As your cursor hovers over the button, a load of rocks has taken resident in your belly and someone has tied lead to your fingers, making it almost impossible to pick up your hand and use your index finger on that left clicky button.
What if it's all wrong?
Should you edit it just one more time?
And shoot, did you use the word "just" one too many times??
What if the agent/editor/crit partner/contest judge hates it? What if they laugh and gleefully turn on track changes and use the red highlight... not even the yellow!?!?
What if you send it and then reread it and see something HUGE wrong with it?
What if, *gasp* you attach the wrong file?!? (You then hurry and double check... yep, it's the right one.)
Pushing send is hard. You need to be ready. Willing. And tough skinned.
Because here is the deal:
All those what-if's? Well, there is a really GOOD possibility they will come true. When you hit that send button, you are saying, "Bring it on! Give me your best shot! I can take it!"
Writing doesn't come without a cost. It involves hours and hours and hours, sometimes to the point of years, of sitting in front of a computer and pouring out your story onto a word processor and subsequently editing until your fingers feel like they are bleeding. It involves taking the beating of rejection. Of people hating your stuff. Of making mistakes. It's all part of the deal.
So write your heart out, oh-ye-author. Edit like crazy. Be prepared. But in the end, you have to suck it up and push that darn send button if you want to ever get anywhere.
Think of the send button as your way of saying, "Ready writing world, HERE I COME!"
*Discussion* What's the last thing you had to suck up and push send on? How did you feel when you were done? And... dare I ask what the outcome was? If it was worth the agony of pushing the button??
Pretty soon I'm going to have to hit send to my editor and that makes me ALL kinds of nervous.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Krista!
I don't agonize over this as much as I used to. I think sucking it up and hitting send enough times helps get rid of some of the fear. I sent out 4 query emails a couple of weeks ago. Three have responded with polite "no thank you" but I'm still waiting on the last one. I have 4 more agents lined up to query next. And so it continues!
ReplyDeleteKatie... you can do it!!!! A great point that the nerves over the send button don't disappear with an agent... or with a contract!
ReplyDeleteChristine... YEAH for you for getting over your nerves! I'll admit, it's easier for me than when I first started. It is still, however, something I have to talk myself through and do purposefully. I don't necessarily think that is bad though, as it makes me make sure I'm REALLY ready to go forward
Oh as a newbie writer I agonize about this a lot. I can't wait to see what God has in store for you and your writing, Krista :)
ReplyDeleteEVERY TIME I SEND SOMETHING TO A CRITIQUE PARTNER! :)))
ReplyDeleteI have to hit send almost without thinking about it and THEN I go back and re-read and re-read what I submitted SURE to find one more mistake.
Sigh.
Writers are SO insecure!
:)
Krista, that send button is getting a little easier. In the past two weeks, I've hit that send button three times for contests. Yikes. Already I regret some things, but oh well...let the judges laugh and pull out the red pen. I can take it!
ReplyDeleteThere is a freedom that comes with hitting send. It's kinda hard to explain, but I get an overwhelming sense of pride that I am doing a brave thing. It is a step on my journey. It is one more step to reach my goal. Am I weird?
My finger trebles over the "send" key almost every time. The last thing I sent out was the revised version of the story my agent helped me with. I wanted so much to show her that I could fix the major oopsie in the story she'd seen that I, in my writerly blindness, had missed.
ReplyDeleteShe did like it, and then she was the one who had to hit "send." Somehow, that made things easier. =)
Procrastination, Thy Name is Pepper.
ReplyDeleteSigh.
All those questions ran through my mind with every manuscript I EVER submitted. Sending out my entries for the Genesis was harder this year than last, because of how badly I wanted to final last year...and didn't.
But in one way it was easier this year because I didn't put that type of pressure on myself.
Sending in a full manuscript when requested is tough - because...that's the WHOLE baby. I feel like I'm losing a body part when I press send:-)
Um, my finger doesn't treble over the "send" key. I'm talented, but not musically, and I certainly don't possess singing digits. My finger does, however, tremble a great deal when I have to depress that particular key. =)
ReplyDeleteI think I would have a major melt down if I accidentally sent the wrong document. Oh my...how upsetting that would be.
ReplyDeleteI try to pray before I press the send button...that doesn't mean all is well, it simply means I'm ready to raise the surrender flag and let God handle the rest...be it appropriate red stains, or a modest kudo from the editor/publisher/crit partner.
last thing I sent was a short story to a contest...and won. It pays to hit send....
ReplyDeleteSarah, yes it does! Cause you'll NEVER win if you don't put yourself out there! WELL DONE!!
ReplyDeleteThank you every one else too, for stopping by, and kudos for all those who are hitting that send button so well!
Mary... I haven't sent the wrong document, but I HAVE sent the wrong, unedited version, of a document. MAN it ticked me off too! That was a while ago and I have totally learned my lesson!