Querying.

*Shudder*

A dastardly word. A word created to terrify writers everywhere, worldwide. It's a word that means, "Hey man. Take that gigantic 300 page novel you just wrote and wad it up into a tiny ball so that I don't have to waste my time by glancing at more than a page. Oh, and make it sound interesting. OH ANNND let it be a genuine sample of your writing ability even though you've never done anything like this, ever. And by the way? We really need you to crumple that ball even further because you need a few paragraphs for introducing the work and yourself."
We writers are artists. Introverted painters and actors. The silent velocity behind the entertainment industries. We can be frumpy, reclusive and nerdy! YES. However, being artists often makes us frivolous and silly. Creative and scattered. How can we be expected to be pithy?

Unfortunately, at the current moment, it can't be avoided if success is in order. Granted, there is an increase in self-publication because of the e-book world, but querying is still the way to go for the most part. So, we have no choice. This means we're signing up for surefire rejection and a lot of heartbreak. And tons of emailing and even regular mailing.

But it also means we're finishers. If you're in the query process, as painful as that may be, it means you've finished your work. That means you're a writer, in my opinion. Not just some goober who CLAIMS to be a writer but can't get past the fifty page mark because of a thousand excuses the rest of us could use if we so desired. (Time, kids, work, computer crashes, carpal tunnel, writer's block, motivation, etc, etc.) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatevs. My aunt has five kids and she's got an agent. My other cousin is an attorney and she's querying.

So congratulations on finishing your novel, or whatever it is you're working on. I'm steering into the querying tornado myself. Commiting ego suicide as we speak. But it's all for the best. Either it'll be ready for the world and you'll be published, or it won't be and you'll revise. Nothing but positive, forward motion. I can't wait to get my first rejection, (the first of this particular work.
God knows I was rejected nearly fifty times for my past monstrosity.) and I can't wait to get the next after that. I mean, if the first cat who received it fell in love with it, that'd be great. But so would a magical publishing pixie who flies in like the tooth fairy and hides book contracts underneath pillows.

Godspeed, my writers. My lovelies. My contemporaries. My kindred spirits.