{"id":1362,"date":"2008-11-25T11:51:22","date_gmt":"2008-11-25T16:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=1362"},"modified":"2008-11-25T11:51:22","modified_gmt":"2008-11-25T16:51:22","slug":"breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2008\/11\/25\/breakthrough\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKTHROUGH!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"left\" src=\"http:\/\/tbn2.google.com\/images?q=tbn:4eg6irYNPfRRmM:http:\/\/www.wallpaperbase.com\/wallpapers\/landscape\/sunshine\/sunshine_6.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>After months of slugging through false starts on a sample chapter for my next book proposal, months of promising my agent I&#8217;d have it ready by the end of the month, and feelings of writerly delinquency in spite of hours of hard work, I have had a writing breakthrough.  Friends have asked what I credit it to, so that I can learn from it for next time, cause I have no doubt there will be a next time.  Writing life just works that way.  I&#8217;ve been thinking about this, and wanted to share what I&#8217;ve learned with you.  Here&#8217;s what I attribute the breakthrough to:<\/p>\n<p>1. A <strong>supportive writing group<\/strong> that has been unflailing in its honesty (even when it hurts) and abundant with praise when something is good<\/p>\n<p>2.  <strong>Tenacity.<\/strong> I am stubborn, and determined to get it right.<\/p>\n<p>3.  A partner who reassures me that <strong>I am still a writer<\/strong> even when I&#8217;m between books.<\/p>\n<p>4.  <strong>Early morning writing hours.<\/strong> This has been key, as when &#8220;business hours&#8221; begin, as a consultant I feel the need to be accessible.  But at 5:30am, no one is expecting an email from me.<\/p>\n<p>5.\u00c2\u00a0 An agent who hasn&#8217;t given up on me.\u00c2\u00a0 &#8220;Books have a life of their own,&#8221; says he.\u00c2\u00a0 <strong>&#8220;Better to get it right.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What helps you break through a block?  Feel free to join me in sharing strategies, in comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After months of slugging through false starts on a sample chapter for my next book proposal, months of promising my agent I&#8217;d have it ready by the end of the month, and feelings of writerly delinquency in spite of hours of hard work, I have had a writing breakthrough. Friends have asked what I credit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1902,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21941],"class_list":["post-1362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-writing-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1902"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}