Sunday, January 8, 2012

The importance of a support system

Last night was a bad night. A really bad night. One of those nights where you wonder if anything you do is worth it. Where you just want to give up and delete your entire novel off of your computer.

Yeah. That bad.

So I sulked in my room with the door locked, listening to sad music and munching on chocolate. I was idly staring at the computer screen, feeling like there was nothing to do.

Then my amazing cousin, Katrina, came online. I didn't intend to bring up all my emotional problems while we chatted, but those things just come out when you trust someone. She let me rant, giving me advice but not forcing me to take it. I left the conversation feeling only slightly better, thinking there was at least one person in the world that cared about me. But I still felt like this whole trying-to-get-published thing was a waste of my time.

When I woke up this morning, I saw two messages from Amazon in my inbox, each saying I'd received a gift from Katrina. She sent me a couple of songs, and I downloaded and listened to them, still in a sour attitude. They were nice songs, but the fact that she cared meant so much more than the lyrics to the songs.

So I sucked it up and went on querytracker. I wrote a completely new query, revised it, scrapped it, wrote another one--you know the drill. I edited the first three chapters of my book for the bazillionth time. And then *gasp* I sent out my first query in over two months.

Am I really expecting anything out of this query? To be honest, my hopes aren't high. But I sent one.

We'll see what happens, but that's not the point. The point is that I needed a kick in the pants. It was a soft kick in the pants, but that's exactly what I needed to get started. No one else can force us to write, or query, or edit. We have to make the decision to do our own work, but having someone support us is definitely a huge help.

So just so you know, I'm always available for a kick in the pants. I'm really good at that at least :)

When has your support system helped you?

♥tg

4 comments:

  1. Love your guts! And yay for sending a query! That is big! Keep the faith. :)

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  2. Awwww. Yay Katrina! And yay for sending a query! I've got my fingers crossed!

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  3. I'm glad I'm not the only one that goes through this. I think this is one of the main things about being a writer, the self-doubt. I had one of those nights not long ago, staring at my first draft, thinking it was terrible and there was no way I could recover it and ever make it readable.
    You are very lucky to have these peole that care about you and will help you when you need it.
    Fingers crossed the query amounts to something awesome!

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  4. I'm sorry you had to sink to that place, but I am soooooooo impressed that you went from bummed to query in almost no time at all. The ebb and flow of a creative life can be a real burden. Congrats for rising from the ashes.

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