Tag: good wishes

I am not inspired

So, I’m done editing Whose Hearts are Mountains, and I’m still at Mozingo on my writing retreat. But I don’t feel like writing. What am I to do?

Here’s my problem — I don’t have any inspiration for a new book. I haven’t since I finished Whose Hearts are Mountains (writing, not editing). This is part of the reason I’ve been editing the back catalog for eventual developmental edits. 

I have an outline for another novel, but my brain feels like a brick right now. I wrote a sentence, a first sentence, and it dropped like lead, inert and boring.  I don’t feel that energy of attraction to anything I’ve writing. 

I think a good amount of this is how hard I’ve been trying to get an agent and how utterly fruitless my efforts have been. I’m discouraged, and it’s hard getting motivated to write when there’s a backlog of unread novels.

Wish me inspiration. Wish me luck. Wish me good spirits. Wish me love.

I’ve just sent about 20 queries of Prodigies (with the improved query letter and in in its publishing edited/developmental edited/diversity edits) to young adult/new adult agents, and I have the jitters.

The optimistic part of me thinks I’ve done hard work improving.

The pessimistic part of me is afraid it’s not going to be enough.

The pessimistic part of me is afraid there’s something fundamentally wrong with my stories and will keep thinking so unless I get picked up by an agent. Then the pessimistic part of me will be afraid there’s something fundamentally wrong with my stories until I have a publisher. Then …

The pessimistic part of me is a pain in the ass.

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What is the path now?

  • Send Prodigies queries to Young Adult/New Adult agents (done)
  • Wait for a couple months. 
    • Some of the agents will send generic rejection letters
    • Some notify acceptances/rejections via QueryTracker (highly recommended for agent searches: www,querytracker.com)
    • Some don’t send anything, so if I haven’t heard from them in 90 days, then they’ve rejected it
    • If I receive a request for more of the manuscript, weep tears of joy and send it. This still doesn’t mean I’ve been accepted.
  • Wait a bit longer and resend the new improved Prodigies to the fantasy agents who got version 2.0.
  • Wait for a couple of months …
Of course, I have a new improved cover letter for Voyageurs and it’s finally going through a developmental edit. Which means I will go through the process again for Voyageurs (see above).
Readers: I need your love, good wishes and prayers. I don’t ask for things like this a lot, so here I am. If you can make them non-anonymous, all the better!!
Meanwhile,