A lot has happened since I last posted here:
It’s been six months since my Pitch Wars journey successfully came to an end, five months since I went on submission, four months since COVID-19 became a global pandemic, and three months since I pulled my submission to revise my manuscript.
In the three months leading to now, I’ve had a lot of anxiety and little progress with my revision/writing. A lot of that has to do with the pandemic forcing me into a new way of life and totally new approach to my job as a professor (aka making the sudden shift to online teaching). I was just getting into a groove with my writing and teaching and the coronavirus threw all that out of whack. Add to that the tense social and political environment, and my life turned upside down.
In an effort to get back on track, I’ve decided to blog again – not for any particular purpose, but for me to sort myself out. I just need somewhere to collect my thoughts, so at least once a week and maybe more if I’m up to it, I’m going to post stuff here.
Today’s topic: setting new goals.
Because of all the upheaval, I need to reevaluate and reconfigure how I do things and set different, more achievable, more realistic goals. I came up with three that I’ll outline here:
1. Make a little progress every day: I used to count on writing at night after I put down the baby and before bed, but these days once the baby shuts her eyes, I’m ready to put my head on the pillow, do some mindless scrolling for a while, and go to bed myself. I’ve been exhausted and haven’t had the right energy or mindset. Instead, my most productive times have been in the morning before baby’s up or during her naptimes. That’s only about 2-3 hours every day, but it’s what I’ve got right now, and I’ll take what I can get. I need accept it, make the adjustment, and squeeze out the productivity when I have it during the day now.
2. Accept the timing of things: I wonder if I went on sub a month or two earlier, continued to be on sub (instead of pulling out to revise), or went on sub now with a revised manuscript, would my chances have been better? Most likely, in the current climate, no. This Track Changes episode (https://www.firstdraftpod.com/transcripts/2020/5/7/track-changes-publishing-in-the-time-of-covid-bonus-episode) explains that, since the coronavirus hit, publishers are pulling back on offers and are focusing their investments on projects by already-published authors with a proven track record. That’s not to say that there aren’t those special cases, but I’ve learned by now that publishing is the slowest of slow burns and am going to accept this slowest of slow revision as a timing thing. When it’s ready, it’s ready. I’m not going to rush it. I’m going to do the best job I can when I can.
3. Don’t compare: Imposter syndrome is a THING. The worst kind of thing. I celebrate everyone’s writing successes because I know they were earned with hard work and sacrifice. By now I’ve learned to drown out the noise in my head that tells me I’m not good enough. I’m proud of my writing accomplishments so far, and I’m not done trying. I’ve only just started my journey. I’ll get there.
So now that I’ve set some goals, it’s time to make a little progress now! Until next time…
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