Stranger Things Have Happened

I feel like I'm nervous all of the time now that I'm mere chapters away from finishing my first draft (and by first draft I mean first draft of the first book that I actually plan to do something with). I have trouble falling asleep because my brain won't shut up. I'm busy stitching together all the loose ends in my mind, making sure it's all going to actually WORK. And since I just registered for a conference this summer, complete with an agent meeting, I can't stop thinking about THAT.

Before I really started researching how to get published, I had NO idea how much went into it. How much love, stress, rejection. I didn't think about the YEARS that author spent on their baby getting it out to the world. The number of drafts, the querying, the sleepless nights waiting to hear back about submissions, this round of edits, that round of edits, etc. etc. ETC. For the consumer, it just shows up on the shelf at the store (or these days, online) and they either read it or don't, love it or meh.

What really got me thinking about this was going through the blog archives of Stephanie Perkins, way back to the beginning when she was painting her writing desk and working on the first draft of Anna and the French Kiss. Her posts were about normal things, things you and I blog about. Then as the years go by her posts get sprinkled with good news about this and that. DREAM AGENT LANDED, BOOK SOLD, BOOK RELEASE DATE, SEQUEL RELEASE DATE, etc, etc. She's friends with ladies like Laini Taylor, Kiersten White, Maureen Johnson and Beth Revis. She's got John Green vlogging about Anna and the French Kiss and telling everyone to buy it!

Go back to your favorite author's blog archives and speed through in minutes what they went through in years. It's extremely motivating to see proof that they were normal, unpublished writers once upon a time. We can do this. Stranger things have happened.