It's been a horrible wet and gloomy spring for me, and for many other people in the South and Midwest it has been even worse with all the terrible tornadoes that keep coming. Sometimes it's easy to forgot that there is any good left, which is why I think Michelle's question for this round of the blog chain is so great.
The question: Be positive! Name some of the positive aspects of your writing --- be it a compliment from a mentor, friend or crit partner to anything special you learned concerning your writing skills.
When it is easy to focus on what isn't working and what isn't going your way, I think it's great to sometimes focus on the positives in all aspects of life, and in our writing journeys especially.
Hand in hand with accentuating the positive is also remembering that we need to toot our own horns sometimes. Maybe we haven't gotten an agent yet or made the bestseller list, or whatever the next goal down the line is, but as long as we stick with it we will continue to move forward, even if it is sometimes measured in inches instead of the giant leaps we want to be making.
So, without further ado, here are two big POSITIVES in my current writing life.
1. I had another story published in Woman's World this past month. It is my third story that I've submitted and they've accepted. There is nothing like the validation of seeing your words in print AND getting paid for them too. As a bonus, Kate Willoughby, who runs a blog about writing for Woman's World gave my story a great review.
2. I just finished my third novel and am getting ready to query once more. It's easy to see this as a negative. Two novels that I was unable to find an agent with. But I won't look at it that way (not today at least). The first novel got a few nibbles, but nothing serious. The second novel I got a lot closer with a rewrite/resubmit request and even a telephone call with the agent. It didn't end with an offer of representation, but I knew I was that much closer. Now as I prepare to start the query process all over again, I feel more hope than trepidation.
And as a little bonus I have a third positive that really doesn't have much to do with writing, but more with my personal life. After wanting to return to hometown of Buffalo, NY for many years, my husband and I finally found a way to make it a reality. At the beginning of May we packed up our house in Knoxville and headed North. We are still getting settled and a lot of our lives are still up in the air, but it feels good to be here, near my family again and at the place that through years of moving around California and Tennessee - I never could stop thinking of it as "home".
To follow along with this blog chain please read Sandra's post from yesterday, and then tomorrow head over to Cole's where she will finish things up.
