This post-a-day challenge is kicking my butt, I gotta be honest. The first four days I barely made it. I have to lay with the baby to put her to sleep, and I’m struggling to keep my own eyes open. I’m afraid I’m going to fall asleep and miss the deadline. And writing when she’s awake hasn’t yet been something I can pull off…but I’m trying to right now.
But…I apparently am a creature capable of some learning. Thanks to Mom, I had a chance to steal a couple of hours alone at Starbucks yesterday, and I actually worked ahead on future blog posts. Weird. Stars are groaning slowly into alignment, and angels are choking on their bagels and reluctantly exchanging money. And I’m trying to be more to the point about things so I can get to the writing. (I almost took out this last sentence amidst hysterical laughter, but thought I’d leave it in for your enjoyment. That’s so me…the absolute epitome of brevity and succinctness — not!)
Finally got to the fiction last night and solved a crucial problem with a short story that has been carrying on for far too long. The solution? I needed a man something hiding in the bushes. Who knew? Anyway, that’s gotta be finished up, chopped roughly in half, and the better part sent to my writer’s group for our next meeting. This will fulfill the first part of the Write1Sub1 Challenge.
I still need to get a story submitted to a market before the end of the week to satisfy the Sub1 part of the Write1Sub1 Challenge. I’ve got a 1,500-word quiet sort of twisted revenge story that’s just about ready to be pushed down the stairs and out the door into the world.
Speaking of going out into the world, this just so happens to be Part 3 of my plan to build a Writing Career of Significant Worth. I submitted more last year than I ever have in any previous year, but six submissions is like spitting in the ocean to raise the tide. So just imagine, if I stick with the plan and keep up with the other Write1Sub1 folks, I’ll have 52 new submissions this year. Wow. What will that be like?
With a new submission going out each week and my reasonable desire to both increase my chances for publication and decrease the number of wrong trees I bark up, I’m going to have to start doing my homework — which means reading A LOT MORE — and maybe listening to my own advice.
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Just a side note, I thought y’all might be interested in this interview of Julie Duffy of StoryADay, featured on Write1Sub1. She’s the instigator of the Story A Day May Challenge. Is my eye twitching?
Thanks for the mention!
Hope the writing is going well. And by the way: writing with a baby? Really hard. It gets a bit easier in time. Don’t beat yourself up too badly (or give up. Or think this stage will last forever.) if you can’t write as much or as well as you want.
My ‘baby’ is six now and I’m starting to get my groove back. I’m not saying you have to wait six years to write, but you can wait until they’re all in school full-time to start beating yourself up. 🙂
You’re welcome. And thank you for the encouragement. It’s tough trying to even make coherent thoughts with a toddler around sometimes, but it always cheers me to hear other writer mamas tell me it’ll get better. Yay! We’re still dealing with sleep issues, but it’s getting better. I think it really depends on my learning curve as a parent more than her learning curve…which is why it takes so damn long to make any progress. 😉 But thank you, thank you, thank you for all the kind words and encouragement.