Stay Tough

I recently had a friend of mine tell me to Stay Tough. Coming from him, this phrase means a lot because he is always tough! He reminded me of my Dad when we were young. My Dad always used to tell us the same thing. He would say, "You're tough. You can handle it." Whatever "it" happened to be at the time. Over the years, I have said these words to my friends and family countless times. And yet, somehow lately I needed reminding of this lesson.

The novel writing process is a marathon, the book publishing process is a marathon, and the achieving of life-long dreams process is a marathon as well. As a writer, the novel writing process was difficult, but so much fun! I'm a creative, and I hardcore get off on the creativity involved in writing my very first murder mystery novel! However, now I'm at the editing stages of my novel, and the beginning stages of the publication process. This part is so much less fun than the novel writing part. Add on top of that, I have no freaking idea what I'm doing. So every day I do more research into the publication process as a whole and into finding literary agents who accept murder mystery novels from previously unpublished writers specifically. This is exciting but difficult work. There are so many literary agents out there who are all looking for something very specific, and it's different for every single one of them. This I've learned. There is excitement in this fact, though. I feel very confident in my novel, and I'm sure with enough intelligent legwork, I can do this. I can find a literary agent that will believe in my book as much as I do.

To get to the point of querying literary agents, I have to finish a lot of not fun, difficult writing. I have to perfect my novel synopsis. I have to perfect A LOT of very specific query letters. I have to perfect my elevator pitch. Luckily, I have people who can help me edit these things as well as my novel.

So the moral of the story is to Stay Tough! Take a step forward every day. As big a step as I can take. No matter what I know or don't know. No matter how distracted my brain gets with other life concerns. This is a marathon, and I'm nearing the end. I just have to push a bit further. And I have to do it because no one else is going to do it for me. My dreams rest solely on my shoulders. So today I shake off the funk that's been shrouding me for a week. I take a few deep breaths of warm air and soak up a few rays of warm sunshine. I give my creative brain a workout, and I return to center. I refocus and prepare for the last few miles I have to run.