First of all, our list for the Critique Partner Blogfest is growing, but there’s always room for more. If you’re looking for someone to read your work, or if you’re looking for something new to read, check it out ^_^ (Yes, I’ll keep bringing this up until Feb 13 is done and gone. We’d love to pull in as many of you talented authors as we can).

When I was younger, many, many things were measured in terms of age.

“When I turn 13, Dad says I can pierce my ears”
“When I turn 16, I can finally drive”
“When I turn 18, I’ll finally be treated as an adult”

etc, etc. With every milestone, there was still another looming in the distance.

When I started writing seriously, it was the same thing. Actually, I should amend that. For as far back as I can remember, my mother wanted to be a published author. I remember being ten or so and watching her print out manuscripts and mail them off to publishers. Entire printed manuscripts sent directly to editors at publishing houses just to query. Can you imagine? (okay, some of you probably can :-D)

And seeing that, I had decided I was going to do the same thing. I believe my first real effort was when I was eleven or twelve. I wrote a ‘novel’ about the first female NBA player. I’m pretty sure it had romance and suspense and strange men in masks making calls on video phones. I submitted it to a contest and was all ready to reap the rewards.

And the kind people at the contest critiqued it for me. I don’t remember much of the critique, but I do remember the phrase ‘immature story telling’.

When I was barely older, I wrote something else. Or maybe it was the same story. I honestly can’t remember. I entered it in the local writers’ group writing contest – youth division this time. I won first place and thought I was the most amazing person in the world. Never mind that it was a new category and I was only one of three entrants.

At the time, those were the ultimate achievements for me. Once the goal was reached, I had succeeded.

I kind of miss those days. Now it works more like this.
Step 1 – write a novel.
Step 2 – revise the novel.
Step 3 – seek interest for the novel
Step 4 – get rejected
Step 5 – revise the way you’re seeking interest
5a – repeat steps 3-5 until interest is shown
Step 6 – send more of the story
6a – repeat steps 4-5 until interest is shown
Step 7 – See the story in print
7a – repeat steps 1-7

I had Step 1 down years ago. I was really good at that step. That is, as far as I’m concerned, the easiest step. Notice it doesn’t say ‘write a good novel’ or ‘write something other people consider a novel’. No, it’s much more generic than that.

Step 2 took me a bit longer. It wasn’t until about a year ago that I finally started to get a handle of this revision thing.

Fortunately, I was optimistic enough to skip Step 2 the first time out. I wrote a novel, and then I queried it. YAY! Four different agents. The most horrendous query letter ever, even after reading all the ‘how tos’ I could find online (including Query Shark).

So I finally finished Step 2 and then did steps 3-5 over and over again for about eight months. And even though it had taken me my entire life to reach that point, I was still lamenting the fact that I was stuck there. I would tell myself “if I could only get to step 6. If I could just get someone to read the actual story, then I’d be famous overnight.” (Because yes, despite the self-doubt, I still have an inflated ego :-D)

To be fair, along the way I’ve seen Step 7 happen about a dozen times now for my short stories. But even when that happens I say “this is amazing, now if only someone would do the same for one of my novels.”

At some point in the process, I reached Step 6. And I was all like “WOOT!” because you know, Step 6 (which I’ve never actually called Step 6 before today, but you get the point). And it turns out, it’s not as easy as “if someone would just read the actual story…”

So in the midst of all of that, there’s always something that happens next, even after you get to step 7. Because step 7a is the end of the goto loop, and then the entire process starts over. Hell, sometimes the entire process starts over even if there isn’t a Step 7.

And it hit me last night, as I was trying to remind myself there was no reason to sleep with my phone by my bed so I could check my email every time I woke up during the night, that it doesn’t get easier with each step. There’s more knowledge, there’s more experience, but the waiting and progressing steps always exist.

But maybe I just haven’t reached that point yet. Is there a point, a step I’m missing, where it magically gets easier to wait for the world to appreciate what I’ve created as much as(or with any luck more than) I do?