No Looking Back - The Unedited Writing Process

I could revise my own writing all day everyday. In fact, I could probably take one chapter from my current w.i.p. (work in progress) and rewrite it over and over and over... never actually loving the end result. Therefore, if I decide that I can't move on to the next chapter until I'm happy with the one before, I'll never get anything finished.

Now that it is crunch time and there are only 25 days until the conference, I have no choice but to enter non-editing mode. No looking back. Even if what ends up on the page is complete and total crap, I have to keep going. There just isn't time to turn back and rewrite and edit and pour over the text. I have to keep writing. In the end, I'm hoping that I'll end up with a mostly decent manuscript that can be molded into something sell-able.

I have a meeting with the editor of the line I'm targeting on Friday July 17th. If I'm lucky enough to get asked to send something to her, she will probably just want to see a synopsis and the first three chapters. Of course, there are rare times when editors request a full manuscript, but even if she does that to me, I'll still be able to take a couple of weeks to polish. That will mean some hard work and late nights, but at this point, it's my only hope. My only goal right now can be to finish this manuscript before the conference so that I can pitch it with confidence and say that it is done. Wish me luck.