So, the novel’s finished and ready for the world – the pre-publishing world that is. As I look into this big wide business of editors, publishers, agents, critics, platforms, themes… I am overwhelmed about where to go next. For the past year and a half, I have queried several agents and none have even blinked an eye at my manuscript. I am going the agent route because of the daunting unknown that is the writing business. I feel like I need a guide. Still, with no interest, am I doing it wrong?
Frustrated is too small a word for how it feels to not being able to find a footing. It’s like trying to walk on a sidewalk covered with a sheet of ice on a hill. Someone throw a rope already. So, there’s advice on every webpage but which applies to me and my work. The “big” authors tell their tales about how they made it, but really, were they just lucky? Other authors all have different suggestions, sometimes counteracting each other.
So, this is the point where I look towards the heavens and give it all to God, because, really, He’s the only one to know what is and what will be. He will guide my life to where I need to be. I have found that all the frustration, all the disappointment, all the doubt leave when I let Him take over. The ‘rope’ he tosses in my direction is not the shortcut into the writing business, but a way to inner peace. Not only does his presence fill me with calmness, it gives me back my perspective and reminds me that I write not for publication, fame, or money, but for the joy of sharing a tale.
Starting a new work which is set in the Five Kingdoms but almost 200 years before Youngspell. It’s difficult getting back into ‘write mode’ after so long in ‘revise mode.’ But, really, these are the times I get so much into my work that I lose track of time. So in preparation of this, I want to pre-apologize to my family for forgetting dinner and soccer practices and showers and housework and getting dressed and all the other things that get neglected when I’m in ‘write mode.’
J. Rae Moore 