02 Dec
02Dec

I've been in a bit of a slump for almost a month now. Some days, it feels like there aren't enough hours to accomplish all the things that I need to do. You know, the things that keep the lights on and put food on the table. Once those needs are taken care of, I have days where there aren't enough hours to do things that I want to do. And then of the hours that I spend on those wants--writing and querying--I am adrift and leave those blocks of time unsatisfied. Over a couple long drives over Thanksgiving weekend, I had one trivial realization and one breakthrough.

Starting with the substantial: I've done a lousy job of setting goals for myself the last few months. When I wrote Spacewalker, I did it scene by scene and task by task and almost never in the ideal order. But I recognized there were discrete activities which were required to reach my ultimate goal of writing a science-fiction novel. A character bible, technical research, a plot outline...

I never went as far as creating a schedule or mapping dependencies (I get enough of that at work), but I kept short running lists of all those tasks and scenes and worked through each item one at a time. Sometimes over a day, occasionally stretching as long as multiple weeks. But I could see the progress, and I was rewarded with those small but crucial dopamine hits as a result of crossing items off the list.

For the last few months, I've had the ambitious goal of getting representation from a literary agent. Obviously, upon a few hours of interstate driving to reflect, this is not a strong goal. It's too broad. It's not easily actionable. Much of the achievement of this goal is out of my hands. Statistically speaking, the odds are not in my favor, though there's plenty I can do to marginally improve those odds. I've been a prisoner of this giant leap and it's no wonder I've been frustrated when I've turned my time back toward querying. 

So I'm wiping the slate clean and establishing some new, more fundamental goals:

  1. Read more - I haven't read a new-to-me book since July, so I'm going to make time to read 1-2 books per month (I'm overdue to cancel some of these overpriced streaming services, anyway).
  2. Write more - I've been in edit and polish mode for a long-time now, so it's high time I flex my creative muscles and just create for the fun of it. I haven't defined this quantitatively yet, but I will follow up when I do.
  3. Establishing a query quota - I'm going to take off some of the pressure and choose a small number of queries to send per month (maybe 3-4). I still have a long list of potential agents to work through and I'd like to do a better job researching and tailoring my queries (synergy with reading more).

These are (or will be) more clearly defined goals and are entirely within my power. I'll be able to see the results and learn from these activities. And hopefully, successfully following through will pay dividends for my mood this winter.

Oh, and as for my trivial realization--the days are literally getting shorter, and thanks to daylight savings, darker. I'm always a grouch at this time of year, regardless of my writing goals. So maybe this is the year I'll finally bite the bullet and buy a sunrise lamp.

Comments
* The email will not be published on the website.