Slacking: Contagious as the Common Cold

April 4, 2013

cdrakebooks editing, goals, pass the tissues, random comparison, team weasels Leave a comment

Last week, I got a sore throat. For the first couple days, it would only hurt for a few hours then go away. At that point, I chalked it up to some sort of allergic reaction. But then, that sore throat decided to set up camp for good. Of course, this had to happen during my Weasel reunion with two of my very favorite people, Jess & Rach, but I sucked it up and dealt because I hadn’t seen them in forever and it was so great to catch up, get pedicures, eat, and most importantly, chat about writing. But once they were both gone, my attention refocused on my throat situation, who decided at that point to bring its friend, congestion, into the mix as well.

Now, the sore throat’s gone, but congestion is hanging around like the unwelcome guest it always is. And being sick for the past few days served as the perfect excuse to lie around, watch TV, and not do what I should always be doing: writing and revising.

Which brings me to slacking. Today I got to thinking how it’s not so different from a cold in that it’s easy to be lazy and procrastinate, even though deep down you know you should get your butt off that couch and into your computer chair. But sometimes, it’s impossible to make that argument against slacking, when you’re so comfy and hey, you don’t even remember the last time you saw that rerun of “Seinfield” and oh, a snack might be nice and ooh, this Snuggie is so toasty and…

You get the gist. But fellow slackers, I’m here to tell you that you can break out of this sickness. All it takes is a little push.

And in my case, that push came today from my lovely friend, Jess, who served as the reminder I needed that if I want to finish revising my manuscript, it’s time to get off my butt and do it. I’m proud to say I got back to work today, and I have some ideas on what I want to work on tomorrow, too.

Now, if I could just convince my pal congestion to get lost, everything would be peachy.

Master of my Domain!

May 26, 2012

cdrakebooks graduation, keeping the faith, team weasels, writing 2 Comments

Borrowing my title of this post from “Seinfeld,” after walking in my graduation this past Sunday, I now feel like a Master of my Domain – which is Fine Arts of Children’s Literature, to be exact. Technically I’ve been a Master since October, as I was a fall graduate. But Hollins only has one ceremony, so I decided to walk in May. And like my friend and fellow October graduate, Jess, my reaction to graduating was delayed until I actually walked across the stage, shook President Gray’s hand, and walked away with a green Hollins diploma folder. Mind you, my diploma has been framed and displayed in my house since October, but the commencement actually made everything feel real. Not just that I’m done with school (Hallelujah!), but also that I won’t have any reason to visit the Hollins campus anymore. Okay, so maybe that’s not exactly true, as I hope to sit in on one of my advisor’s classes this summer. But I will no longer visit the campus as a student or attend classes there. I no longer have a 6-week block in the summer dedicated to graduate school. And even though these are all good things, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad once graduation was over.

I’m really going to miss certain aspects of my grad school, mainly my close friends and fave professors. But I’ll also miss having so many different pairs of eyes read my work and give me feedback on a constant basis. Sure, workshopping one WIP over and over and having to sort through so many unique opinions about what I need to work on could get old and frustrating. But it also helped me polish my thesis manuscript tremendously. Without the feedback and critiques of my fellow classmates and professors, I doubt it would’ve turned out even half as good.

Even though I’m sad that part of my writing career is over, at the same time I’m now even more determined to be a great writer. At the turn of the new year, I emailed my advisor, who has been very encouraging and supportive of my writing from the beginning. In her response back to me, she said I was to not think of her as my professor anymore – that I’m graduated now, so that makes us colleagues. In no means do I consider myself to be her equal at this point – she has published several books, after all, and I’ve not yet published one – but her words made me realize that it’s now up to me to try to remember everything I learned about writing during my time at Hollins so that I can implement it on my own. I’m not completely alone, of course. I still have my Weasels to send my WIP’s to critique. But for the most part, at least in the initial creating process, it’ll just be me from now on. A scary fact, yes, but also exhilarating!

So here’s to standing on my own two feet – something any Master of her Domain ought to be able to do, right?

The Art of Pitching: Batter Up!

May 5, 2012

cdrakebooks challenge accepted, keeping the faith, team weasels, writing Leave a comment

As my writing partner and friend, Jess wrote on her blog earlier today, the two of us are officially registered to attend the 2012 Agents Conference in Austin where we will both be pitching to agents in June. As in this June. As in approximately 48 days from now. As one can imagine, since we’ve never pitched before, I have been frankly a little intimidated. *takes deep breath & lets it out slowly* Ahh, that’s better. :)

But anyway, today after typing up different pitching do’s and don’ts I found online as well as suggestions from our lovely advisor, Hillary Homzie, I started thinking about pitching in relation to baseball. Yes, I know it sounds corny, but bear with me here. Not to brag, but I played Little League softball and yes, I was the pitcher. I was pretty decent at the sport except when it came to sliding into base – I don’t know if I just wasn’t coordinated enough to do it or if I just didn’t want to get my pants dirty, but I couldn’t slide for the life of me, which is why I sadly retired from the game before moving up to Senior League. But think about it: as the pitcher of a softball team, your job is to deliver fast-paced pitches that whizz right past the batter straight into the catcher’s mitt. You have to be careful, though, because your desired strikes can easily turn into balls by throwing a little too much to the side, too low, or too high. Or even if you throw the perfect strike, the batter might still make contact and even hit it right out of the park. Basically, what I’m trying to say is being the pitcher is a pretty tough job. It’s ultimately up to you to strike out your batters and keep the runs of your opposing team to a minimum if you have any hopes of winning the game. Your teammates are very important too, of course, but if the pitcher has a bad night – chances are the whole team will, too. Now, let’s switch gears and change into the mindset of the batter. When you’re up against a killer pitcher, you can breathe easy when the first strike hurls past your bat. You don’t even have to panic when the next one does. But before the third pitch, you better have it together and focus because it’s your last shot. You miss this one and you’re outta’ there!

Unlike in softball or baseball, you don’t get three chances to wow the agent to whom you’re pitching. You can’t goof up your delivery twice and still breathe easy. You have one shot – one strike – to deliver the ultimate pitch that will not only impress the agent but leave them wanting more – and hopefully even asking for it in the form of a full or partial manuscript request. When pitching to an agent, you take on the responsibilities of both the pitcher and the batter – your goal is to throw a curveball they’ve never seen before (read: show that your manuscript is unlike anything else out there and that your readers will eat it up) and then switch gears to blow them away so much, the “curveball” sails over the fence and out of the park as a homerun.

Okay, so if I’m being realistic, I know my pitch session might not result in a homerun. But my goal is to just “make contact” (read: make a connection with an agent). And hey, even if I only bunt it and barely make it to first base, it’s a start, right?

Celebrating a Finished First Draft: The Pre-gaming of Writing

April 10, 2012

cdrakebooks challenge accepted, editing, team weasels, writing 2 Comments

So, by writing this I will probably jinx myself, but as of today I expect to finish up a draft of my WIP by the end of this week (or the beginning of next at the latest, if my ending takes longer to wrap up than I anticipate it will). For any non-writers out there that are reading this, finishing up even a rough draft of a novel is a HUGE deal. And since I suffered an embarrassingly long drought where I couldn’t get myself to write at all and somehow managed to flip that on its head and bang out a complete draft is an even bigger deal to me.

Apart from my thesis manuscript that I had to finish in order to graduate, this is the first novel I’ve written just because – and hopefully won’t be my last. So even though I know I have a long road ahead of editing, getting feedback from my awesome weasel writing group, etc., I plan to celebrate this accomplishment much the same way college students gear up for football games: with a pre-game party, if you will. I can’t celebrate the win quite yet (a.k.a, a completely finished, can’t-look-at-this-again polished draft that’ll rock my socks off), but I can still toast to getting the story down, right? Right. ;)

So cheers to all my fellow aspiring authors out there that are in the process of finishing or have just completed the first draft of a novel. Enjoy this moment with whatever form of pre-gaming you so choose, because once we actually step out on to the field to play (read: edit), the real work has just begun. Be sure to suit up with some protective padding; you’ll no doubt get tackled dozens of times and may even want to leave the game all-together. But try your hardest not to, okay? If I learned anything from writing my thesis, it was that the ending product is well worth the tackles and hits you take during the editing stage.

And if you’re able to hook an agent and publisher with your brilliant polished manuscript, you, my friend, have won the game! Go Team!

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.