I will succeed despite setback. I will carry on despite an abundance of carry-over. I will not give up.
That’s been my January mantra. I’ve had to remind myself of this as the deadline I set for myself approaches and I am still not half-way through revising my manuscript. I also had to REALLY remind myself of this when I had to, mostly, sit out my writing retreat because my oldest daughter was sick. Thankfully, with the help of technology, I was able to attend our group sessions remotely. We had some great discussions and I was able to work on a few stories in different creative exercises that helped me flush out more of my characters. As always, I am incredibly grateful for the women in my peer critique group.
I’m close to finishing the revisions on act one of this manuscript. This manuscript is about 40,000 words and the first act makes up about 10,000 of those words. My plan is to carry my goal of completing the revision on this manuscript into February. I thought about setting it aside and moving onto my next manuscript, but I’m in this one and I can’t walk away from it. I need to stick with it until it is completely revised. That’s how I’ve decided to combat the feeling of failure in not accomplishing this goal. I’m going to continue reminding myself that it would only be a failure if I gave up, and I will NOT do that. I WILL complete the revisions for this manuscript. My obstacles and setbacks do not define me. How I carry on and realign my goals to accommodate the carry-over does.
How do you deal with setbacks? What’s your most effective method to overcoming an obstacle and achieving your goal despite a stumbling block?
Happy Writing!
Nikole Breault 
I have recently really been struggling with my WIP. I couldn’t get the words to flow and it felt like such a slog every time I sat down to write. In the end, I had to just keep going, battle through the mess until I came out the other side, and the words are now well and truly flowing! Thankfully I can go back over the bit that was a pain to write and fix it further down the line!
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Yes! Exactly! That’s a really good point too, to remember that we can fix those parts we struggle with in revisions, but if we give in to the struggle, we’ve got nothing to go back to. I’m glad the story is flowing again! 😁
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Revising is honestly so difficult, I struggle with it… it’s harder than writing! (and writing a one-page query is harder still!!) I’m hoping to get myself in a place where I can go back and revise some of my novels that I’ve set aside because it has felt too difficult or overwhelming. I’m currently working on the first draft of one novel (my super secret WIP), the foundational revision of my Nanowrimo novel, and the copy-editing of Waiting Room. I like to have multiple projects so I can go to where my head’s at and where I can be most productive, but there are times when if I want to be fully immersed in a story…
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Yes, very much! Writing the query letter was difficult and I know that revising it is going to be an entirely different challenge. 😳 That’s awesome that you can be in and out of multiple stories at the same time. I have one manuscript that I’ve tried to go back to revise and plug holes in, but each time I’ve slammed up against a wall I can’t seem to get myself over. It would be interesting to try it differently, like this year I should try revising a few stories at the same time, to see what that does for the process. What happens in copy-editing? That title is very intriguing!
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