In the dumps

Feeling blue. This project is taking forever and I just can't find the time it needs. My manuscript needs to be as perfect as I can possibly make it before I even query an agent. At this point I'm thinking "as perfect as I can possibly make it" just won't be good enough. How many more hours do I pour into a project that will never see the light of day? Do I even have the writing chops to get something published? How many hours of study and practice will it take to gain the necessary skills?

Bah.

So what's keeping me going?
1) I absolutely believe that I've created a great story.
2) The rewards (I'm not talking money--I'm not that big a fool) of successfully getting published will be phenomenal.

Evil Editor

I put my opening 200+ words on Evil Editor. 17 Comments so far. Nothing too brutal. I confused some readers in the second paragraph with my description of the Kiremi raiders. They also wanted a minor character (Geros) mentioned earlier. Several readers said that they would read further. Overall it was a positive experience.

Back in the Saddle

Sort of fell out of the saddle for the past week. No blogging, worse yet, no writing. I'm back into it tonight. Working on the critical first three chapters. When you're querying cold you really need to land the hook in the first three chapters. My friend Kemp is helping with the polishing process. I really need to set aside a specific time for writing. Pre-child it was very easy to do. Not so much any more.

Best wishes to my friend Mike Shultz. He just recently started the query process. Let's hope for lots of requests for complete manuscripts.