"And bad mistakes/ I've made a few." - "We Are the Champions" by Queen
First of all, I am not posting pictures of Hurricane Irene because we didn't actually get a hurricane! I have to say, I'm a little disappointed in Irene. I was expecting this big storm, equal or greater to Hurricane Isabel from 2003, but alas, it didn't happen (sigh). Okay, enough dramatics. We did get a tropical storm, but no damage and no significant power outages, so all is good.
Now, onto the latest Top Ten list. Today, I will be listing my top ten biggest mistakes I have made in my writing career (or what I hope will one day be a career) - so far. Hey, I'm honest enough to admit that I will always be making mistakes, but I also always learn from them. On that note, here's the list. I would love to hear what all of you have to say about this. What errors have you made along the way? Are mine totally stupid or embarrassingly familiar? Inquiring minds want to know...
1. Thinking this was going to be easy - My biggest flaw has been my own self confidence. Not that I'm full of myself or anything, but when I finished my first Willow Ryan novel, I was sure that I would land my dream agent right away (she requested a partial and ended up passing on it, but I got good feedback), get a publishing contract quickly, and become the next Melody Carlson/Meg Cabot/Robin Jones Gunn. I was so naive...
2. Having a typo on a query letter - This one killed me! I saw after I had emailed a carefully crafted letter to an agent that I had spent hours working on (very early on in the querying process), and I had accidentally typed "on" instead of "in". I will never forget that, and it bothered me to no end. I am positive that is why I never heard back from that agent.
3. Misspelling the agent's name - A huge, colossal, boneheaded mistake, and I made it! It was an unfamiliar name and for the first time in my life, I didn't triple check the salutation, and it came back to bite me. I was so mad at myself because of a stupid mistake that I should have caught, but didn't. I guess OCD was on vacation that day.
4. Taking rejections personally - I know you're not supposed to do this because it's strictly business, but to the writer who has invested so much in his/her work, it's very, very personal. I am trying to let it go, but those rejections still sting a little. Okay, sometimes a lot.
5. Opening with the weather - My first version of Secrets opened with Willow laying in the middle of a field as a thunderstorm approached. I spent so long making sure this scene was perfect, only to find out that this is a huge no-no. In fact, opening with the weather is on the top of tons of agents' pet peeve lists. Upon finding this out, I promptly began editing.
6. Thinking I was done with Secrets two years ago - Since then I have rewritten that novel at least eight times, the first chapter in particular. It is SO much better now than it was back then, and I have learned to never say that I am completely finished. Not until I see my book(s) in Barnes & Noble, that is.
7. Wanting to give up - There have been times over the past two years when I have felt that this will never happen, a publishing career is out of the question for me, and I should just forget about it. That is not a winning attitude, and I absolutely hate to lose, so I got over it. I still have my negative moments (days, weeks), but I will never quit.
8. Similarly named characters - I don't know how I missed this, but it wasn't until my third rewrite of Secrets that I noticed I had a character named Michael (Willow's dad) and another character named Mike (her friend). These characters never intertwined, so maybe that's why I didn't notice, but come on. How stupid is that? I changed Mr. Ryan's name to Patrick. At least that was an easy fix.
9. Song lyrics - This one took me a long time to discover. My first three novels were written with tons of song lyrics included, because Willow always has a song stuck in her head and tends to start singing without warning (autobiographical...). There are a lot of pop culture references in my books (they take place in the 1980s), and I had to do a ton of editing when I discovered that I could not use song lyrics, no matter how much I loved them, without permission. Very expensive permission. So, I worked around it, mentioning artists and song titles, but never exact lyrics, and I didn't lose any of the pop culture charm I originally had. Lesson learned and I'm a better writer for having made the mistake.
10. Checking my mailbox and email constantly - I nearly drove myself crazy looking for responses with my first couple rounds of submissions. Let me tell you, responses, when they do come, usually take forever! Often weeks, if not months, and I am not a patient person. I even got a response over a year after querying an agent. Once they are sent, I have learned to try to forget about them, and if I get a response, I am always surprised.
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