Keep Calm and Write On

I've been reading and researching about how to get a novel published long enough to know that the average journey is no cake walk (or a cupcake walk, either). A lot of authors could probably wallpaper at least one wall of their home with the rejections they've received--and some of them could cover a room or two.

Of course, there are those other stories out there, too. The authors that walk out their front door one morning, trip over an agent lying on the sidewalk, sign with them on their way to get the paper and then get an awesome book deal on their way back to the house. Don't you just hate them? They tell you their story and want you to jump up and down and squeal with delight along with them over their incredible fortune. Instead, you are standing there thinking:  No! It was supposed to be me!

I don't really hate them. I probably would not have a completed manuscript if it weren't for them. There's nothing like other writers passing you by to light a fire under your butt and get you motivated. And no matter how effortless their success appears to be, nobody gets there without tons of hard work and persistence; writing a novel in itself is not an easy thing to accomplish.

So I've just begun querying agents and I'm entering a few contests, too. And I spend a lot of time COMPLETELY FREAKING OUT.
SERIOUSLY.

But I've found there's really only one cure for that.

So now I'm a few thousand words into my second novel . . .