Day 8: Making Progress

Enough is enough, I say. How much more can I keep fooling myself? I’m a write dammit. So I write. I’ve done my 30 minutes of yoga, put on two loads of washing, checked emails and ate a nutritious breakfast - two scrambled eggs on toast with a glass of water with lemon. Time to get writing.

The query challenge for this month has been getting me down. I feel under pressure. I feel that with each passing day I’m further away from achieving my goal and closer to smacking myself over the head for being such a fool. Ok, so I’m not going to smack myself, that would look silly, and probably hurt, but you know what I mean. 

So, I took action. Preparing 31 queries scares me. I’m scared of looking like a fool. I’m frightened an editor will laugh at my request. I know it’s ridiculous. Editors are only human and the worst thing they can say is no. 

I contacted five editor’s today requesting writer’s guidelines including two publications that I’ve been dreaming of being published in for years - Shape, Runner’s World and Women’s Running. I’m a runner and a writer, what can I say, it would be pretty cool to have my byline in one of these. 

And it’s only 8:33am. 

How productive was the rest of the day? That’s subjective. 

I hung out with mum for a couple of hours, her washing machine broke and the new one won’t be delivered until next week, so she came by for coffee and hot cross buns and to use our washing machine. I managed to publish two posts on my personal finance site, went for a 30 minute power walk in the local park, and printed off part 1 of my novel in progress for proofreading. I really can’t complain today. 

How has your Saturday been?

31 Day Query Challenge

2014 is the year for getting things done. For achievements that are long overdue and commitments that should have been taken seriously a long time ago. I'm going to be a first time mum in three months and I'm getting motivated to achieve my wildest dreams.

It might have something to do with the fact that I'm going to be 100% responsible for another person. One that for at least the next eighteen years will be completely relying on me. I'm going to be the role model, the person that will shape their life, their future, their beliefs in the world. Yes there's the better half as well, and the rest of society, but as a mother I know I'm going to take complete responsibility.

How can I teach my kid(s) that they can achieve anything they desire if I'm not following my dreams?
How can I blatantly tell them to believe in themselves if I'm failing to do it for myself?
How can I expect more of them if I'm not expecting more of me?

I can't. That would make me a hypocrite. I don't want to be a hypocrite.

I want to be a good role model for my child to be. I want to be someone they can look up to. I want to be a support system in any way they need me to be. I want to be the best mum that I'm capable of being. I know that's not going to be possible if I'm putting my dreams on the back burner and failing to move forward. All talk and no action just makes me look silly.

Maybe it's the hormones that are making me so much more productive, maybe it's finally growing up and realising that no one is going to hand me over freelance assignments or a book deal if I don't actually make the first move myself. Either way the year has started off with a bang.

January was all about editing the novel, which I did, and realised there's so much more I need to do. But it was a good month of editing and I'm well on my way to finishing it this year and possibly even self publishing. February was for free writing. The point was to get in the habit of writing every day, getting ideas down on the computers and working through the novel.

March is here. March is all about querying. The challenge for the next 31 days is to write and submit at least 31 queries. For some it might be a walk in the park for others it might seem extremely difficult. I think one query a day is realistic and while I'm not going to be sending out  queries every day because I work full time, spend 15 hours commuting each week, and am exhausted by 8pm thanks to the pregnancy, I can still prepare the ideas during my commute and commit to sending out around 7-9 queries each weekend starting from tomorrow.

March is going to be a good month. 31 queries. Hopefully, by the end of the month I will have a freelance assignment or two. Ideally, when I'm on maternity leave I'd love to be able to get my freelance writing business off the ground.

Join me for the next month and spend time querying publications and getting your writing to where you want it to be. I'll share with you my triumphs and failures.

What are you doing this month to get published and make your writing dreams comes true?