Three Things...

57 days...

When I look at the time gone by since I last wrote an entry, I cringe, so I'm not even going to discuss it. Well, maybe for a second. I mean, there are people who don't blog for even longer periods of time than that, but because I wanted to be able to write a blog entry every time I worked on my book, then that number represents the amount of time that I've neglected my revision (changing a word or two and adding a comma notwithstanding). And that's when the guilt sets in. In the meantime, though, I've made some forward progress, so it's time to blog--yay!

First things first: Recent productivity--combination of new stuff and reinsertion of old stuff, for a total of six pages. This was done yesterday, as I scrambled to submit to my critique group, which concretely proved why I need a critique group--because I need deadlines!! For me, time management has sort of been like a goldfish; the more room you give a goldfish, the bigger it supposedly grows, and the more time I have to do something, the more time I take (Mr. GJ was recently amazed when on vacation I took less than half the time to get ready that I usually do at home--which seems like it should be the other way around). If the only commitment I have is to myself, I don't seem to get things done. There's a lack of accountability that would be there if someone else was involved. Which I'm sure was the idea behind a little exercise we did at the Schmooze the other night, which was to break into small groups of three people or so and tell each other the writing goals we'd like to meet by the next Schmooze. This way, even if you don't end up in a group the next time with the same people, at least your goal is out there for someone (including yourself) to know about. My goal? To revise at least two chapters a month. With the mode I've been in lately, I really think that's do-able.

Which leads me to my second thing: the Schmooze. I am a recovering shy person, so at first it was extremely difficult for me to go to an event full of strangers where sometimes it seemed like everyone in the room but me was engaged in conversation. Now that I've been going to them on a fairly regular basis, there are people I recognize and say "hi" to but are not sure of their names (it's mutual), and there are a few people I know by name now, too. Sometimes even when I don't feel like the topic directly applies to me, I go anyway, if not for the social part of it than at least because maybe I'll find out about a great new website that someone mentions or something like that. If nothing else, it makes me continue to feel connected to the writing world and other writers even when I'm not particularly writing, and goodness knows I at least need that. Repeat after me: I am a writer even if I'm not published yet. I need to keep reminding myself...

My third thing: I sent a submission two days ago--WOO HOO!! Thanks to the encouragement of a couple of people at the Schmooze (see, this is why I continue to go to Schmoozes!), I submitted to an agency. A small step, but a big one for me, especially considering I've been working on novels for over 5 years now and have never sent anything out (I sent out a couple of picture books before I started novels, but I try not to think about those... *shudder*). Now I have to really get my butt in gear and crank up those revisions!

I told Mr. GJ that I felt like I wasn't quite back into the swing of things, that I felt like I was on the onramp about to get onto the freeway, but I wasn't at full speed just yet. I sure hope my car accelerates steadily--and soon!