it. The newer book will need a synopsis to start shipping it out… And right now I just don’t have time to do all that and write extensively too. Maybe a little writing and a little writing work every day…
Add in schedule adjustments this week and I’m shaking my head wondering why I bother. Ugghh! I wish this were easier.
But our chapter’s writing retreat is coming up at the end of this week and I get to run away from home for a few days. Yay!!! Something to look forward to.
So, what writing decisions are y’all making today? Or just decisions in general?
Angel
14 comments:
Feel better soon. Sorry you are under the weather.
My dad is in a nursing home rehabbing and so it is decisions all the time. Hopefully he will able to come home in a few weeks and hopefully, my mom will be able to take care of him.
If you really want to enter the GH, I say take a little break from your current book to get the older one dusted off and sent in (I'm talking like a week). If you make good progress each day, you can reward yourself with some time to work on the current book.
I guess I'm going to enter. I've printed mine out and I'm going to ignore it for a week or so, then go back and read, mark it up, etc. Then I have to decide what category to enter. I already have a synopsis done, so that's one less thing to worry about.
I hope you feel better soon! With kids and households and writing, it's hard enough to get everything done when we're well. :-/
Decisions: There's always something, isn't there? Which book to write next, which direction to take in a book (a hint that I'm not a plotter, eh? :-) ), which flavor of coffee to try . . . Today I'm working on line edits, so my decisions will be strictly based on one particular story.
LJ
Pat L.--I know how that goes. Both my husband's father and grandfather spent time rehabbing from various illnesses and there were always things to be asked, decided, and supervised. Hugs.
I think that's what I'm going to do, SP. I already have a synopsis and such ready for that one, so I'm gonna enter and spend the first week of November getting it ready to go. Gives me a week and a half getting this one ready for the Harlequin contest.
BTW, I've noticed it sure is easier to make decisions AFTER a full night's sleep. Last night I was exhausted and just vegged out in front of the tv. This morning I feel much more optimistic and movitated. :)
Angel
Hugs, Angel. Hope you are feeling better! One of the things I've done lately that has helped is this. Basically, she says that you have to sit at the computer for 15 minutes first thing. Don't do anything else except stare at that blinking cursor. (Really, her post is much better than my quick retelling of it.) This morning, I sat down for 15 minutes, before anything else, and it got me going. I wrote 329 words in about half an hour, which means I have less than 1000 to go for my daily goal. And it's only 8AM! Woohoo!
Making decisions about contests is always a pain in the rear. Because you work hard to get the entry done and yet there's always a chance someone will trash your baby. The GH can be disheartening because of the scoring, but I say if you have a book that you can enter, go for it. You never know. Just use those 15 minutes to work on it and see what happens. :)
Good luck! I'm SO looking forward to the retreat, too!!
At the moment I'm not making decisions and that's driving me crazy. I know myself and I'm likely to make stupid decisions just to feel like I'm moving somewhere - bad, bad idea. At least the retreat is this weekend. I'll occupy myself with making peanut butter fudge and lemon bars. Oh the hardship :-)
Instigator
Adding my ciber hugs to you, Angel. Feeling tired and miserable isn't a lot of fun. I know. :-)
Please don't ask me to make decisions. LOL. My brain feels like taffy. Someone's pulling it this way. Someone else is pulling it another. And a few are in the middle twisting, twisting, twisting, until I don't know whether I'm coming or going.
I'm looking forward to the retreat but am not confident about my role in the party. Hmmmm.
Hope you're feeling better by the time you read this.
I say go for the GH. It's one of those life things that you look on later in life and say "What if...?"
It's moments like this that I wish I were an author. I could use a retreat with lemon bars right about now. :)
I've been having health issues too and may have to squeeze in a procedure between the retreat and the cruise my sister and I are taking next week. I keep hearing that old Kris Kristofferson song "Why Me Lord?"
I say next year we invite Barbara to our retreat! She's a writer -- she does that great blog everyday.
PM
I've decided I should not chaperone field trips.
I need a drink and a lie-down...
Are there Metal of Honor badges for chapperones? You deserve one, PC! I've done the pumpkin patch fieldtrips before. Rain doesn't help an already stressful situation, does it?
Feeling your pain.
Ah, that would be Medal of Honor badge not Metal. (Slaps head.)
PC, those field trips will seem priceless later on. I did many myself.
When my youngest was in the fifth grade, I chaperoned the Panoply trip. The kids got to choose the others in their mother's group, and somehow I got all the kids who were on medication. They were lively, but as a mother of three boys it worked out well enough. I was the leader and they hopped to.
Then we're sitting there listening to a group of women in pastel colored overalls and straw hats sing folk songs, and one of the kids looks up at me with large, sad eyes and deadpans, 'Shoot me.' :-) It was a moment I will never forget.
LJ
Shoot me.
I love it!
I took a week's unpaid leave once to chaperone a group of 5th graders to the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. I spent a week eating cafeteria style, sleeping in a bunk in the girls' dorm and going on nature hikes every day. My favorite was the morning we woke up to 2 inches of fresh snow.
There was another school group there at the same time -- from a Christian school. Everyone in our group was so concerned about our public school kids being a bad influence on the private school kids. Well guess which bunch mooned the instructors from the second story windows? Not ours!
I was always the field trip mom cause I hate to bake cookies and I wasn't about to donate a whole year as room mom. I did the art museum, Panoply, the symphony, the zoo in Birmingham, the Great Smokies and others I've forgotten about. LJ is right; those trips will be priceless later.
PM
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