By Lacey Gunter
Shout out to all the moms with a mountainous pile of laundry. I feel your pain! This past month my writing soul has been wonderfully enriched, but it has not come without a cost. Visitors beware, my house is a disaster zone and I am more than a wee bit sleep deprived. My only hope is that my hubby and kids are feeling an extra dose of Valentines love and will forgive me of my shortcomings.
Amidst all this progressing mess and chaos, I am happy. I recently signed up for my first writer's conference and I am very excited! It will be in the summer and I welcome all your advice. I have also had the chance to participate in several new writing and critique activities that have buoyed my writing resolve and helped me to meet people who have encouraged me and helped me grow. I feel very blessed.
So here is what I have learned this month. A lot of writing advice talks about getting your work out there, participating in critique groups, doing lots of submissions and getting lots of feedback. This is sound advice, for sure. But it is also really beneficial to get yourself out there, and I don't mean just digitally.
Getting out and meeting other writers and sharing your experiences with each other helps you to feel
more connected and can give you the strength to weather through the difficult aspects of trying to get published. With all our busy schedules, this takes time, I know. But if you are really serious about writing, it is worth the time. And you may be surprised at how friendly and kind the people you meet are. I know I have been.
Rejection letters, difficult to swallow critiques and a sea of internet literature emphasizing how unlikely it is you'll get published, can make this industry feel like everyone is against you. But as I have met and talked to people personally, all I can seem to find are down to earth people who are happy to be a friend.
So, get yourself out there. Your laundry and house cleaning may suffer. But all that means is you'll just have to meet up at your second favorite place, the library. =)
Shout out to all the moms with a mountainous pile of laundry. I feel your pain! This past month my writing soul has been wonderfully enriched, but it has not come without a cost. Visitors beware, my house is a disaster zone and I am more than a wee bit sleep deprived. My only hope is that my hubby and kids are feeling an extra dose of Valentines love and will forgive me of my shortcomings.
Amidst all this progressing mess and chaos, I am happy. I recently signed up for my first writer's conference and I am very excited! It will be in the summer and I welcome all your advice. I have also had the chance to participate in several new writing and critique activities that have buoyed my writing resolve and helped me to meet people who have encouraged me and helped me grow. I feel very blessed.
So here is what I have learned this month. A lot of writing advice talks about getting your work out there, participating in critique groups, doing lots of submissions and getting lots of feedback. This is sound advice, for sure. But it is also really beneficial to get yourself out there, and I don't mean just digitally.
Getting out and meeting other writers and sharing your experiences with each other helps you to feelmore connected and can give you the strength to weather through the difficult aspects of trying to get published. With all our busy schedules, this takes time, I know. But if you are really serious about writing, it is worth the time. And you may be surprised at how friendly and kind the people you meet are. I know I have been.
Rejection letters, difficult to swallow critiques and a sea of internet literature emphasizing how unlikely it is you'll get published, can make this industry feel like everyone is against you. But as I have met and talked to people personally, all I can seem to find are down to earth people who are happy to be a friend.
So, get yourself out there. Your laundry and house cleaning may suffer. But all that means is you'll just have to meet up at your second favorite place, the library. =)
