Blog Chain: The Unexpected

All right, it's my turn to start a round of the blog chain. Life can sometimes be a big ape who sits atop a platform and throws barrels at you when all you want to do is rescue the princess. You go into it kind of knowing what you want to get out of it, but things change and suddenly your goal isn't really saving the princess. It's just making it up the next level.

Like this last week. Everything went haywire for me on Tuesday. I'm 29 weeks pregnant and fell hard on my belly. Not good. Really not good when such a fall causes preterm labor issues, hours of monitoring in Labor & Delivery, and a trip to the ER for x-rays on my wrist and ankle. Didn't see it coming. Couldn't have predicted it. I was just going along trying to get to my princess (actually, the baby's a prince) and, BAM, a barrel hit me. Damn ape. We're fine, and even though it hurts, I keep moving toward my due date.

Which brings me to the question for this round of the blog chain: what has been the most unexpected part of your writing journey up to this point? What has happened that you could never have predicted? Has it been a help or a hindrance?

The princess I want to save, my end goal, is still publication and having a writing career. But there have been more than a few barrels that tripped me up. After getting such positive feedback on my first MS from crit partners and contests, I was pretty bummed when that book didn't find me an agent. It's not that I thought it was, like, THE BEST BOOK EVAH! Just that I had no idea how hard querying was. I can't tell you the number of times I heard, "I really like this, but..." And it was disheartening. It made me sad because my expectation had been that, since other writers and readers had liked it, an agent would. That barrel just bowled me right over and flattened me. I seriously considered GAME OVER on this whole writing thing--despite that writing had been a huge part of my life since my mid-teens.

But what could have been a huge hindrance turned into a major help. I fought to better my writing. I took my time and carefully picked who read and critted for me. The second time I queried, there was no expectation. It could happen. It could not happen. Either way, all I did was try.

Along the way, more unexpected things happened. My crit partners became my best friends, which I honestly didn't expect to happen. Then I signed with an incredible agent. Now I'm awaiting her thoughts on a manuscript I hope to polish into something presentable. So, yeah, that first unexpected part of my writing journey--the failure part--made me regroup and figure out a new strategy. It made me think long and hard about what I wanted and how I could get there. This time, instead of letting the barrel roll me over, I jumped over it. And I'm still climbing toward that princess.

Make sure to check out what Christine has to say tomorrow and tune in to the rest of the blog chain.