Dilettante to Dynamo: A Beginning Writer's Adventures

It's week 2 of Deana Barnhart's 'Gearing Up to Get an Agent' blogfest and I can't wait to get stuck in.
The Challenge: a story chain!

I love this idea and have tried it in the classroom with my students before. Some children really got into it were great at ending on a cliffhanger that gave the next child something to work with...others were less than impressed, or so they said - but their pleasure upon hearing other people's wacky additions to the story was obvious.

I just hope I'm not the dud of the group. I'd hate to be 'the kid' who leaves the story on a flat note and has the next person in line cursing and wanting to throttle me.

And now onto the point that I wanted to make. Since this blogfest is all about 'Gearin' up to Get an Agent' I thought I'd invest a little time in getting to grips with how to go about trying to find an agent.

I found this really useful video. That's about as far as I've got, but I'll keep you posted on how I get on with my agent research in the coming days.

Maybe it's the flu that's got me firmly in it's grasp, or it could be the persistent cough and inevitable accompanying headache...perhaps it's the fact that my strict timetable has been battered out of shape by the first two.

Whatever the cause, the effect has still been the same - I've lost all momentum and motivation to do any work on my novel. It's a shame really as I'd signed up for July's Camp NaNoWriMo too.

After an early morning wake-up call from my equally sick 3 year old,  I decided to force myself to do some writing. Unfortunately paracetamol and coffee weren't enough to put the wheels in motion. At best I was an old rust bucket spluttering to life - and inciting great anticipation from its driver - only to conk out, leaving the driver in even greater despair. 

On the other hand they were a sufficient cure for wallowing in my puddles of failure.

I came across a quote which got me thinking... 

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) Thirty-second President of the USA

Perhaps I've been looking at it all wrong. Like the characters in our stories, life throws obstacles in our way and we have to find a way of overcoming them if we are to reach our goal. Maybe those puddles of failure are actually pools of fresh rainwater ready to nurture the seeds of imagination. If that's the case I'm pretty sure my health meter has enough in reserve to enable to tie a knot in my rope.


Consequently I've decided to accept what I can't change - namely having the flu - but I'll find a way to use it to my advantage and in a way that will keep me on the right track towards achieving my goal. Reading a good book springs to mind!

One final quote for anyone else feeling sick and not-so-quick-witted ...


 

Most people who download the book don't end up buying it, but they wouldn't
have bought it in any event, so I haven't lost any sales, I've just won an
audience. A tiny minority of downloaders treat the free e-book as a substitute for
the printed book--those are the lost sales. But a much larger minority treat the ebook
as an enticement to buy the printed book. They're gained sales. As long as
gained sales outnumber lost sales, I'm ahead of the game. After all, distributing
nearly a million copies of my book has cost me nothing.