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Tuesday 29 November 2011

If you're in submission mode and receiving rejections...


See? Even famous authors had to go through the ego-shrinking horror of submitting their babies only to be cruelly rejected.

Of course, I still haven't managed to get as far as receiving the dreaded rejection letters. Having spent much of my Lady M-free week reading various author blogs and interviews hasn't exactly boosted my confidence. It would seem that first novels are a bit like a starter marriage. They get you off the 'spinster shelf' and you learn a lot but they're not for keeps (or getting agents). Better get cracking on that second novel then...

A really valuable lesson to learn from the link above is 'never give up.' Keep writing, keep learning and, one day, you may just be admiring your name adorning a shiny, beautiful cover, sitting next to Stephen King or, in my case, possibly Jeffrey Archer. He probably didn't suffer from receiving rejection letters but he did go to prison so that's possibly as emotionally painful.

Speaking of never giving up - I thought I had given up on NaNoWriMo this year, as I decided to get my priorities right and finish editing Rock-a-Lillie. BUT, it appears that I am just a NaNoWriMo rebel and not a NaNoWriMo quitter. Hooray! Having abandoned the NaNo novel at about 27,000 words, I rewrote the first few chapters of RaL and added in a couple so if I add that to the NaNo word count, that makes about  43,500 words. If I then add in November blog posts, that ups the count to 45,500ish words. And if I then throw in a rough word count for to-do lists (I write really long to-do lists), shopping lists, emails (I am fully aware that this is full on cheating now but that's just how I roll), I reckon we're talking 46,500 words. Sort of.

So, only 3,500 words to go! I can totally do that. Easy peasy. On the first of December I shall declare myself a NaNoWriMo 2011 rebel winner!


2 comments:

  1. 3500 words... no problem! And persistence really is the key to make it on the publishing world.

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  2. 3,500 words was no problem - so, yay me! NaNoWriMo achieved, albeit by some very dubious word counting practices. Yes, persistence and a very thick skin.'Course, submitting work would be an excellent start...
    Thanks for the comment, btw. A real, genuine writer commenting on my blog!Hurrah!

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