The Third Time’s the Charm . . . How about the Third Book?

So here’s my usual routine. I wake up, feed my little man breakfast, clean the house (maybe not the dishes), feed the dog, COFFEE obviously, right now I have to add killing ants to the list because we have been overrun due to the ungodly heat, maybe get some reading in if I can get the boys playing by themselves, lunch break, more playtime then nap. Whew! (pause for breath) Nap time is where I get the majority of my work done lately. I type like a madman trying to get everything out of my head and onto the screen as fast as I can but it’s never fast enough. I always get the “momma” call just when I’ve really begun to sink my teeth in. Then all concentration is broken – no more work can be done until I give my toddler his snack and set him to playing with his train set and even then he wants my attention which I am grateful for because I know eventually that will end, but to the writer in me it is so annoying. 

As you have probably put together I don’t have many hours in the day where I can sit and quietly work. Honestly the people that know about the books I’ve written are surprised that I was able to accomplish it with a two year old. I finished my first book right before my son was born. Since then I have written two others and the process of trying to find an agent has been like trying to herd cats. Right now it is the worst thing about writing. It’s exhausting, aggravating and at the end of the day you feel like calling it quits. I know. Believe me I know. I’ve been looking for an agent for two years and have queried three separate books. That thing you hear authors say about having the right book in the right genre at just the right time? I can only imagine that it’s true. 

It can be disheartening getting one rejection after the other. I should be used to it. I did dance and theater growing up (musical theater was actually my major in college) and that life is full of no’s and rejection. I auditioned for The Nutcracker when I was younger and was rejected. This was at 7 or 8. I still remember what it felt like to cry in the car on the way home with my mom. It sucked big time. But for some reason being rejected with my writing hurts more than any failed audition I ever had. Maybe because when you write you put a piece of yourself in it. A small fraction of your soul follows your words onto the paper, a piece you can never get back, and the only way to feel validated that you put so much of yourself out there is to have it read over and over again and have someone tell you that they appreciated it, that it made them think or changed them in some small way. My writing may not be life changing, it may not be of the caliber of Dickens or Hawthorne or even Rowling, but it’s mine. A little piece of me I put out there for you because if I can’t do anything else I feel like I can do this. So I’m not going to give up. I will be writing my books and querying agents and hope that sometime soon they see a spark in one of my tales that they will want to raise into a flame. That this stay at home mom who is probably better equipped for teaching Intro to Theater to high school kids will be validated in all her hard work. I have to believe that it will happen, it just takes time. 

If you’re like me and you have put your heart and soul into a story and you’re still waiting for that beautiful, amazing, wonderful agent willing to take a chance on an unpublished first timer just be patient and keep on writing. Remember, Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help, went through 60 rejections before her book became a best seller. Stephen King used to hang his rejections on a nail on his wall. In his book On Writing he states that “the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and kept on writing.” We all get rejected but in the end it will make when we are published all the sweeter. Stay grounded, stay focused and never give up on your goal. Here's to hoping the third time really is the charm!

Happy writing!