“The odds of [Jim and Pam] getting together...were insurmountainable.”
That's my word of the week. I'm well aware of the irony of following my previous post on fear with a post on feeling discouraged...but that's how the cookie's crumblin'. And I promised early on that I would be transparent and real throughout this writing adventure.
Here are the facts. To date, I have:
received feedback from 9 reviewers,
added notes to all 320 pages of my manuscript,
and still have roughly 300+ issues/areas/ideas/problems to solve.
Lord, help me.
Excluding days when we'll be attending out-of-town weddings or be in Iceland (I'll post about that later), I have 47 days until the 2015 Surrey International Writer's Conference, at which I will have the opportunity to pitch to editors and agents.
47 days seems like a sufficient time frame, until I subtract my other commitments (church volunteering, fitness, family time, etc.) and my freelance work.
Solution: come up with a plan.
This may not be the best plan, but here's what I have so far:
- Compile all the writing advice and techniques I've been reading about into one document.
- Actively seek out 2 new sets of reviewers: youth and published writers.
- Build a master list of all the edits that I need to apply to the manuscript.
- Edit. Rewrite. Revise.
- Send updated draft to another set of reviewers.
- Draft a query letter & have an expert edit it.
- Complete my agent list, plan & approach.
- Don't wallow, collapse in despair, or freeze with lethargy.
- Pitch the improved story at the conference, and have the manuscript ready for submissions.
I might be crazy. This plan might be insanely aggressive. But at the moment, it's all that I have to get me over that insurmountainable hill.
Any other ideas?