Happy New Year … and back to work!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. The labs where my husband works closes down for the week between Christmas and New Year’s each year, so I go missing to reconnect with him and the family during that time. We go offline, as much as we can. Yes, I did get eye twitches, but it was well worth it. Family time is rare as our family grows older and the time we spend together is priceless. We had great times and new memories to add to the virtual scrapbook. But now it’s time to get back to the writing life.

As the mentors for PitchWars work with their writers and get ready for the agent round, I’ll be blogging about my editing journey with my publisher. I received my edits from my editor on January 1. Happy New Year to me, right? In my quick read through, I noticed several things that I did that I point out in the critiques/edits I do for others. Why is that? I swear I had several “Doh” moments reading through it.

So that got me thinking, not how dense I am, but how it really takes a village to get a book to it’s best shine before sending it off into the world. When I first started getting critiques on my writing, I used to think I was dense, not good enough, a terrible writer. Now, I think, cool, I can make it better.

Each step to publication is a learning journey. We are taught our weaknesses each time we put ourselves out there. In writing, it seems, we are never perfect. There is always work to do to get us close to perfection. I’ve discovered that perfection shouldn’t be our goal, we can never really achieve it anyway. There will always be someone who doesn’t like what we produce.

So, I’m letting go of what I can’t control and accepting what I can, and so can you. Tell the best story you possibly can, put on that tough skin and send it out into the world. You’ll only get better, but never perfect. Once you accept that, you’ll be happier. Do your best and surround yourself with people who only want that for you. Get rid of the negative, embrace the positive in your life. Live long and prosper (love Spock quotes, by the way). Come meet other writers and find critique partners on our new website to help you reach your goals.

CPseek

I’m not making a New Year’s resolution (I stopped doing that a few years back), I never keep them. I’m pledging to let go of  negative thoughts. I think I’ll go logical like Spock this year. Actually, I think my husband is Spock *glances over at him to see if he has pointy ears*. Hmm…

What will you let go of this year? And if you do make New Year’s resolutions, which one did you make this year? Or what’s your favorite Spock quote? I leave you will this one…

I am what I am, Leila, and if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else’s. —Spock in ‘This Side of Paradise’