Getting Burned Out

I don't know about you, but I can be a bit of an extremist.

I finished a 100,000 word novel in a little over a month, while blogging and going to school full time, so yeah, I'm a little burned out. Just like earlier this year I woke up from a sugar coma one day, said, "I'm going on a 3 day water fast!" Then I went vegan for 2 months, did a 9 day water fast and a 7 day juice fast over the summer, came back to school and dove headfirst into an endless vat of Haagen-Daaz.

Hey, my meal plan money is never gonna get spent on the slop they serve, so why not?

I'm thinking a little more balance is needed in my life. I'd like to get a steady, maintainable rhythm going here: write a little every day, and lose those 15 stress-pounds.

Oh yeah, and by the way... I FINISHED MY BOOK! 

Is it my imagination, or is the girl on the left giving me the finger?

Yes, I finished editing my book after a very long night, around 6 AM on Sunday, October 14. I went onto Harper Voyager's site right away to start filling out the synopsis and other things they wanted, only to see a banner that read "Submissions are closed, please keep an eye out for our next open submission!"

The last one was 10 years ago, guys.

So yes. I had a long, hard cry over that, but at around 10 AM (no I didn't go to sleep, because the sad overrode the tired) they announced that the submission form had been closed by accident and they re-opened it. I submitted my book, but honestly, it was a bit of a let down. I'd built up all this excitement about finishing and turning it in, but when I thought all my scrambling had been for nothing, all that excitement turned into disappointment, and even after it turned out to all be ok.... I just somehow couldn't find that excitement again. 

Even now, I just feel kind of blah. The truth is, my book needs more work. I know, realistically, it won't get picked, so if you think about it, I just kind of wasted a month of my life. I could have written the book more slowly, not be failing my English class, and probably have produced a much better manuscript. So that's where I'm at: discouraged, overdosing on ice cream, and sort of hating my life. But I promise, this is my last pity-party post. Tune in tomorrow for Character Building Thursday #3!