An Insect Provides An "aha" Moment!

Some days the old creativity tank is over flowing with ideas and other times it's empty, empty, empty. It was on one of those empty days that I first noticed the spider happily building her web across the patio door; not the stationary one but the one leading to our deck. Moonlight cast its beams illuminating each silky thread of the intricate web. 

The next morning, just when I was wondering what to do about the web, I noticed the spider frantically taking it down, silky thread by silky thread. Soon, there was no indication that it had ever been. But up in the corner, the spider slept. The next night, the spider went to work again. And in the morning, she took it down again.

Meanwhile, stored in a file in my computer sat a PB manuscript about a spider who was having trouble spinning a regular web. The idea of spinning a web and removing it to do it all over again never occurred to me, until the spider began visiting my patio door.

Aha! Revision complete and better than ever...at least I think so.   

Writer's beware, even that bug on the wall can be inspiration!

 

When it's done it's done...or is it?

Are we as writers ever satisfied with our stories?

While waiting to hear from an agent who requested the entire manuscript, I'm contemplating adding to my already completed novel. Is it the wait that's triggered this insanity or unwillingness to let go of the daily hours and hours spent with my friends, the characters?

I know the next step will involve hours of editing even though I'd like to think that I'm that rare writer who writes the perfect piece, so why add more to it? What's compeling me to do this? Is it intuition or just a whim? I can ask myself the compeling questions about how it would enhance the story or is it necessary, but the question remains, do I leave it alone or start messing with it again?

I keep hoping that the agent will call saying "welcome to my client list." And then the question will be out of my hands.

Oh for the Good Old Days!

Oh for the good old days when publishers did the marketing and all the writer had to do was write.

Yeah, I know books sell better when the author is willing to promote. I do a fare amount of that myself. But all this new-age technology -- twitter, facebook, blogs -- makes me wish I had a teenager in-residence who could help me navigate these faster "easier"entities.

I know, I know. When I get the hang of it I'll love it but in the meantime I have to wonder, "am I too old for all this?"

Waiting for THE Call

Second only to rejection, the worst part of being an aspiring author is the wait. I'm waiting to hear from an agent who requested my complete 80,000 word manuscript. The first agent went out of his way to tell me that he read the entire story, loved the characters, thought they were engaging, the setting interesting, the background fascinating, but was confused about the audience. Written for adults, he pegged it a YA. Go figure! He doesn't represent YA so he passed.

Next I found an agent who represents both adult and YA. "That ought to cover it," I'm thinking. Response to my email query was returned within five minutes. "Send the entire manuscript," the response said.

"Wow!" Within a half hour of my email query, the second agent had the entire piece. It's been five weeks now with nary a word.

"Don't call us we'll call you if we're interested," the agent's agency information commands.

"Does that directive also apply to requested material?" I wonder.

I know these things take time but what's a writer to do without seeming amatureistic? For the moment the only thing she can...WAIT!

I'm Thankful for Friends that Share

I've been working on my blog, well, learning how to work on my blog, navigating the quagmire of technology, trying to get things right. Were it not for the generosity of friends, Beth Revis, especially, I'd still be in the dark ages. There is light at the end of the tunnel and I'm grasping at craggy edges moving forward gingerly, thankful for friends that share.