Basic Requirement

Sitting at Barnes and Noble again, wondering when I will begin. I scanned stacks of writing magazines. The smell of coffee and freshly unread pages for inspiration. The sky is blue and the snow piled high outside. I must put these journals back, go to Wal-mart to get groceries, and go home. Work, clean, research and just maybe write. The maybe's what I need to get rid of.

If I received a new notebook as a child, the first page would contain a hand-scrawled title page. The second I would leave open to be the table of contents. Then, on the third, I would begin half-way down with Chapter 1. But I don't know if my stories ever got beyond chapter one. I should search under my bed to see if I can find one of these old notebooks. And how about completing a project?

Hence I will pick up this blog again (using the excuse that I'll try, not completely 100% committing to do). What projects can I complete to truly be a writer? Many aspire, perhaps I will always just aspire. No, I'll do. Maybe. And in the process I'll chronicle it.  

My first project – publish a children's book. I have a manuscript from a few years ago that I didn't have the confidence in (or the time) to try to publish. It has been re-edited, 5 years later. And now I have begun the submission process. But I don't necessarily think the question of confidence related to the manuscript – but to myself.

Will it make it out of the piles on editor's desks? Is it good enough? Making it there will be the first step – hopefully it's not lost in the mail.

A 3-9 month waiting period, and we'll see. One electronic submission and four mailed submissions already completed. So far I've gone through the B's in my Writer's Digest for Children's Literature, researching the publishers, finding if they accept unsolicited submissions, molding to their guidelines. I must keep going to the Z's.

The basic requirement that keeps haunting me – WRITE!