Category: Wisdom

For the Birds…

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I recently read Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird (mentioned it in last week’s Reading Wrap-Up). If you’ve yet to read it, I highly recommend picking it up. Bird by Bird is an excellent craft book–not too technical, not too preachy, full of concise,  snappy chapters, and at times laugh-out-loud funny.


As I was perusing Bird by Bird, I got the urge to reread bits of my very first manuscript. As I’ve said before, Novel One is tragically low concept epic teen romance that has lots of sweet little scenes I’ll always love. It also has a forced “plot,” loads of over-writing, and characters that are conveniently clueless. In other words, Novel One is completely unsellable.

Now, I’m sure Novel One’s flaws are run of the mill for first (and second and third) efforts. I made mistakes lots of new writers make, learned as I went, and improved with time. I read tons of YA and piles of craft books, and picked up tips and inspiration and lessons along the way. And, it just so happens that a few of my favorite lessons from Bird by Bird  apply directly to Novel One. I’ll share them as they apply to my own writing and maybe save you some trouble. 🙂

1: BE FLEXIBLE – While writing Novel One, I had a very specific direction for the story. And I took it there, even though at times it felt forced and unnatural.  I also had exact, detailed scenes in mind, scenes I eventually wedged in, whether they fit the overall story arc or not. All this pushing and coercing and throwing around of my writerly weight resulted in a story that reads like this: Say what?!

I failed my characters. I neglected to listen to them. I didn’t let them guide the plot. Instead, I molded them, made them do certain things and act certain ways just for the sake of the storyline (which, honestly, wasn’t even all that strong). What I should have done was let the plot grow and expand and change as I got to know my characters.

2: DO NOT BE AFRAID – The earliest drafts of Novel One are so very vanilla. I followed all the rules. I didn’t let my characters swear. I barely let them kiss. They all drove nice cars and lived in tidy houses in a lovely town. They spoke politely and made good choices. Sure, a few bad things happened to them, but through no fault of their own. These people–their lives–were flawless. The reason for all this vanilla? I was afraid of what people (my parents, my husband, my friends) would think if I really went there.

Over time, I’ve developed courage and an anything-goes attitude. What difference does it make if one of my characters drops an F-bomb? Who cares if she wears a skanky top or drinks a beer once in a while? So what if she thinks about school and friends and family and boys and–gasp!–sex? If she’s in character and the story is moving forward, she can do no wrong. But I never went to any of those places in Novel One because I was too focused on my mental naysayers, watching them shake their heads and wag their fingers, listening to them preach about what’s appropriate. And now the story’s a snoozefest.

3: GET IN THE ZONE – Novel One is choppy and lacking in voice. This is partly to blame on my previous lack of flexibility (and experience), but my failure to get in the zone and stay there is also responsible. By “the zone” I mean that delightfully elusive place where you’re focused and typing and barely thinking. Suddenly you glance at the clock and three hours have passed. You’ve written 5K words without ever looking up from your computer screen.

For me, the zone is a silent room, a comfy chair, and a burning candle. I have critique partners who find their zone while listening to loud music through headphones. Others like to work at a certain table in a specific coffee shop with an iced Chai beside them. I need to be in my the zone in order to listen to the voices in my head. I need to listen to the voices in my head in order to find MY voice. (Is this all making me sound slightly crazy? I’m not alone, right?)

I didn’t know about the zone while writing Novel One. I wrote whenever and wherever, and it always took me ages to find a groove–if I did at all. Now I try hard to give myself the best writing conditions possible because only when I get into the zone does my best writing emerges.


I’d love to hear about your first manuscript. What beginner mistakes did you make? What craft books have you found most helpful?

RTW: *Mistakes are the portals of discovery…

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Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where the ladies at YA Highway post a weekly writing- or reading-related question for participants to respond to on their own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic: What’s the biggest writing/querying/publishing mistake you’ve made so far?

I’ve yet to do anything colossally stupid or embarrassing (I’m sure my time will come), though I have made mistakes that have slowed my progress. I’ve neglected to research (which explains why my first YA manuscript [a tragically low-concept contemporary] clocked in at approximately 130,000 words). I’ve queried too soon (yes, that same first manuscript), and I’ve entertained the wildly unproductive belief that I am the exception. But my biggest mistake, the one I’ve since remedied and will never, ever make again, is trying to make it as a writer all by myself.


Good news: That first manuscript? The tragically low-concept contemporary? It somehow snagged me a critique partner (the amazingly talented Heather Howland), who tore it up in the kindest of ways . In the process, she taught me all about voice, word choice, and plot, and also hooked me up with some of her writing friends (including my other two amazingly talented critique partners Jus Accardo and AE Rought).

In the interest of inserting myself further into the YA writing community, I started blogging and tweeting and interacting with all kinds of fantastic people (both online and local). Can you guess what happened next? I’ll tell you: Writing became easier. And more fun. I felt less crazy. Less alone. I also learned a lot, and my writing improved in the process.

I’m not sure what I would do without the YA community, and I’m not sure how my sanity survived that first manuscript without my critique partners and writing friends. (My husband might say it didn’t survive. Hmm…).

For more, check in Friday. I’ll share some of my favorite online writing communities. Also, stop by YA Highway to see how other participants answered this question.

Do tell… what’s the biggest writing/querying/publishing mistake you’ve made so far?

*The wise words of James Joyce.

Quotables

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First and most importantly, a HUGE congratulations to my adorably Australian, super supportive, and terrifically talented friend Amie Kaufman, who has recently signed with Tracey Adams of Adams Literary. Amie writes YA and MG, and if the snippets of her work I’ve read during blogfests and contests are any indication, she’s amazing! Amie also runs a fantastic blog that you should definitely be reading. Learn more about her signing HERE. Congrats, Amie… I’m so very happy for you!

In other news, Monday blogging is always sort of hard for me. I often find myself wondering, What to write, what to write, what to write? But while procrastinating online the other night (something at which I’ve become alarmingly adept), I came across a website full of quotes on writing. Some were inspirational, some were snarky, a few were pretentious, and some were humorous. Several are worth sharing…

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.  ~Anton Chekhov

The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof shit detector.  This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have had it.  ~Ernest Hemingway

One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment.  ~Hart Crane

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.  One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.  ~George Orwell

A good style should show no signs of effort.  What is written should seem a happy accident.  ~W. Somerset Maugham

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you.  And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.  ~Arthur Polotnik

Be obscure clearly.  ~E.B. White


Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.  ~Hannah Arendt

I love writing.  I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.  ~James Michener

And my very favorite, from “Great Rules of Writing”:

Do not put statements in the negative form.
And don’t start sentences with a conjunction.
If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a
great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all.
De-accession euphemisms.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Last, but not least, avoid clichés like the plague.
~William Safire

What are your favorites quotes on writing?

Time Management (Or Not)

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Lately I’ve thinking a lot about 2006. It was a weird year. I was living in Tennessee about two-thousand miles from my family and lifelong friends,my husband was deployed, and I was childless. Since I’d had a roommate or lived in a sorority house all through college and my husband and I got married two weeks after graduation, 2006 was my first experience with living completely alone. It was cool. I could eat whatever I wanted, watch whatever I wanted on TV, sleep whenever I wanted, go wherever I wanted. Granted, I was teaching full-time, but from about 4pm to 11pm, I could do as I pleased.

Now, whenever I think about 2006, I ponder with equal parts bewilderment and annoyance the following questions: WHY THE HELL DID I WASTE ALL THAT FREE TIME?! WHY DON’T I HAVE ANYTHING TO SHOW FOR IT?! WHY WASN’T I WRITING SERIOUSLY BACK THEN?!

Lately, there just does not seem to be enough time in the day. Thanks to yet another deployment (the fourth of my eight year marriage, in case you’re curious), I am essentially a single parent. Luckily, I have a sweet, well-behaved, awesome-to-hang-out-with child, but holy cow does she keep me busy! I feel like I’m running her all over Western Washington (ballet and swimming and play dates and Spanish) all day everyday, and when we aren’t rushing to one of her activities, there’s grocery shopping and lawn mowing and house cleaning and bill paying and dog walking… plus, I’ve recently decided to run an organized 5K, so there’s exercise to fit in to the day as well.


Did you notice that I didn’t list writing on my above list of activities? That’s because by the time my kiddo goes to bed, I’m too exhausted to sit up straight, let alone add to my WIP word count. Still, I’m trying hard to fit it in. I’ve got three different projects in varying stages of crazy completion. Where Poppies Bloom is close to being “done” and hopefully on submission, Cross My Heart is being replotted and rewritten (I’m REALLY excited about where it’s going!), and Bus WIP is… well, very much still a WIP.

I’ve come to the realization that I’m going to have to do some serious prioritizing to ensure that I’m getting everything I need to get done DONE, and that includes writing. But for me, there are a few things that will always come before I sit down at my computer to work:

~Family. My daughter (and my husband, when he’s home) come first.
~My health, including exercise and nutrition (I will never be one of those people who’s working so hard that oops, I forget to eat).
~The cleanliness of my house. I simply can’t clear my head enough to write when I’m surrounded by clutter.
~Reading. I consider it professional development, plus, I really enjoy it.

And there are some things I’m more than happy to let go of in order to get the words down on paper:

~TV, Movies, Magazines. Thank goodness for DVR and Netflix. 🙂
~Hobbies. Once upon a time, I fancied myself a quilter (no, I am not eighty), but that little pastime has kind of gone by the wayside over the last few years.
~My Social Life. If you don’t have a four-year-old who my daughter likes to play with, I’m probably not spending a lot of time with you. Sad but true.
~Sleep. Overrated.
~Social Media. This is a hard one because often it goes hand-in-hand with a successful writing career. BUT, there’s no writing career if there are no complete manuscripts.


So, I’m curious… how do you prioritize your time? What are you willing to sacrifice for writing? What comes first for you?

Current Must Reads…

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There’s been so much action in the YA blogging world over the past week or so. In the past few days alone, I’ve read several excellent posts that I’ve 1) Found profound/interesting/thoughtful/helpful 2) Caught myself thinking about over and over and 3) Want to share with all of you. Without further ado…

Writer Natalie Whipple’s What to Expect When You’re Submitting, a cohesive post covering every angle  of the one step of the publication process we don’t often hear a lot about, including: dealing with the internet, waiting, and your mental state… Submission can do a number on your sanity. I like to call it “pendulum swings.”

Triangles of Love, in which literary agent Sarah LaPolla says: A good love triangle should force your main character to ask, “Who do I want to be?” not simply, “Whom do I want to be with?”

Author Gayle Forman’s wise post on Jealousy and how she deals: I have two choices: give in to the insecurity and feel jealous of other authors’ virtuosity or give in to my better angels and rejoice in these wonderful books and tell the world about them.

An Extremely Honest and Scary Post by author Kirsten Hubbard, who talks candidly about debuting as a midlist author: But knowing my book wasn’t given a full chance to soar in this all-important first quarter — even if wasn’t because of its content or quality, but because of its genre (contemporary), my author status (debut), the economy (brutal), and publishing climate (insanely competitive) — it hurts.

Author Barry Lyga’s On the WSJ, YA, and Art, in which he shrewdly refuses to play into WSJ’s Meghan Cox Gurdon’s game: As long as there has been art, there have been naysayers and lack-a-wits jeering from sidelines, mocking the efforts of those who create. I’ve dealt with these nincompoops my entire life and I’m just too old to give a damn what they think or say anymore… I refuse to justify my art.

Subplots–Where to Find Them and How to Use Them from writer Amanda Hannah at YA Highway. I look at subplotting like braiding. We have a couple different threads, it’s just a matter of introducing them into the story at the right time and weaving them together.

So, that’s what I’ve got today. Am I missing anything? Do you have any fantastic links to share?

 

 

On Querying:

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(I’m slowly making my return to blogging. My husband recently deployed and I have a bit more free time on my hands. Happy to be back!)

A few weeks ago I got an email from a fellow writer who’d read my Holy Crap: I Have an Agent! post. As well as offering congratulations, she asked for advice on querying. At first I was surprised and flattered, but not long after opening her email I started to get a feeling of… I don’t know. Unworthiness? I’m so not qualified to be doling out advice! When I told my husband this, he said, “Uh, why not? You’ve been querying off and on for the last year and now you’ve landed an agent. You’re totally qualified.”

Shouldn't everything in life be this cut and dry?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized he might be right. While I’m certainly not an expert on querying (is anyone?), I have had a fair amount of experience and I’ve gained some wisdom that’s probably worth sharing. 

Below are the top ten things I’ve learned regarding the query process. Of course, the following advice only applies once you have an edited, critiqued, revised, sparklingly clean, complete manuscript, as well as a compelling query letter…

1) You won’t know if you’re truly ready to query until you send out a few letters. Of course you shouldn’t  send out your first batch of query letters the same day you type The End at the bottom of your first draft.  It goes without saying that there should be much critiquing, editing and revising before you ever contact an agent about your manuscript. But, you can theoretically spend ages  seeking feedback and tinkering with your story. At some point, scary as it is, you have to be DONE. That isn’t to say you won’t want to revise again (and again) sometime down the line–especially after you start receiving replies on that first batch of query letters.

2) Put a blurb about your manuscript (and possibly a short excerpt) on your blog, and don’t forget your easy-to-find email address. Last fall I had an agent (one who is legit and respected, but isn’t open to unsolicited queries) happen upon my blog. She read the blurb and excerpt I’d posted about a previous WIP, and emailed me to request pages. Talk about surprising! While most agents probably don’t spend a lot of time trolling writer blogs, it does happen. Why not entice them any way possible?

3) Take advantage of helpful agent-focused blogs like Casey McCormick and Natalie Aguirre’s Literary Rambles, Krista V.’s Mother. Write. Repeat., and  Jay Eckert’s Sharpened Pen. These people have graciously put hours and hours of time into their agent lists, databases and interviews. They are amazing resources! I learned about new agents, agents’ tastes, current clients, sales, query pet peeves, and more from sites like these. Querying is incredibly time-consuming, and accurate information on agents and agencies is sometimes hard to find online. Don’t reinvent the wheel. It’s quicker (and easier) to cross-check information that’s already been compiled for you than it is to start from scratch.

4) Stay organized. Be on top of outgoing queries and incoming replies. Know which agents you’ve queried and when. Know the name of their agency. Know their usual response times, or if they’re of the no reply is a no school. And keep querying! I tried to have about eight queries out at all times. When I received a pass, I sent out a new query letter. Rejection is easier to take when you know you’ve got other options out there. On the flip side, when I received a request for pages I sent them immediately, PLUS a new query letter to a different agent.

5) Follow the blogs of agents who interest you well before it’s time to query them. More often than not, they post wish lists, favorite published books, and/or general hints about their tastes. This is a fantastic information to reference when personalizing query letters, and also a great way to gauge whether an agent might be interested in your concept.

6) Follow agents who interest you on Twitter. I reluctantly joined Twitter about a year ago (I did NOT need more social media to suck up my time!). Now, I’m so glad I did. Not only is Twitter is an excellent way to connect with other writers, but it’s taught me so much about querying and literary agents. Many agents tweet tons of helpful publishing information, plus hints on what they’re seeking in their slush. I also made a habit of following the clients of my top-choice agents. A lot can be revealed about client/agent relationships (or lack thereof) through social media interactions.

7) Participate in blogfests, contests and online conferences like WriteOn-Con, especially if they relate to query letters, pitches, voice, or opening lines/pages. Not only are blogfests, contest and many online conferences free, they are a great way to get feedback and connect with writers in the same stage of the journey as you. Plus, they keep your mind occupied while you obsessively refresh your email. Added bonus: Contest finalists often receive prizes like critiques and/or requests.

8 ) Keep an open mind about feedback from CPs/betas, blogfests/contests, and agent replies. Not all critiques are good critiques, but there’s room for improvement in any work. I tried to keep a flexible attitude about my pitch, query letter, and manuscript. When I received a critique, I truly considered it (sometimes for days) before deciding whether to make the suggested revisions. At the end of the day, this is your work. You don’t want to have eventual regrets about making changes you aren’t truly comfortable with.   

9) Make friends at all stages of the game. I’m the last of my CPs to snag an agent. At times, this sucked. They were all moving forward, finalizing agent-requested revisions, going out on submission, and making sales(!) while I was stuck in the query trenches. However, when I ended up with two offers of representation and needed to make a choice, I was so thankful to have friends with experience who could offer sound advice. That said, while having writing friends who’ve progressed farther than you on the path to publication is fantastic, it’s also great to know people who are flailing in the same stage as you. Commiseration is a powerful thing, and sometimes it’s nice to know you aren’t alone.   

10) Know there are no guarantees, but that everything happens for a reason. Personal story time: A few months ago I had a phone call with an agent. We had a nice little chat during which she told me she torn and wasn’t ready to offer representation, but offered some revision notes and asked me to resubmit. I was ecstatic. All I had to do was revise to her notes (which were good) and I’d have an agent. I poured my heart into that revision and was so pleased with how it turned out. I sent my manuscript back to her and spent the next week vibrating with excitement: I was positive I was going to get an offer! Imagine my disappointment when I received her reply and another comment about being “torn,” accompanied by an additional list of new issues she had with the story. She wanted me to revise and resubmit AGAIN. At that point, I had to make a decision. Would I revise indefinitely for an agent who didn’t seem to truly love my story, or would I consider her feedback and continue my search for an agent who “got” what I was writing? I decided to move on, and that turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made. Sure, I was discouraged at first, but I eventually realized that had I not completed the original revision for that first agent, my story wouldn’t be what it is today. I might not have received the offers of representation I eventually did.

There are no guarantees, but every query, every request for pages, every revision, every NO…

What about you? Do you have any fantastic querying advice to pass on?

Tales from the Trenches: KEEP CALM and WRITE ON

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So, today my über talented and supremely generous cousin, Carla Essen*, sent me an enigmatic DM: What’s your favorite color? I’m making you something. My curiosity was immediately piqued, so I replied with: Pink or red, then I waited. A short while later I found this gem** in my inbox:

First, I’m so glad she chose pink for me. Second, how cute is that crown on top?! And third, I’ve taken the above statement on as my new mantra.

This industry has too many stresses that are too easy to get caught up in, especially if you’re stuck in the query trenches (like me!) or trudging down the long submission road (so I’ve heard!). I often find myself so keyed up about query etiquette, social networking, the perfect pitch, blogging and blog reading, the unforeseeable future of publishing, who’s gotten how big an advance, and (insert any number of trivial things here), that I forget my main goal: Write and write well.

So, from now on I’m going to KEEP CALM and WRITE ON. You should too!

*Carla has an amazing talent for photography, among many other things.
**You have Carla’s permission (and mine!) to lift this graphic to use on your own blog if you’d like. 🙂

Cutting Words…

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I’ve been mentally MIA for the last eight days. Why? I’ve been up to my eyeballs in a fairly significant revision of my manuscript, Where Poppies Bloom. Without getting into all the details, someone recently advised that I cut back the length of my manuscript (originally around 86K), which would, obviously,  pick up the pace. Fifty-ish pages, she recommended. That’s somewhere around 11K words, incase you’re counting.


I’ll admit that it sounded impossible at first. I didn’t think Poppies was dragging. I didn’t think it was wordy or over-written. And my scenes! All the beautiful scenes I’d spent hours planning and writing and editing… some of them were going to have to go. Heartbreaking, I tell you! But, the more I considered it, the more I started to look at this revision opportunity as an interesting sort of challenge.  

So, I copied and pasted the entire 328 page story into a new document and went to work. I figured if I could cut at average of ten useless words per page, I’d be a third of the way to my goal even before chopping full scenes. In an effort to keep myself from becoming completely overwhelmed, I focused on that and dove in.

As I read (and cut), read (and cut), I became very, very critical. Unnecessary dialogue tags were first to go. Next, too-detailed descriptions, then over-expressed emotions. I deleted instances of telling when I’d already shown (I do that sometimes… apparently I worry about being thorough). Finally, I trimmed the beginnings and endings of character conversations in an effort to get to the meat of what was really being said.

When that was all said and done, I took a long, hard look at my scene outline. I figured out which scenes could be deleted entirely (honestly, there weren’t many), which scenes could be combined to streamline the story, and which scenes could become a quick paragraph of exposition. Then I went back to work.

When it was all said and done, I’d trimmed just over 11K words (49 pages) from Where Poppies Bloom. I’m currently three-quarters of the way into a final read through, just to make sure everything still flows, and I have to be honest: I’ve never loved this story as much as I do today. While it was in great shape before, it’s SO clean now. It moves quickly and the suspense is that much greater. I truly believe the revision I once thought was impossible might be the greatest thing to happen to this story, and I’m so glad I took on the challenge.

Care to share your most helpful hints for trimming word count?

On Releasing My Baby…

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My three-year-old started preschool a few months ago. I think I can speak for most moms when I say that this was an incredibly bittersweet milestone. Pushing your baby out of the nest is one part exhilarating and two parts terrifying. Along with thoughts of It’s for the best, and She’ll be a brighter, better girl for it, comes frantic, mental begging. Please be sweet to my precious child! Treat her kindly, speak to her gently, teach her many new things!

She cried those first few days at drop off. God, did she cry. I nearly did too, but with my husband’s support, I kept taking her. The crying tapered off, morphing fairly suddenly into excitement and eager anticipation. And you know what? Preschool has become a wonderful experience, for both my daughter and me. She loves it, and is growing and changing in ways my husband and I couldn’t have facilitated on our own. And I have four extra uninterrupted hours of writing time each week. It really did turn out to be for the best.

I mention the above because as I sit here and type, a critiqued version of my manuscript (my *other* baby) sits in my inbox.

Unopened.

Because I’m a wimp.


I felt exactly the same way I felt when preschool was set to begin. Anxious. Scared. Dreadful. And, at the same time, a teensy bit excited.

I’m lucky enough to have had my manuscript critiqued by a multi-published mentor. She’s incredibly talented, wise about the industry, and isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. I’m sure she’s supplied me with tons lots feedback to consider. Which is why I’m filled with trepidation.

The perfectionist in me wants this baby to be flawless. I want it to be loved by all who read it. I want to hear, This is amazing! and Don’t change a thing! I don’t want to cut scenes and alter characters and expand on events. I want it to be deemed beautiful as is.

But, I’m not delusional. It’s so NOT perfect. It’s going to need to be revised. And then it will be read again, by my mentor, and then by my fabulous critique partners who will, undoubtedly, have more suggestions for changes both big and small.

I will mourn these changes—I know I will. The cut words. The (*gasp*) cut scenes. The big job of writing new scenes that fit seamlessly. Comments that say, This is awkward, and I don’t get it. But I will not wallow in the critique too long. I will get over myself and my solitary, perfectionist tendencies, and I will change what needs to be changed. Fix what needs to be fixed. Because as much as I want to, as hard as I try, I can’t make my manuscript perfect by myself. I need fresh eyes, honest comments, and different perspectives.


And I am so thankful I have the help and support I need.

Now, I’m off to open that email… more later!

On Being the Exception (Or Not)

This video has been making the rounds on lots of agent/writer blogs and by now, you’ve probably seen it. It’s funny for many reasons, especially to those of us who’ve spent huge chunks of our lives writing, researching (for our books & the publishing industry in general), honing our craft and absorbing every little tidbit we can about plotting, world/character building, story structure, query letters, literary agencies, publishing houses, etc.

I’m assuming this video has given many agents a laugh, mostly because it centers around an aspiring author attitude that, unfortunately, they’re forced to deal with all the time: I AM THE EXCEPTION.  

And that’s why it’s funny to me. Embarrassingly enough, I can relate to some of the grandiose declarations of the video’s “novelist.” Long before I got serious about publishing, when I was writing blindly and hoping for the best, I too, believed I could be the exception. That’s dangerous, people. Very dangerous, and it leads to disheartened writers and crushed dreams. I’m wiser now, much more informed and eager to learn more, and now I reside comfortably in the I’ll Never Be The Exception camp.  

Still, I can embrace my formerly flawed outlook. Please tell me I’m not the only aspiring writer who’s had one or more of the following misguided thoughts:

1) My book is going to be a best seller.
2) I’ll  quit my job and live of my writing money.
3) I’ve already written the first page (it’s really awesome).
4) My book will be pushed to the front of the publishing line because it’s just that fabulous.
5) Nothing like MY book has ever been done before.
6) I don’t need a literary agent; I can manage my “career” on my own, OR
7) Literary agents  will be fighting over my book.
8 ) Soon I’ll be on a glamorous book tour.
9) I don’t need to brush up on craft–I already know how to spell and punctuate.
10) It’s only a matter of time before I see my book represented on the big screen.
11) I’m a story-teller–it will all work out.
12) I’m a student of the human condition–of course my characters will be amazing.
13) I’ll work on several projects at once and complete them all in a reasonable amount of time.

HA! What about you? What rule of publishing/writing/querying did you believe you might be the exception to?