Hi. I'm looking for some feedback or help, if you don't mind.
A little background: I started taking myself and my writing seriously about 4 years ago. I'd always written on and off, and always figured I'd write seriously, someday
Then I realized my youngest child was two, and it was long past time. I wrote a category romance, joined RWA, got good feedback, submitted to Harlequin, only to find out the line I had targeted was going under. Okay, it was a learning experience.
Then I wrote a single title contemporary romance, revised, edited, rinse, repeat. Then I started researching and submitting to agents. In the meantime I was also writing and working on several literary (sounds so pretentious) short stories. Submitted, got a few "good" rejections on both the short stories and the single title romance. Then my husband needed open heart surgery. I had just started a literary? mainstream? novel where the husband is recovering from a brain tumor, and the challenges and changes now faced by the wife. Lots of research on marriage and the family, and neurology. Ugh. I stopped submitting the romance, and stopped writing the lit fic. Husband's surgery went somewhat awry, insert messy details here, but he's alive and mostly well.
He was as recovered as he's going to be by the beginning of last summer, and I was hoping to recup and restart the submission and writing process when I became a regular at the ICU again, this time with my daughter, who was diagnosed with a neurological disorder. The terms the pediatric neurologist was throwing at me made way too much sense because of all the research I had just done. Talk about irrational guilt. Unending.
My daughter is not getting better, at least not anytime soon, and I am trying to adjust, and find my way to a new "normal" through writing. At first I felt that I couldn't go back to the started lit fic because of the subject matter, and now I feel I need to, if that makes any sense.
I have been unable to do this. I mean bizarre can't make my fingers type when I open that file. And yes, I know where the manuscript is/should be going. It isn't that I'm unable to write anything. Hell, I'm a regular blabberfingers on the board I belong to for parents who have children with this disorder. I wrote an essay dealing with my experiences, hoping the cathartic effect would be enough. Nope. I took out my log of submissions re the single title romance, decided I had enough of a percentage of good rejections, requests for partials and fulls for me to start looking for an agent on that one again, and have sent out some submissions. I even did more revisions and editing first.
But I can't make myself work on this lit fic manuscript, and I desperately want to. Is anyone else on this board in a similar situation? Dealing with a child with a chronic disorder, and still writing? At first I thought I couldn't because I couldn't take my eyes off of her, or stop listening to make sure she's breathing ok. Now I feel that I'm adjusted enough to do so. Or at least I should be.
Sorry this is so long, and thanks for reading.
A little background: I started taking myself and my writing seriously about 4 years ago. I'd always written on and off, and always figured I'd write seriously, someday
Then I realized my youngest child was two, and it was long past time. I wrote a category romance, joined RWA, got good feedback, submitted to Harlequin, only to find out the line I had targeted was going under. Okay, it was a learning experience. Then I wrote a single title contemporary romance, revised, edited, rinse, repeat. Then I started researching and submitting to agents. In the meantime I was also writing and working on several literary (sounds so pretentious) short stories. Submitted, got a few "good" rejections on both the short stories and the single title romance. Then my husband needed open heart surgery. I had just started a literary? mainstream? novel where the husband is recovering from a brain tumor, and the challenges and changes now faced by the wife. Lots of research on marriage and the family, and neurology. Ugh. I stopped submitting the romance, and stopped writing the lit fic. Husband's surgery went somewhat awry, insert messy details here, but he's alive and mostly well.
He was as recovered as he's going to be by the beginning of last summer, and I was hoping to recup and restart the submission and writing process when I became a regular at the ICU again, this time with my daughter, who was diagnosed with a neurological disorder. The terms the pediatric neurologist was throwing at me made way too much sense because of all the research I had just done. Talk about irrational guilt. Unending.
My daughter is not getting better, at least not anytime soon, and I am trying to adjust, and find my way to a new "normal" through writing. At first I felt that I couldn't go back to the started lit fic because of the subject matter, and now I feel I need to, if that makes any sense.
I have been unable to do this. I mean bizarre can't make my fingers type when I open that file. And yes, I know where the manuscript is/should be going. It isn't that I'm unable to write anything. Hell, I'm a regular blabberfingers on the board I belong to for parents who have children with this disorder. I wrote an essay dealing with my experiences, hoping the cathartic effect would be enough. Nope. I took out my log of submissions re the single title romance, decided I had enough of a percentage of good rejections, requests for partials and fulls for me to start looking for an agent on that one again, and have sent out some submissions. I even did more revisions and editing first.
But I can't make myself work on this lit fic manuscript, and I desperately want to. Is anyone else on this board in a similar situation? Dealing with a child with a chronic disorder, and still writing? At first I thought I couldn't because I couldn't take my eyes off of her, or stop listening to make sure she's breathing ok. Now I feel that I'm adjusted enough to do so. Or at least I should be.
Sorry this is so long, and thanks for reading.
