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| Jacques Francois Duvall oversees my work on replacing the back porch stairs. As usual, he isn't impressed. |
The Book is still in the hands of Acquisitions Editors at Publishing Houses across the country. All of the editors who have read and responded thus far have liked the book and the characters but none of them have been willing to make an offer on the manuscript.
Life, eh?
So, while the dust is collecting on The Book I've started preliminary work on The Other Book. I have most of the characters sketched out in my head along with the basic storyline. I've keyed most of this into Scrivener, which seems a good place to keep track of virtual notecards that I can access online. (I have the files on Dropbox, meaning I can access them from a variety of computers) With most of the groundwork done it's time to start actually writing the thing.
At this point I'm still something of a reluctant writer. Writing isn't easy to begin with and since I'm still feeling frustrated by the Endless Revisions from The Book diving back into writing anything comes with a healthy dose of suspicious hesitations.
What has helped me thus far has been an app called CoachMe*. It's basically a reminder app with many pre-set reminders while allowing you to create your own. The pre-set reminders also have Forums where you can ask questions and find support for whatever you're looking for help with.
One such group is "Write for 15 minutes each day." I've never been able to commit to writing every day because I've seen it as a large time commitment that doesn't easily fit in with my work and home schedule. I looked at this CoachMe reminder and thought, "I can handle 15 minutes a day." And, for the most part, so far I have.
It's been enough to get The Other Book plotted out and some of the problems worked out in my head. Even small, incremental progress is progress.
-- Tom
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* CoachMe is a free app for both iOS and Android. The reminders are free as are the Forums. They have live Life Coaches available for hire if you're looking for more individualized, personal help. I am in no way associated with this app or anyone working for them (as best I know).
