Here’s a question I’ve been toying with: When is it time to
reassess?
Lemme back up. I’ve written six books. Just started Lucky
Number 7. Of those six, I queried, um, three and just started querying the
fourth. And for each of the previous three, I’ve had to—at some point—sit down
and reassess. It had been queried and rejected and revised and queried and
rejected and nothing was happening and as much as I loved it—was it time to set
it aside? Was it time to move on to the next project, to query something else?
Sometimes, that was an easy decision. Not easy, exactly, but not super difficult.
Then there were others—the paranormal series that I still love, that I wanted
to see in print, that I knew wouldn’t find a home in the market drowning in
paranormal. Or the dystopian fairy tale
retelling. That hurt a lot. That still
hurts.
But each time, I sit down and look at my family, look at my
personal goals, and make a choice. Sometimes, it’s easy. Sometimes, I fight it.
But just like a character that knows the story even when I don’t, I’ve figured
out that fighting is kind of pointless.
So what about you? When do you reassess? Is it when you have
a new manuscript ready to query? Or when your fifteen fulls have turned into
fifteen passes? Or when that revise and resub turned you down after six months?
Here’s a bigger question: When do you reassess the BIG
goals?
There are all kind of goals in this long road. All kind of
mile-markers. Finishing a book. Your first full request. The signing of an
agent. Signing a contract. Releasing a book. The NYT list. *grin*.
But….what if you stall? What if you get the book done, get
the full request, and don’t get the agent? What if you try and try and book
after book, you make no real progress. No measurable
progress? Do you reassess then? Do you look into self-publishing? Or do you
keep chasing a dream? And…if you do adjust your goals, take a different path—is
that still chasing a dream, or is it giving in and taking the easy out?
These are the questions I’ve been wrestling with, and I’ve
got no real answers. All I have is the simple truth that decides all my
choices: I’m doing what I love. Even when it means adjustment and setting aside
books I adore.
Q4U: Have you ever wrestled with these questions? And what
answers do you have?
