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It’s been a great week, productivity-wise, for Anne, and she can only thank her brother Eric for the method used to overcome her writer’s block (well, actually an editing-block but writer’s block too.) What is the preschool method of overcoming writer’s block, you ask? It’s putting yourself on a time-out; a time-out from everyday duties and time to focus on the craft of writing. It doesn’t have to be a long stretch of time. Anne started with twenty minutes on the clock. That small bit was enough to get her writing again.

Anne had stalled out on her final edits of The Oculars. Every sit-down at the computer turned into a huge procrastination-fest. It’s happened before; it will happen again. But this time, Eric came to the rescue. We held a Litzo meeting and the topic of procrastination came up as it always does, specifically Anne’s current problem. Eric reminded both of us that in the beginning of our writing endeavors, when we had stalled out, we would vow to produce a pitiful page a week to present to the group at our weekly Litzo meeting. Usually, that had us pooping out a page at the very last minute to show the crew but it was enough. Because, once we got started, the pages would flow.

This time, instead of a page requirement, Anne gave herself a time requirement. She vowed to work for twenty minutes but each session turned out much longer. And now, she’s done with final edits through chapter 41. With only 19 chapters left, she’s on the downhill stretch and then The Oculars manuscript is off to our beta reader.

We also took the time to draft and send out our first agent query letter. Back in 2014, we queried a few publishers and caught a few offers but the terms were draconian and we eventually passed, opting to self-publish instead. Horror tends to be a niche genre. We’d talked about agents in the past but didn’t feel comfortable enough to go that route. Not anymore. We know we’ll probably have to send out quite a few letters but we’re feeling optimistic. Wish us luck!

Thanks for sticking with us!

Anne, Nancy, and Eric