A Win and A Loss

The past week has been full of emotions. First of all, Thanksgiving was good and bad at the same time. I had a good time seeing my Mom, Dad, sister, brother and his wife. I also was very excited to see my Aunt K. However, actually going over to my other Aunt’s house was pretty much a nightmare. I won’t go into it, but let’s just say I’ll have some extra blog material tomorrow about it.

We ended up coming home early to tend to Cookie, G’s dog that I have come to love as my own as well. She was not feeling well, so we rushed back to take care of her. I think she is slowly getting better, but it was really scary to see her in such a rough state so soon after we left for Georgia.

And as important as those two bits of new are… neither of those is what I was planning to write about today. Today I am writing about my career. In terms of writing, this weekend was both a win and a loss. I got my very first official rejection letter this weekend. Saturday actually. Just one month after I sent my story to Brava, I received a very nice and surprisingly personal rejection letter from the editor saying that although my writing is engaging, the premise is too similar to some of the books they are already publishing. In terms of rejections, it was one of the best you could hope for. Basically, the editor took the time to compliment me when she could have just sent a form rejection letter. Hopefully what that means is that she would be open to seeing other things from me in the future with a more fresh perspective or original premise. A rejection with hope for the future, perhaps.

The funny thing about getting turned down for publishing is that instead of making me feel totally down and crumpled, it actually made me feel inspired to write and work harder. It’s like, now I know I can do it. I can complete the cycle of write, submit, hear back… then submit again if necessary, and so on. In fact, I submitted my story to the second publisher on my list right away. Hopefully I will hear something back before Christmas. We’ll see.

So the rejection was my loss, in a way… but I also had a win! I finished my very first full-length novel! I came in at just over 50,000 words, and even though I know I sort of rushed the ending, I think I have a solid manuscript to work with when I start the editing process. I can’t believe I actually wrote all of that in one short month!! I learned a lot through NaNo WriMo. I learned that I can push myself harder and get a lot more done in a short period of time than I ever thought possible. I also learned that I don’t have to organize and plot out every tiny little detail before I start writing. I can trust the story itself and let the words flow. Then, I can take the basics of what I created and edit it until it’s a great novel… hopefully!

So, two milestones were crossed this weekend. My first full novel is done in rough draft form, and my first rejection letter is sitting on my desk. Surely, the good news of my first published book isn’t too far off.