Pre-dawn is my time. I wake up at 4:30 a.m., french press my coffee, feed the animals, get a tall glass of water, sometimes enjoy a mandarin orange, and then do something productive.
In 2018 that productive thing was go to the gym for an hour and run five miles. In 2019, that productive thing was write, edit, and query my novel. The problem with the former was that the latter didn’t get done, and vice versa. And then there is, of course, the question of when I’m going to squeeze in any reading for grad school.
So in 2020, I’m splitting up my days. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I am going to the gym. Tuesday and Thursday, I’m staying home. The gym time will likely be race training for a half marathon, but might be other stuff too. The home time will likely be querying my YA novel to agents, but could be drafting, editing, or something unrelated to my writing goals like homework or reading.
As of this morning, I’ve queried nine agents (two today) and the seven I queried before all requested more pages and thoughtfully considered them as far as I can tell, but most have been rejections so far. I feel good about the fact that they’re getting so close to agents’ brains, however, and although it feels far away and like it’ll take a lot of work to get there, at least I know there’s a reward at the end which is hopefully not too far off.
I guess I’m race training every day of the week then, right? Except the reward at the end of the querying journey isn’t a banana and a medal, it’s a literary agent and the opportunity to run a marathon of publication submissions after the half marathon of getting an agent.
The Merry Manuscript 