Practice and Patience Makes Perfect

So, I've been M.I.A for the past few days and the only excuse I can give you is that I'm basically the queen of Procrastination. But really, there hasn't been that much to report or pontificate about. Still, I talked with Stacey (several times) today and I think we're starting to make our plans where agents and querying are concerned. Now, I'm not saying we're ready yet, but there's no harm in making our plans now. It's better than waiting until the last minute and having no freakin clue where to start. So I'm making my list, checking them twice, and deciding which agent is naughty or nice…gah, that sounds cheesy even to me, but moving on…

I have to admit there are at least a couple of agents who are at the top of my list and a few of them even represent some of my favorite authors (Stephanie Meyers, Laurell K Hamilton, Nora Roberts…*sighs* My girls.), which is super exciting. Not that I think I have half the talent that they do, but to even have the possibility of being under the same representation? It would be such an honor. But I can't think about that right now. What I need to focus on is preparing myself to reach that level so that all of this agent searching will mean something and be worthwhile. This is where the "practice" comes in to play.

Stacey and I have begun getting our feedback from our chosen readers and, while the feedback is in no way discouraging, it's obvious there are some things about Age of Eden that will have to be worked on. Some things relatively big and a lot of really small things that should be an easy-ish fix. Either way it goes, I'm starting to get anxious (in a good way) about fixing up the run on sentences and the POV (Point of View) issues, along with several other things that, with a little patience and perseverance, will be ironed out and perfected (or as close to perfect as two imperfect writers can get) to leave a working manuscript. I don't mind the work at all because I look at it as a learning step. The more I work on the book, mingle with the characters, and fix the mistakes, the more I learn about myself as an author and the more I learn about the book.

My entire point in writing this blog post is to, as the boy scouts always say, "Always be prepared." We must be prepared to work for what we want, be prepared to learn things about ourselves and our writing that we never knew before, and we need to be prepared for what could be. Yes, our book isn't quite as finished as we'd hoped. Yes, we're still learning about ourselves and our craft. And, yes, we are making plans for the future agent of our dreams. But all of this makes for an interesting ride. And nothing is really worth having if you didn't have to work for it. So, I'm going to keep on keeping on with the knowledge that no matter what we have to work through, no matter how long it takes, we are going to finish our book completely, query it, and find someone out there to take a chance on us. We're going to do this thing and then it will be time to plan and practice for our next journey. I'm looking forward to it.