I have gotten the BEST rejections lately!

Nope. Not being facetious.

My latest manuscript Behind Cellar Doors was a finalist in Pitch Wars 2017 – and it was such a great experience and opportunity. I worked with writer Laura Brown to hone in on the story, making it so much better.

But I soon discovered: It just wasn’t (quite) there.

I started getting rejections. And they were REALLY GREAT rejections. The feedback I was getting from agents was amazing—I was so grateful they took the time to send really insightful information. So, though I was disappointed that I didn’t get a wow-I-can’t-wait-to-sign-you message, their feedback pinpointed exactly what was missing in the MS.

So, I could, like, FIX IT! 

Here are some of my favorite lines that helped push me to the next revision:

“I love this premise, and you really made your setting come alive for the reader. I almost felt like I was working in a vineyard myself. I thought Taylor was well-drawn as your MC, and I really got a sense of her motivation and personality. I also felt like the novel had a strong and original voice which felt consistent throughout. For me, I just didn’t feel enough tension throughout the novel, especially to build up to what is a pretty dark twist at the end.”

“…I see this as a strength to your writing and to her character. Very well done! Unfortunately, I was very much on the fence with this project. A part of me wasn’t as enamored with the romance as I’d hoped, but most of all I believe it was the pacing that kept me at a distance and prevented me from jumping up and down. You’re a great writer with an excellent story here, so I have no doubt you’ll find the perfect agent match soon to champion the project.”

“You’ve got a great voice here, and I really liked the concept, but in the end, I just didn’t fall enough in love to be able to offer representation. But of course, these things are a matter of personal taste, and another agent might feel differently. “

The best news is: one of my Pitch Wars responses was a Revise & Resubmit. And that agent sent fantastic feedback, too, which I was able to combine with the feedback above to get through a kick-ass revision of the story. (Thank you again to the amazing, talented and funny-as-hell Katie Golding, for your A-MAZ-ING edit notes.) The R&R is off in the mail, and I also got to send the new-and-improved version to two other agents who asked for fulls while I was revising.

It’s all a circle, right? Rejection feeds the process.

I’m so thankful for the insight these agents sent. It’s like they took a spotlight and focused it exactly on the parts I needed to improve.

For those of you out there dealing with rejections, make them a part of your process. When a professional takes the time to send valuable insight, think of it as a gift.

I’M STUCK. I’ve had my cursor at the end of Chapter 17 for four weeks. FOUR FREAKING WEEKS! I’m not sure why I can’t get my characters to move on to the next scene.

Maybe it’s because my main characters are about to have sex and my daughters are reading this story as it develops. Maybe. (I can hear my CP Deborah shouting through etherspace: GET TO THE SEX, ALREADY.)

Writer’s block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work, or experiences a creative slowdown. The condition ranges in difficulty from coming up with original ideas to being unable to produce a work for years.

In an effort to MOVE ON ALREADY … I am blogging about my inertia in the hopes that it will a) get my fingers moving and b) share some of the best advice I find with others who might also be stuck in this frustrating state of “word log-jam”.

I immediately turn to my cosmic BFF and constant source of inspiration Elizabeth Gilbert and her wonderful latest publication Big Magic. If you haven’t read Big Magic, I highly recommend it.

Gilbert dedicates an entire section of the book to the role of persistence in creativity, and personally considers plain, old fashioned persistence to be an enormous part of her writing life. She writes:

“For my own part, I decided early on to focus on my devotion to the work above all. That would be how I measured my worth.  I knew that conventional success would depend upon three factors—talent, luck, and discipline—and I knew that two of those three things would never be under my control. Genetic randomness had already determined how much talent I’d been allotted, and destiny’s randomness would account for my share of luck. The only piece I had any control over was my discipline. Recognizing that, it seemed like the best plan would be to work my ass off. That was the only card I had to play, so I played it hard.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

However, this might be my favorite paragraph in the book: a good reminder to tune out the constant critics in our lives and just write:

“Recognizing that people’s reactions don’t belong to you is the only sane way to create. If people enjoy what you’ve created, terrific. If people ignore what you’ve created, too bad. If people misunderstand what you’ve created, don’t sweat it. And what if people absolutely hate what you’ve created? What if people attack you with savage vitriol, and insult your intelligence, and malign your motives, and drag your good name through the mud? Just smile sweetly and suggest – as politely as you possibly can – that they go make their own fucking art. Then stubbornly continue making yours.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Chuck Sambuchino (on WritersDigest.com) talks through his top ways to get through writer’s block. #1 being:

1.) Step away from whatever you’re writing and do anything that’s creative. Paint pictures, write poetry, design images in Photoshop, make a scrapbook or collage, or if you’re masculine, build something in the garage. Work on another creative project for a few hours or days and then go back to writing. When I’m stuck, I paint paintings or work on my website or blog. Jumping to other projects really activates my creativity. The key is to keep exercising the creative part of your brain and eventually you’ll tap back into the flow of writing.
See all 7 of Chuck’s ways to overcome writer’s block here.

This article by Maria Konnikova in The New Yorker covers the origin of the term “Writer’s Block” and suggests that blocked writers need creative and/or emotional therapy. (I challenge you to show how me a writer who doesn’t need creative and/or emotional therapy!)

“Writer’s block has probably existed since the invention of writing, but the term itself was first introduced into the academic literature in the nineteen-forties, by a psychiatrist named Edmund Bergler.”
Read the full article here.

Do you have any tips or tactics for pushing through writer’s block? Please share!

Now … back to the WIP.