Tuesdays on Writing - letting go of the children

Gwen's here - in her proper spot after far too long - trip to Swaziland and deadlines for her - sister visit for me - and we're going to write. I went yesterday to meet with the woman who is doing my editing for me and we spent 3 hours (!) on the one-page synopsis. I don't know where I am with it but it is my task for the day. If I could just get one query package out I would be content. Okay, that's a lie. I would be somewhat more content - a hair less anxious - a molecule towards feeling my usual equanimity.
My car is at the garage. It died on Saturday. It is Tuesday. My computer keeps popping off and it is snowing. So just a little control in my life would be excellent.
Maybe I'm frightened of the open-ended script after I get my query packages out. This is the child that I've been holding on to. All the rest I was happy to get done and dusted - but True I laboured longer and harder over. I have great expectations for True and I may fear I will be swallowed by anxiety and rejection over it. Better it should stay at home in my pristine mind than dare the elements - the cruel elements of the publishing world.
Ah, well.
This is not like me, I hasten to add. Even my live flesh-and-blood children left home early with me cheering them on. I am the opposite of the modern mother who phones the dean of her child's university to make sure he knows that her darling gets a little blue around the late fall and needs extra loving then. Not me. I was happy when my plays were done and performed and the stage swept clean. I never got the blues over finishing anything before. I sent things out too early, raw and not ready for the world. Maybe that is why I've swung the other way.
Enough of this. I'm going to get to work now. Gwen has already started only I slide my eyes over to her computer and see that she is answering emails so perhaps...?
How about you and letting go of manuscripts? Are you good at that or do you tarry with it far too long in the doorway, straightening its little sweater, tucking strands of errant hair behind its ears?

the one page synopsis has defeated me

OK - I'll admit it - I'm stumped. I'm near crazed. I did the four page synopsis and it was so helpful. It made my last revision cleaner, I cut all the stuff that wasn't story and I'm very happy with the result. The four page synopsis was for the contest I entered March 1st. That was twenty days ago and now I'm six days past my own deadline of getting four packages out to agents. And why, you may well ask? Because I cannot do a one page synopsis which doesn't make my eyes bleed from boredom. I've tried everything. I know I don't have to do it in chronological order - that I don't need to include sub-plots, that I should keep names and places to a minimum BUT GAWD!
Sometimes I'm lying in bed and I think 'by George, I've got it' but when I go to write it down - I'm wrong. I don't have it. I know that I can't get anyone to do it for me. I have to at least have something on the page for someone to riff from BUT I CAN'T do it.
Help. Throw me a line - tell me how the heck you do it - or what worked for you or commiserate with me or something.
There - I stand before you, naked and vulnerable, (not in a good way, Tartlette!) with my hands open and beseeching, the trees soughing, the hens clucking, the earth warming, spring happening and me without my packages done.

Tuesdays on Writing

Today was not a normal Tuesday. Gwen is back from Africa and I'm sure full of stories but I wasn't here to do our usual gig. My sister Jude arrived on Sunday and we decided on Monday to take advantage of the amazingly swell weather and head down the South Shore. We wandered our way down, stopping in Hubbards and Chester and Mahone Bay, finally arriving in Lunenburg. Lots of places were closed, it being a Monday in the tail-end of winter, but we didn't care. We puttered along taking in the gorgeous views and talking our heads off.

We stayed at an Inn in Lunenburg, went out for an early dinner and back to our room to watch tv of all things, play scrabble, drink wine and chat. This morning we got up and went wandering around town before heading towards Blue Rocks.

Blue Rocks is a small fishing community tipped on the edge of the sea - it is a wondrous spot and Jude and I have gone there before. We took some photos...which I will share with you all, and then got back in the car and went off to the wool shop in Mahone Bay. We had a ball there (heh heh) and then went to Chester for lunch and a walk-about. Then we zoomed home. The guy made a great curry, we had lots of spare kids, and a good chat. Then I remembered it was Tuesday and I OWED a post!

So, today's post on writing is about how I didn't write, didn't think about writing, didn't get together with anyone to write and all in all - not a post about writing at all.

Isn't this a swell picture of Blue Rocks though?

Plans and a late-breaking Insecure Writer message!

I promised you that this would be a new day on Jan Morrison, This Crazy Writing Life.  I want to share with you some ideas for my next steps - make a new calendar of deadlines. Or should I call them lifelines? I want to decide what days I'm going to post on this blog and whether I'm going to have memes or topics for those days.
I will post on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays - except for during April in which I will blog every day as part of the A-Z Challenge!  Tuesdays will be my day to focus on my own writing process, on Thursdays I will go back to my Tips from the Tops (where I glean my writing sources for good writing tips) and Saturdays will be on the external life of a writer - anything goes!

So, without further ado, here is my first Tuesday post of the new regime:

Getting my manuscript done and dusted - off to the contest with its package of four page synopsis and a small essay on why I was entering the particular award competition happened on March 1st. Since then I've done nothing on True or any other wip. Here are my thoughts about next plans:

Project: True

• I will finish my one-page synopsis of True - by March 11
• I will write four query letters - each geared to the agents I've researched - by March 14th
• I will send off four packages to four agents - My March 18
• I will send one to two packages a month until I hear back from someone. These other packages will be to either agents in the States or to Canadian publishers.

Project The Rock Walker

• I will begin my revision process with TRW by writing a Hero's Journey Synopsis - by April 1st.
• Using the above as my template I will begin a big picture revision of TRW - I will continue to revise going through all the steps - structure, clarity, setting, characters, dialogue, themes, rhythm, language - until I have something to send to the person who edits for me - finish by June 1st
• When I get it back I will incorporate changes
• I will create query packages for publishers that I've researched - synopsis, bio, letter, etc...because this is a mystery I will probably avoid trying for an agent. - by July 1st

There - this seems good. I need to do this quite often, so I can see where I really am and not fantasize! Ultimately True is finished - I feel it down to my bones - oh, I know there will be further edits but it is done to the best of my current ability. I feel my mind going towards TRW and getting excited - I have learned one or two things over the last effort - I like revising - I do not like synopsis writing but I can see how wonderful a tool it is - even if done late - in order to help the revision process.

How do you keep yourself on track - the writing track that is?

Oh Oh - I forgot that this was Insecure Writers Support Group day. ARGGGH! First one I've missed. I offer this for any who wander by looking for it - the best way to treat insecurity (for me) is to write through it. My image is that of holding a candle and walking a long and sometimes treacherous, sometimes boring, sometimes beautiful path. I have to keep the candle lit and move forward. I will meet inner and outer demons on the path - those that want to smother my candle with too much attention - those that want to blow the flame out because of insecurity or jealousy - those who will walk with me for a ways and encourage my journey. I must not lose my intention. I must not listen to the naysayers - those who nay say out of either fear or envy. I must not listen to those who spew hyperbole either - too much of that and I forget what I am doing. When the going gets tough I remember my dad and recall that in those instances 'the tough get going'. When the landscape is boring and seems endless (the middle of the wip?) I remember to pay attention with greater diligence - that nothing is boring when I am awake. I know I will get to the end of this path and I treasure the travel as much if not more than the destination. Much love to you all wherever you are on your path - protect your flame with all your heart!