However, the biggest, top priority, number one, non-negotiable goal for this year is to revise my novel so that by the end of the leave it is ready to be sent out to publishers for rejection. (Initial rejection seems to be required before the novel can become a hit of Oprah proportions.)
And when I say my novel, it is not the realistic fiction novel that I wrote in 2007. Because the following year, I did it again! I wrote another novel! Even while I was teaching! And I really liked that novel. I even let some of my family and closest friends read it. At the time, I did ask them to only tell me what they liked about it, knowing that I was too fragile to hear criticisms.
But now I am ready to add, change, revise, hear negative and positive criticisms, and generally make it better. And I have already started the process by starting to reread the novel, adding my thoughts and questions in soothing sky-blue ink.
My challenge, though, is highlighted by this unattributed quote from my Happiness Project journal*:
"All too often, what's important gets pushed aside
while we deal with what's urgent."
Today, in no particular order, my urgent includes: do the dishes, speak with my mom about a future trip, fold laundry, find an overdue magazine in all my mess, take a trip to the library, send emails to friends and family, make a doctor's appointment, clean off my dining room table, write tomorrow's blog post, eat . . .
How does the important deal with all that urgency? I'm not sure myself. I guess I'll figure it out along the way, and whatever I figure out, I'll post here.
*Apparently, once you tell people that you are a writer, you receive mostly journals as gifts, as I have gotten four in the last few months. I love them each and every one! Thanks, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment