Lag Time, Eat My Dust

Awhile ago I wrote about why we shouldn't quit, even when it looks like we're not getting anywhere. Honestly, I wrote it to encourage myself as much as anyone - I'd submitted an article to 17 magazines and hadn't heard back from one. I should've known better, but still I wondered:  was the article that terrible? Had I offended editors in some way?

Then I submitted it to a few more places. And a 2nd article to 38 markets; and then a 3rd piece to 20 markets.

Finally, it appeared in my inbox:

RE:  Submission

One acceptance came. Then a second. And a third. I even received an acceptance for an article I'd sent out 5 months earlier. And that lag time is the unfortunate (and amazing) thing about writing - that you can FEEL like you're just running in place and know in your gut that you're never going to get anywhere - and with one editor's email find out that you're a total dunderhead who's been obsessing for no reason. In fact, I just read about a whole book dedicated to Writer's Doubt.

The trick is, well, to trick ourselves into moving forward, despite "knowing" that we're not getting anywhere. That could mean keeping tabs on the positive progress you've made by marking it on a chart, or meeting with a writing group weekly.  Whatever it takes, to keep moving forward and working towards that goal.

Linklove,
Colleen

Why Quitting Is a Mistake

Last week I submitted an article to 17 regional parenting publications and have heard back from not a one. Other writers have told me this isn't unusual for RPP's, but I've always been contacted within a week in this market.

Successful blogger Mary Jaksch of A-list Blogging and Write to Done would call this pause "lag time," and says that whenever we put ourselves out there, there's some lag time between production and response, between submission and acceptance, between creating a blog and getting readers and comments.

When we're lucky, the lag time is a few days. Other times it could take weeks or more. The error is to mistake this pause as failure. Writers who do this quit blogging on the cusp of (an unseen) success or stop submitting articles just shy of an acceptance.

The empty inbox always threatens to freeze my progress as I obsessively (and unproductively) poke holes in my submitted article. It's easy to get caught up in the TOO's:  of course they don't want it, it's too short/too long/too general/too self-involved.  But it's so much better to focus on the DO's; on what else can be done to make progress.

Now, if a significant amount of time and effort is poured into it and there's still no response, that's a good reason to analyze things and figure out if something needs to be changed.

But until then, it's all about Building Momentum, about - as scientists would say - building pressure. While it appears as if nothing is happening, each submission (or 17 submissions..), blog, written chapter or simple admission of "I'm a writer" adds more and more pressure until progress is inevitable and as visible as any scientific reaction.

Linklove,
Colleen

Related Posts:

Rejection, Shmijection

Have a Case of Rejection Depression?

Surviving Revision #21

Surviving Revision #21: What Writers Can Learn from Popular Kids' Games

Ever poured months or more into a piece, just to realize you need to scrap it and approach in an entirely different way? Sometimes I let feedback sit for days or weeks before working up the courage to read it - not because I fear critique, but because critique means the work isn't done yet. It means revising or even rewriting entire sections one or two or ten more times. And at a certain point, the question becomes, will this ever be Ready?

The answer, of course, is a big fat YES! So how do you stay motivated to keep at it?

Channel An 8-year Old 
If you've ever played hide and go seek with a good hider, you've learned how to be meticulous. You spent several minutes in a room, looking under blankets, between sofa cushions, anywhere and everywhere your annoying older sister friend could fit. After searching an entire room with no result, you left it and moved on to the next, knowing you were that much closer to the target.

The work you put into a first or second or eighth draft is much like that. While it feels as if you just spent for*ev*er meticulously writing your piece just to scrap it, you're actually working through the "false leads," and getting that much closer to the goal - kind of like that other kids game where you're steered toward a hidden object based on how "hot" or "cold" your friends says you are.

All of that feedback you're getting isn't telling you that your piece will never be Ready. It's purposefully guiding you towards the final draft.

Take Your Regular Dose of Motivation
What makes your fingers itch to get writing? For some it's reading a favorite author; for others it's the appreciative friend who always wants to read the "next chapter" of their work in progress. I've always found that writing groups keep me excited about writing - or, when I'm not excited about my writing - they require that I still write, so the procrastination is held at bay.

Whatever motivates you to write, do it regularly. It's too easy to put off the revision until tomorrow, which becomes next week, and next year. If you're really stuck on a revision, sometimes just taking the Daily Dose is enough to keep your mind on writing until you're finally ready to sit down and tackle the draft again.

Know You're Not Alone
Let's face it:  nobody's first writing attempt is Instant Genius. Novelist Arthur Golden rewrote his entire book three times, over a span of six years. For him, a major shift came when he decided to change the point of view - on the third shot, I believe. But that third book became the bestselling Memoirs of a Geisha. 

I've written before about bloggers who seemed to attain overnight success, but those are the exception. Jeff Goins is one of many writers who started several unread blogs before finally hitting the mark. In a recent podcast he attributed its success to what he learned from his first few blogs - which we won't call failures. They were simply his learning curve, the unvoiced "cold, warm, warmer," that steers us all in the right direction.

Linklove,

Colleen