I am Marybeth Smith

I experienced an epiphany of sorts the other night while talking to my husband. Unfortunately this happens often as my husband is excellent at challenging my thoughts and emotions. USUALLY I believe it’s called ‘bickering’, however, that particular night it was more of a friendly discussion.

My brother sent me a link to a new website called Creative Byline. I can’t say if it is actually a helpful website quite yet, but it did snap me out of my writing freeze. My mind is no longer on lock down! I noticed that they required an Outline. (Uh…what’s an outline? Um yeah…I guess I haven’t done as much homework as I thought I had.)

So I spent the next afternoon putting a rough one together for my novel. This was one of the best things I have done in weeks. I say this because it REMINDED me how good my book really was. I haven’t looked at it since it was finished and I began querying agents. After all the rejections I was losing sight of what I had created, a really great book! So as I’m telling my husband this he looks at me and says, “Do you think you are REALLY done with this book and ready for an agent?” And I look at him and it suddenly hits me…Not even close!

So here are some things I plan to work on in the month of June…

• My Outline – It’s very rough and needs to be tweeked and probably shortened.
• A Synopsis – I know I’ve been avoiding it, but after reading Jody’s post yesterday, it made me realize that the sooner I get it started, the better.
• Business Cards – Apparently everybody’s doing it, I suppose I should to! I do like to be part of the “in” crowd 😉
• Finishing my Website … which includes…
• Writing the dreaded Biography. I’m not sure why I find it so difficult. But I can’t stand sitting there and writing about … well me! (Please no comments from the peanut gallery.)
• A Book Proposal – Again, after reading Jody’s post yesterday, I figure it’s better to at least have a rough draft now to save time for later.
• Finally Polish my “Elevator Pitch” so when people ask what my book is about, I can stop looking like they just asked my to recite the entire Encyclopedia.
• Look through my manuscript ONE MORE time to make sure it’s perfect and possibly revisit my first three chapters, I’m not sure they are getting the job done.
• When finished, print out my Manuscript and make it look pretty!
• Put together a portfolio for me and my manuscript (I should write a poem about ‘me and my manuscript’ … it sounds so catchy!)

That’s A LOT of Work!!! And here I thought I had nothing to do!!!

Our goal… Did I just say Our? Why yes I did…my husband has shown himself in a whole new light and I have realized that he is just as excited and dedicated to my career as I am. He even suggested I spend MORE time working on it *GASP* So OUR goal is to get me ready as if I were going to a Conference. Even though I cannot afford one right now, we have decided we WILL make it happen next year, regardless of our financial situation. Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE my husband?

So what from this list are YOU missing on your current project? Do you have have more work to do than you realized?