We had an interesting lecture today in English 318–Brandon explained the format of the final to us, and part of the final is that we actually submit something we’ve been writing to a professional publisher!\u00a0 So, now not only will I finish this novel by the end of the semester, but I’ll be sending it out as well!\u00a0 And, you know what?\u00a0 It’s amazing how pumped up and terrified that makes me feel…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But you know what?\u00a0 I’m planning on going all the way with this novel–I’m going to send it to a major publisher, probably Tor.\u00a0 Brandon says that’s like sending it into the void, since it takes so long to hear back from them (and they’ll probably reject me), but hey!\u00a0 Gotta shoot high!\u00a0 Besides, this is the kind of place that I ultimately want to publish me.\u00a0 It may not be this novel, and it may not be the next five novels that I write, but eventually, I think I’m going to make it.<\/p>\n
That is, if life doesn’t get in the way first…<\/p>\n
English 318 today was a lot of fun!\u00a0 We talked about world building and setting, etc.\u00a0 Something really funny happened as well: Brandon always has trouble writing and spelling words when he’s writing on the whiteboard, and he makes some funny mistakes.\u00a0 He was about to write the word “climate” on the board, but then said “naw, I always forget how to spell it.” Which prompted me to blurt out “how the heck are you a writer if you can’t spell?” Then I realized what I’d said, and was like “no offense, of course,” to which the entire class burst out laughing pretty hard.\u00a0 Of course I know why Brandon is a good writer–because he can tell a heck of a good story!\u00a0 Spell check and editors are for the more menial spelling errors.<\/p>\n
It’s classes like this that keep me in college towards the end of the semester.\u00a0 Every time I come out of 318, I’m pumped to write! …and then school gets in the way, and life, and all of that.<\/p>\n
Which led me to think today about what the future holds for me as an aspiring writer.\u00a0 What can I expect?\u00a0 I know that a very important part of adult life has to do with priorities and juggling all of your many obligations.\u00a0 You’ve got your family life, and then your professional life, and then your church life, and all three of these things place incredible demands on your time, and it’s impossible to simultaneously satisfy the demands of all three worlds.<\/p>\n
Well, if I’m going to really be serious about this writing thing, then my writing life is going to be the fourth spoke on that wheel.\u00a0 Which means that my life is going to be that much harder to balance.<\/p>\n
I already fail to meet all of my high priority obligations–I never read the scriptures as much as I want, I haven’t been to the temple for months, I never finish all of my Arabic homework, the last date I went on was last semester, etc etc.\u00a0 Even with writing, I often fail to meet my daily goals.<\/p>\n
All I can say is thank goodness for the atonement.\u00a0 I can’t do everything right all of the time, but the message of the gospel is that that’s ok.\u00a0 As long as I’m doing my best and leaving the rest up to God, that’s ok.\u00a0 I don’t have to feel guilty for it.<\/p>\n
That alone doesn’t keep the wheels spinning, however.\u00a0 I’ve got to be goal oriented, but not so much that it blinds me to the bigger picture.\u00a0 I’m doing well in school right now, my writing overall is coming along very well, I’m attending my church meetings and praying daily, I’m at least trying to date (asked two girls this week and got two rejections), and I’ve got work and am doing well in it.\u00a0 So, even if I fall short in little ways, I’m still in the running.<\/p>\n
One thing that is definitely going to be an absolute, no matter what, is that my family will come first.\u00a0 Even if it means severely reducing the amount of time that I spend writing (or even putting that on hold for a while), if my writing life comes between me and my family, that’s what I’m going to do.\u00a0 Which is scary, because I’m so involved in it now, but my family is going to be the absolute highest priority for me.<\/p>\n
However, I think<\/em> I can juggle it.\u00a0 And how will I do that?\u00a0 By learning to juggle it now.\u00a0 That’s what I’ve been doing this semester–keeping all the wheels spinning while having a writing life as well.\u00a0 I haven’t kept all the wheels spinning perfectly, but I’m learning.<\/p>\n What it ultimately comes down to is time management<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We had an interesting lecture today in English 318–Brandon explained the format of the final to us, and part of the final is that we actually submit something we’ve been writing to a professional publisher!\u00a0 So, now not only will I finish this novel by the end of the semester, but I’ll be sending it… Continue reading The Lost Colony to be submitted by May!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[34,30,8,37,599],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-college-life","tag-life-decisions","tag-writing-in-general","tag-spirituality","tag-thoughts-reflections","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-34","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}