Bah Humbug .. Enter At Your Own Risk
Tendonitis hits the right arm (and you didn’t even know writing a book was a sport.)
The problem is when I start a project in earnest I become very impatient and want things to happen RIGHT NOW, which is why the NaNoWriMo project in November was so perfect for me. It’s the kind of thing I like to do … get involved … lose sleep … let the house go … eat take out … keep the mind churning … GET IT DONE! I know it’s not healthy but telling that to myself is like pouring water on a duck’s back. It doesn’t sink in. I HAVE to finish! (Who am I competing with? Myself?)
So bring on the heating pad (Internet says to apply ice packs but that will be too cold) and Ibuprofen because I’m still not done. I thought I was done once … then I thought I was done again. Then Warren had to go say “start sending out those queries, Mom, so it can be published by September or October”. So, yeah, I started seriously researching and find out that most of the publishers affiliated with the LDS market (which is a market I think this work of fiction fits) want you to send the entire manuscript and not only that a few of them want a minimum of 60,000 pages for their novels. (Not that it has to be through an LDS publisher, mind you). Back to the keyboard for three days and three nights developing another segment and it’s a fairly decent segment (at least in my opinion it’s as good as the rest of the book that people have liked) but how do I fit it into the previously formatted manuscript? Hmmmm … that shouldn’t be too hard. (wink wink)
At least that is what I thought four hours ago when I decided to put it together quickly before I went to bed. Copy and Paste … what’s s0 hard about that? Wellllllll, if you must know, it messed up the formatting of both documents, that’s what is the matter with that, and it really fouled up the pager numbering and chapter headings. Then, as I am typing this blog … I mean right now while I am typing what you’re reading … I’m thinking, “thank goodness I renamed the first manuscript under a different name just in case something went terribly wrong … and then I’m thinking … “Holy cow, what if I didn’t’ … so I stop what I’m doing to go make sure.
And that’s when I find out this entire process just stinks. At least I didn’t save either of the files I was trying to put together, but I somehow didn’t save the combined version I just changed all the chapters and formatting on. It’s not there. That’s it … I’m done … I’m outta here … I surrender. I’m going to go sit by myself in the front room and put heat (because it’s warmer than ice) on my shoulder and pout. Maybe I’ll take the new sketching kit Lynn brought home to me yesterday and draw my left hand instead. Maybe tomorrow I can do this right. Maybe somebody will read this and offer to do it for me. Maybe Warren will…
Technorati Tags: Editing Sucks, Writing a Novel, Query Letters, Publishing Your Novel, tendonitis of the shoulder
I am so sorry.
I know how demoralized I get if I loss a simple blog post. Maybe this was your Muse’s way of saying “take a break.”
Worst part for me is: I can’t blame anybody else.
It’s hard during times like this, I feel for you. I think GoingLikeSixty might be on the right track…sometimes a break helps. Even if it’s just to get a night’s sleep
Formatting is formatting, I’m glad you didn’t lose writing. And part of all the work you are doing now is for education…learning how to use styles to control formatting. So it’s more than just your book, you are taking a tough class in layout design…learning skills that will go forward to your next book, and the one after… You had a rough day in your formatting class yesterday, but your book is still good and still intact. When you are ready to attack it again, it’ll be there ready and waiting for you. And I can help out with the formatting formalities.
Don’t give up sis. Just take a break from it and let your shoulder and your arm rest and heal. You put too much pressure on yourself! All of us who love you will still be patiently waiting for your book to be published … and it will!!
Edna, don’t despair. When I was doing my own cookbook memoir I was more than halfway done when I saved it to a CD and something happened to it. The whole thing was lost because the CD was damaged some way–still haven’t figured out why it wouldn’t open–and I had to begin the whole book over from scratch. And it was close to 300 pages. Long story short, I started over fresh, went through the whole process again and it wasn’t quite the same book I’d previously done. It was much better. Some things happen for the best. I finished Aunt Nellie Saturday and have several small suggestions which I’ll pass on in an email in a day or two. Good luck. And don’t be so hard on yourself!!