Persist and Publish

The IWBIFWT Club has a store! See link below.

http://www.cafepress.com/iwbifwt

I've set the mark-up at 0, so no one is making any money or anything. It's free to host the store, so there is no need for the mark-up.

**

It's a brisk morning here in suburban Washington ... sunny and 27 degrees.  And I just wanted to take a moment to answer the question that I'm sure has been on everyone's minds ...

"What are you wearing?"

Now, I realize that sounds like an opening line from a 1-900 call, but seriously ... I wanted to let everyone know that I got my order from Cafe Press. Yep, that's right. I got a whole box full of stuff bearing our OFFICIAL "IWBIFWT" logo ... and everything is absolutely adorable!

So right now, I'm seated cozily at my desk, greedily swilling freshly-perked coffee, stylishly suited in my ash-grey sweatshirt, doling out adverbs like Santa with candy canes!

Kathy, be sure to thank your brother-in-law again, and thank YOU for all you did to make this happen. And Rebecca, thanks to you, too, for composing that post a few months ago.

And now, I'm going to go write ... and I don't need to tell any of you WHY, do I? ;o)

CR

The IWBIFWT Club

We have shared many successes, and some failures.  As writers we put ourselves out there for rejection all the time.  It can get us down, make us think we are following the wrong path.  We aren't.  I find it helpful to keep plodding on, and I know that I'm getting better as a writer, and some pieces find homes while others are still out there, like orphans in the night, but I know that those pieces made me stronger as a writer, and were meant to "be".

"IWBIFWT" is an acronym for "I Write Because I Fucking Want To."  A number of us have decided to start this "club" because we are a community of writers - we share our struggles and successes, but most of all, we WRITE because we are writers.  We WRITE because we fucking want to.

It's F150B. You can either go to the top of any WVU page and click Fiction --> F150 --> Classroom B, or you can click here and then bookmark it.

This board has been a wonderful way both to stay accountable and to celebrate daily triumphs.

We don't really have any rules. Here's how things have worked so far:

A "day" is the period between when you get up and when you go to bed--we don't follow any clock here besides our own circadian rhythms. So if you're aiming for 500 words a day and you're up until two in the morning trying to get there, that's fine. It still counts, no matter what the clock says.

When you post your progress, please mark it as such in the subject line. Bev and I were posting "Word count 12/1," etc., but just label it however it makes sense, such as "Progress 12/1" or whatever.

When you post your own daily success, please take a moment to respond to everyone else who posted for that day. We're here to celebrate, support, commiserate, offer advice, and so on, in addition to noting our own progress.

That's it. You can post off topic stuff if you want, but mostly we've done progress reports. It's really kept me on track throughout this draft (even though it's after midnight and I still have 200 words left to do to meet today's goal).

--Nancy

“If you are going through hell, keep going.” Winston Churchill

(I must be psychic today - I came on to post this quote and saw Carol's
message - it's a damned good thing IWBIFWT - right Carol?) - Rebecca

"Never, never, never quit."

Another Winston Churchill quote I love - Kathy

"No Sniveling Allowed."

I just started reading a book called "Novelist's Boot Camp." There's a
section called, "No Sniveling Allowed."   He--Todd A. Stone-- says, "Getting
a novel written consists not of joyous creative rapture but of applying
your bottom to the chair and your fingers to the keyboard and grinding
things out word by word, sentence by sentence. You can whine or you can
write, but you can't do both." I think that means stop making excuses and
do it, or is that a Nike ad? LOL. - Carol

Can you guess what that stands for?

I'm an agent because I fucking can be and there're no qualification to
stop me.

Carol

Posted by Rebecca on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 6:15 p.m., in response to IAABIFCB, posted by Carol on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 6:10 p.m.

You know every time I make a vow to become more ladylike and clean the "F" word out of my vocabulary (go to church, wear white gloves) I hear another agent story - and change my mind. So I use the "f" word, pour a drink and run around naked instead. LOL

HAR

Posted by Gay on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 11:58 p.m., in response to IAABIFCB, posted by Carol on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 6:10 p.m.

My first draft came without cussing, and then I read Stephen King's book. He said I was being "dishonest" if I left the "f" words out, because my mother really wasn't looking over my shoulder, and I didn't have to let her read the book if I didn't want to... (and that the reading public put the 'f' words in where they belonged whether I wrote them there or not). I liked that.

So why leave them out when you talking about f'ing agents? We'll insert them when we listen to YOU, too, or when we read your posts, and we'll just know you're a big wimpy chicken and that perhaps your mother (real or imagined) was in the room, reading over your shoulder. LOL

(My mother censors me worse since she passed in 1999, but I've taken to telling her "So there!" when I write now. Only thing is I still can't make myself write a sex scene. I can read them fine. I can imagine them. But write them? I blush so badly that I lose sight of the keyboard.)

Posted by Syl on Wednesday, 6 December 2006, at 9:41 a.m., in response to IAABIFCB, posted by Carol on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 6:10 p.m.

Love it! Any day now, we can hang out our own shingles!

Syl

A rejection I need to share

Posted by Carol on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 5:40 p.m.

Hi all,

I just received a rejection from an agent I sent a query letter, synopsis and three chapters of THE REMAINS OF MIDNIGHT to. He wrote--these are the exact words--"I don't think handle horror, so I'll have to pass." Right--he doesn't think. It makes me wonder if he even read the letter. I would write back that I don't write horror except I have a half written horror/mystery novel filed away some where.

And then there was the agent who read the whole of THE SUN CUT FLAT and rejected it because she doesn't handle or read romance.

Carol

Aaargh - need for a basic IQ test

Posted by Rebecca on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 5:44 p.m., in response to A rejection I need to share, posted by Carol on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 5:40 p.m.

That is just bizarre. I was just here to post an "inspirational" you're going to need it. Isn't there a simple IQ test that should be required in order to become a literary agent? Oh well, how about just a simple exam that indicates someone wanting to be an agent can tell the difference between a romance and a horror, a mystery and a sci-fi, and the difference between an literary agent and a horses ass.

Gawd.

Rebecca

Posted by Syl on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 5:45 p.m., in response to A rejection I need to share, posted by Carol on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 5:40 p.m.

Makes you glad they didn't offer a contract, huh?

Syl

Posted by Kathy on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 5:49 p.m., in response to A rejection I need to share, posted by Carol on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 5:40 p.m.

Hi Carol,

This is frustrating! I don't believe that one agent thought it was horror and another romance. It does make you wonder if they read any of it. How horrible. You spend time writing and revising and revising, then sending your novel away just to have it rejected by someone who didn't even take the time to actually read what you wrote. I am sorry. This just makes me sick.

There's some website (it's listed on our P&P favorite links page) where writers post rejections, you should post this one there. Shame on that agent.

I also have on my wishlist for Xmas the Rotten Rejections book, where now famous authors received ridiculous rejections. This definitely belongs in there, so hang onto it for when you are on the bestseller's list you can look back and laugh.

Kathy

Posted by Nancy on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 7:01 p.m., in response to A rejection I need to share, posted by Carol on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 5:40 p.m.

Hi Carol,

Wow, that's bad. It's clear he didn't read, well, anything of what you sent him.

I keep reading (on agents' blogs) how busy and harried they all are, but they never see the other side. If they ask for all that material--whether by requesting a partial or as part of a submission packet--they should damn well read it.

--Nancy

(P.S. I liked Syl's attitude, too--and she's right.)

Was it Peter Miller of PMI or something like that in New York? He once requested my mss after reading my query, but he couldn't write at all. I couldn't make head nor tales of what he said.

Funny, yet not, about the agent who read your entire mss and then told you she doesn't do romance.

Jean

Posted by Joy on Wednesday, 6 December 2006, at 9:02 a.m., in response to A rejection I need to share, posted by Carol on Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 5:40 p.m.

Thanks, Carol. We all need a little sense of superiority over these gate-keepers once in a while! This 'rejection' certainly fits the bill. LOL -Joy