Last week, Luis and I went to see Argentina vs. Guatemala (soccer.) His family came, too, and it was amusing because, though he’s from Guatemala, we cheered for Argentina. His family seemed a little confused/annoyed. 😆 We’re fans of Lionel Messi and his teams, so we weren’t going to suddenly cheer against him! Guatemala did a good job against the World Cup champs, though. They threw them off and scored a goal early on. So they should be proud. Guatemala still lost, of course, but they made it harder to beat them.
When we walked back to the Metro afterward, it started pouring heavy, cold rain. And then the Metro stopped two stops away from our house, so we had to take a Lyft the rest of the way home. What an adventure!
We saw Inside Out 2 on Saturday. I love Anxiety! That sounds so strange, but I feel like PIXAR did a good job of personifying anxiety. It’s not an easy thing to do. It’s often not even easy for me to explain how it makes me feel. I once likened it to a building collapsing around me.
Anyway, in Writing Update news: I’ve crossed over into the 80% zone! The end is in sight! It’s amusing because I plan to use the end I’ve already written, so that’s a bit of a cheat. But still! I’ve gotten back into the palindrome word counts because I can’t help myself. My word goal for today is 69,696 words.
Nice.
There’s been a lot of discussion in the WriterThreads community regarding people (usually authors) purporting to have “the secret” to getting published and offering up expensive “boot camps” to teach people the tricks of the writing trade. I’ve noticed quite a few of these cropping up, especially when I’m Googling for quick tips. They’re also often accompanied by twenty-minute-long videos that can further waste your time and get you too in your head about The Process. As the authors on Threads point out, you should never feel obligated to pay anything to find your agent and get published.
Just write. That’s all you have to do. Write the story. Then edit it. That’s it. Read query letter examples, listen to the TSNOTYAW podcast, and put yourself out there. Anyone trying to get money from you is not really trying to help you.
…Okay, agents will take a cut when you’ve landed a book deal, but that’s different.
I’ve definitely fallen victim to getting in my head about the best way to structure my writing and the beats I HAVE TO HAVE, etc. and, at the end of the day, it isn’t helpful to get so worked up about it. There’s no reason for writing to be scary. If you love writing, you should do it because you love it and you need to do it. There are no real rules. What works out for one person may not work for another.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on that. Don’t stress yourself.
Sara Mazariegos 