The 5 Best Choices I Made (So Far)
Hi fronds! How's it goin'?
[GIF: Monstera plant swaying over a pink background]
Since I got my biggest mistakes out of the way last time, now it's time for the good stuff: the best choices I made in my Draft Zero to Writing Hero process!
1) Keeping diligent notes when querying.
I love a good spreadsheet. I've spreadsheeted things that really should not have been spreadsheeted. (And I've now verbed the word "spreadsheet.") And when it came to querying, it was incredibly helpful to have all of my querying data in one place: the agent's name, what agency they work for, when I queried them, when I expected to hear back, when I actually heard back (if I heard back at all), and any further notes on that agent or query package.
Keeping extensive records like this took some of the stress out of querying. Yes, it was still a difficult and stressful process, but at least I knew things like "I should hear back from Agent A within the next week." It's not like it changed the world, but it was one less thing to have to worry about - and I don't know about you, but I cannot focus when I'm worried about anything.
[GIF: Person riding a unicorn across a scrolling spreadsheet]
2) Giving myself permission to write badly.
I am a perfectionist. I did so much research while writing GIRLS BREAK THINGS: I read books on coding, I learned Python, I chatted with a few people who have actually been on BattleBots. I always want everything to be perfect on the first attempt, even when I'm doing something way above my skill level (like knitting a Fair Isle Christmas stocking).
Writing is no different, and yet, it's an entirely different animal. With something like knitting, all you have to do is follow a pattern. With writing, the pattern is in my head, but it's constantly changing and there's no set of stitch abbreviations at the beginning to tell me exactly what to do. Wanting a manuscript to be right on the first draft is not only foolish, it's infuriating; the whole point of a first draft is to just get the words on the page, and inevitably, those words are going to come out wrong.
Giving myself permission to write badly - to write sentences like "The metal melted at her touch, the soft metal weaving its way around her wrist into a series of interlinking cuffs with a pleasing sound of singing metal" - at least gave me the chance to get the idea across. If I just sat in front of my laptop until the precise correct words came to mind, I'd never get anything done.
At the end of the day, you can't revise what you don't write.
For me, it would've been impossible to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) if I hadn't given myself permission to write badly. I used to spend years on a first draft because I'd get caught up in revising as I wrote; I thought that the "right" way to write a manuscript was to always read from the beginning up to where I left off, and then continue writing.
NOOOOOOPE.
I barely ever made any progress because I'd run out of time or energy before I even got to where I left off. NaNoWriMo helped break me of this habit. I was on such a time crunch wedging NaNoWriMo in around school and work that I barely had time to squeeze in that day's words. There was absolutely no time to revise as I went. As a result, I was exhausted at the end of the month, but I at least had a first draft, a place to start. Leaving the words I'd already written alone was a huge step forward.
[GIF: The Doctor from Doctor Who in a small space saying "I'm not where I wanted to be but I can work with this"]
[GIF: Monstera plant swaying over a pink background]
1) Keeping diligent notes when querying.
I love a good spreadsheet. I've spreadsheeted things that really should not have been spreadsheeted. (And I've now verbed the word "spreadsheet.") And when it came to querying, it was incredibly helpful to have all of my querying data in one place: the agent's name, what agency they work for, when I queried them, when I expected to hear back, when I actually heard back (if I heard back at all), and any further notes on that agent or query package.
Keeping extensive records like this took some of the stress out of querying. Yes, it was still a difficult and stressful process, but at least I knew things like "I should hear back from Agent A within the next week." It's not like it changed the world, but it was one less thing to have to worry about - and I don't know about you, but I cannot focus when I'm worried about anything.
[GIF: Person riding a unicorn across a scrolling spreadsheet]
I am a perfectionist. I did so much research while writing GIRLS BREAK THINGS: I read books on coding, I learned Python, I chatted with a few people who have actually been on BattleBots. I always want everything to be perfect on the first attempt, even when I'm doing something way above my skill level (like knitting a Fair Isle Christmas stocking).
Writing is no different, and yet, it's an entirely different animal. With something like knitting, all you have to do is follow a pattern. With writing, the pattern is in my head, but it's constantly changing and there's no set of stitch abbreviations at the beginning to tell me exactly what to do. Wanting a manuscript to be right on the first draft is not only foolish, it's infuriating; the whole point of a first draft is to just get the words on the page, and inevitably, those words are going to come out wrong.
Giving myself permission to write badly - to write sentences like "The metal melted at her touch, the soft metal weaving its way around her wrist into a series of interlinking cuffs with a pleasing sound of singing metal" - at least gave me the chance to get the idea across. If I just sat in front of my laptop until the precise correct words came to mind, I'd never get anything done.
At the end of the day, you can't revise what you don't write.
[GIF: Gravity Falls GIF of a kid writing on a clipboard, "I am pretending to write something down"]
3) Doing NaNoWriMo. For me, it would've been impossible to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) if I hadn't given myself permission to write badly. I used to spend years on a first draft because I'd get caught up in revising as I wrote; I thought that the "right" way to write a manuscript was to always read from the beginning up to where I left off, and then continue writing.
NOOOOOOPE.
I barely ever made any progress because I'd run out of time or energy before I even got to where I left off. NaNoWriMo helped break me of this habit. I was on such a time crunch wedging NaNoWriMo in around school and work that I barely had time to squeeze in that day's words. There was absolutely no time to revise as I went. As a result, I was exhausted at the end of the month, but I at least had a first draft, a place to start. Leaving the words I'd already written alone was a huge step forward.
[GIF: The Doctor from Doctor Who in a small space saying "I'm not where I wanted to be but I can work with this"]
4) Making writing friends.
Friends! Friends are great. A lot of my writing friends started out as CPs or beta readers, and we gradually became more open with one another. Having friends who are writers has been incredibly helpful for my writing mental health. They've been there for me through the good and the bad, and they've provided a lot of useful tips and tricks along the way.
Often, as writers, we can't really express our frustrations on social media - who knows who could see it and think "I don't want to work with this person"? Being able to talk to other writers about things that weren't going well was a lifesaver. On the flip side, having those writer friends who know me and my work has made brainstorming much easier. I know I can reach out to my friends and say "Hey I thought of this idea for this manuscript, what do you think?" and we can chat for hours about it. Without my writer friends, I'd be a puddle.
Often, as writers, we can't really express our frustrations on social media - who knows who could see it and think "I don't want to work with this person"? Being able to talk to other writers about things that weren't going well was a lifesaver. On the flip side, having those writer friends who know me and my work has made brainstorming much easier. I know I can reach out to my friends and say "Hey I thought of this idea for this manuscript, what do you think?" and we can chat for hours about it. Without my writer friends, I'd be a puddle.
[GIF: Gretchen from Mean Girls saying "You let it out, honey"]
5) NOT GIVING UP.
Writing is SO FUCKING HARD. It's not like passing household chores off to my partner; if I don't sit down and write, it's not going to get done. And because I'm never happy, even while I'm writing, I'm constantly thinking of all the other things I could/should be doing. I've been told, "If writing is important to you, you'll make time for it," and like...yeah, but also I have to do other things, like work and make food.
The other side of that coin, though, is that when I finish a draft, or do particularly well revising a scene, I know it's all me. I've had so many setbacks, but even when I got to the point of having to return to square one, I didn't stop. Somewhere deep down, I found the strength - or maybe just the stubbornness - to keep trying.
Not giving up doesn't mean writing every day, or even every week. It just means thinking about what you're doing to do next. If that's just turning a line or a scene over in your mind, looking for better ways to say it, then that's what it is. As long as I keep that little candle of hope and resilience lit, then I'm unstoppable.
The other side of that coin, though, is that when I finish a draft, or do particularly well revising a scene, I know it's all me. I've had so many setbacks, but even when I got to the point of having to return to square one, I didn't stop. Somewhere deep down, I found the strength - or maybe just the stubbornness - to keep trying.
Not giving up doesn't mean writing every day, or even every week. It just means thinking about what you're doing to do next. If that's just turning a line or a scene over in your mind, looking for better ways to say it, then that's what it is. As long as I keep that little candle of hope and resilience lit, then I'm unstoppable.
[GIF: Sonia Sotomayor saying "I just keep trying"]
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