I feel like I’m always talking about writing on this blog but that’s kind of my thing so let’s go with it!
I’m sure, if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll know my dream career is to be a full time writer. I don’t necessarily believe I could earn a living wage doing and so I’ll probably always ‘work’ in a real place but writing is what I want to be doing for the rest of my pitiful, vegan, life.
A long time ago… almost 7 years ago! I wrote a novel. It was my first full length novel and I’ve been tweaking it and editing it ever since. Last year I finally finished it and submitted it to a few agents who, sadly, didn’t want to add it to their panel of work. It’s cool. Getting an agent is harder than writing a book, honestly! Ever since then, though, I haven’t really had time to get it back out there. News flash! All agencies pretty much have their own totally different submission guidelines and it takes time, sometimes, to pull together everything they want. Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago [forward from last year… back from now!] and I decided it was finally time to send my first child out into the world again!
I made sure I had everything done before submitting to 5 agencies and this weekend I finally sent it out. Perhaps for the last time in a while.
Agencies can take about 12 weeks* to get back to you, and sometimes they won’t even bother if they aren’t interested, so for the next 12 weeks I’m not going to think about it! I can finally move on to editing the next book I wrote to get that shipped out at some point. Writing is a hard graft but it’s truly the only time I feel challenged and happy at the same time!
I basically just wanted to write this post to remind myself that the book is done and ready to find a home with an agent. It’s a big step – if you’ve ever created anything the hardest part is accepting it’s done – honestly. You could edit it for the rest of your life. I have learnt so many things from working on this one story and those lessons are invaluable. I know the next book I edit is going to be so much easier because I know what I’m doing now… kind of! With ten books and counting in my writing folder I’m ready for the work to never end but… I like it?
Hopefully one days someone out there will read it!
Sam
*In 12 weeks I’ll be at the point where I should be able to run 10k without stopping… stay tuned for that this week!
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