Photo Friday: Just Hit Send!

Several years ago, when I first started freelance writing, a few fellow-writers and I started a group on the Absolute Write website. We didn't mean to, really. We just didn't dream that it would be so popular (and continues to this day). It was on the Freelance forum and here's how it came about;

I was commiserating with my writer pals about how annoyed I would get with myself over one aspect of submitting material to a magazine or website. After all the writing, editing and researching, when it came time to hit the "send" button, I hesitated. Sometimes, I'd put the piece aside for months instead of hitting that button. Other times, I would have to make myself hit the button. What was I afraid of? I'm not sure. But then we started a thread and invited people who had the same hesitations to join the "Just Hit Send" group.

What we learned was amazing. We learned we were not alone at all. So, each month, there is a new thread for freelancers to post that they have indeed hit send. It is also a place to post monthly goals. When I quit freelancing to write books, I really missed the camaraderie of the people there. We had come to know each other and our works quite well.

So, after months (years actually) of editing my book, I didn't have my freelance group behind me. I didn't have a place to admit how difficult this was or to celebrate in the joy of having "just hit send." Still, I did it. I hit the send button and you know what? The butterflies were still there! I even took a photo of the screen as I finally sent my completed (?) manuscript to my editor.

And now it's time for me to go back to my freelance friends to see if anyone wants to cyber-celebrate with me. Here I go and here's where I'll be; . ~KFA

Analysis Paralysis

I can't take credit for the term-Analysis Paralysis - Thank you Randy - but never-the-less, it is so true. It's nothing new for me, actually, it's something that I clearly know well.

When I was freelancing, I would work on an article, edit like crazy, and then edit some more. And when I was done editing and it looked the best it could possibly look, I edited some more. I often found that once I had edited and, admittedly, over-edited, that I ended where I began. Yes, it's true. I ended up with very close to the exact words I had written after just one or two edits. And there was another problem. The editor's email typed into the space on the "to" box, my finger poised over the "send" button on my email, I was paralyzed. Yes, it's true. I could not hit that send button. I voiced my weakness on the website, Absolute Write and soon had many fellow writers to commiserate with. And the "Just Hit Send" thread was born. Over the next years, we encouraged each other to just do it; just get our work out there. And we were successful too. Many of us, me included, were published in regional and national magazines. Lesson learned. Right?

Not so fast. Fast-forward a few years. Add in an 8-year book project -- one that is the very heart and soul of who I am as a person. It is a project that only works when I add myself to it. I am brutally honest. It hurt to write it and it makes me cringe to read it; especially to my father. So much is riding on this book. I don't want to miss an opportunity to get it published just because I suck at writing the proposal, the synopsis, or the query letter. So again, that analysis paralysis has found a home. Currently, my manuscript has been requested by one agent and one editor. And I'm stuck. I've done the "edit until I end up back where I started" thing. I've done my research on proposal writing and synopsis writing and query writing. But it never feels right. And I guess, in writing this, I am realizing it will never feel right. And it's time to go back to that mantra, "Just hit send." So here I go. Wish me ... fingers that hit the send button faster than my brain can think. ~Karen