Open Window

My internship ends in 4 more days. Where has the past year gone?

And where will the next year take me?

Obviously, that's the biggest question running through my head right now. But if I have any control over it (and luckily I do to some extent), the next focus will be on my writing.

Finally, right?!?

In one more week, I will be 100% committed to my novel again and the plethora of novels lingering in my brain. I will finally have time to write, write, and write.

I know you're probably thinking (because I'm always thinking it): why haven't you been writing? People make time to do the things that are important to them, right? Well, I guess getting married and starting my life as a wife became the priority, and my writing got pushed to the side for awhile. I don't necessarily regret this, but I do miss writing. Sure, most authors have a family and obligations other than writing. Some of my favorite authors, like Shannon Hale, are even trying to balance the most important task of being a stay-at-home-mom and their writing career. I haven't been as good at balancing my time, but I'm ready to make writing a priority in my life once again. It was almost a year ago that I made my November goal to write everyday that month, and I did. Wow, that was an exhilarating month! Now my goal is to do it again, but to a greater extent. I won't have a full-time job taking up almost all of my time. My new full-time job will be writing.

Yes: it time to be a writer again. A serious writer. A writing-6-to-8-hours-a-day writer. A writer with an agent, an editor, and a published novel. A professional.

Something I've learned from past writing classes and conferences is being a published writer is a lot of work. You really have to treat it as your job and put in the hours. There are deadlines to meet and hundreds of pages to revise and cut. And now that I have this opportunity, I'm ready to take it seriously and get to work.

The goals: (1) Complete a second (more like third) draft of my novel and prepare it for submission, which means edit, edit, and edit! (2) Start submitting queries to agents like crazy! (3) In the meantime (since it can take up to 6 months to hear back from an agent), put my first novel aside and begin a second novel. (4) Hopefully find an agent and begin the next steps to getting published!

This means writing every day, writing for a few hours (4 to 6 minimum) everyday, and pushing through any writer's block that may come my way, no matter how difficult it is.

Phew! Sounds exciting, doesn't it? I can't wait to get started!

As a quick side note, I have enjoyed this past year as an editing internship working on the Joseph Smith Papers tremendously. I met a lot of amazing, talented people, as well as received some great experience editing, source checking, proofing, and learning more about church history. But as sad as it is to shut the door on this area of my life, it feels right to move on and focus on my goal to become a published writer someday. As Maria says on The Sound of Music, "When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window." I really believe this is true, and hopefully my open window is facing the world of a true, published writer.