Phase Three can only begin when you achieve acceptance. It is the phase in which you cry, eat pizza with extra cheese and pepperoni and realize you’ve done nothing for yourself except gain ten pounds. Your dreams are not within your grasp, at least not in the near future and if you wish to continue, you have to find out what’s needed to hone your craft. It is a time of growth, knowledge, inner character and strength building. As each writer is different, so is each one’s acceptance and what you do about it. After I bought enough pizza’s to be given stock in the company, I looked within my writers group, Music City Romance Writers for support. Although I believe in my family, only a writer knows the journey and I found support in my local chapter of Romance Writer’s of America. I asked if anyone was interested in being a part of a critique group. That’s how you start, a group, a partner, something where someone can offer suggestions, motivation and share the tears. The only prerequisite is what they like on their pizza.

After finding a group which fit my needs and where I felt I was a contribution, I found out that although there were things I needed to learn, perfect and implement, I found help and understanding from those with the same goals and needs. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my wonderful critique partners, Monica, Margaret and Jody for always being there for me. “You’re my girls!”

There are several ways to find out there is more than just story telling involved in choosing a writer’s life. Phase Three only begins with acceptance. Acceptance that the steps leading toward publication are filled with rejections, good and bad, and turning those rejections into something positive so, after rejection 125, I came up with my own solution. I turned the negative into a positive. I have a motto, my personal philosophy, it’s on my website and my business cards and the more I look at it, the more I know that it’s true. “Rejections are the stepping stones to publication.”

Mid-way through Phase Three, I received a “good rejection” requesting some changes. Now, destiny steps in this time, fate snickers and speeds time forward. An agent wants to see my work with some changes, yeah, some changes. But it’s not just “some changes”, she wants me to delete 150 pages of back-story; I began in the wrong place. Sniff, sniff, what does she know anyway? Yeah, she’s a member of AAR, Recognized Agent through RWA and well known in the community, but how could she ask me to do that? You wouldn’t know the characters history? You wouldn’t feel the bonds with these people and their world as I know them, how could she not see that?

What did I do? Well, first thing was to order delivery, not Dejorno’s, and sink my teeth into a big, think, cheesy pizza with lots of pepperoni and put the rejection/request away for a couple of days. When I finally had enough pizza, I pulled the rejection out and read it again, “What if she’s right?” I asked myself that question and I couldn’t answer. So, I posed the question to “my girls” and waited for them to agree with me. That’s the great thing about critique groups, they tell you what you need to hear, not necessarily what you want to hear, the question here is am I strong enough to hear it? I inhale deep and listen, they agreed with the evil agent; fate dealt a death card and destiny forced it upon me. So just like the Beetles’ song, “Paper Back Writer”, I made the changes while on the phone with my partner, asking again if she was sure this was the right thing to do. She agreed with the agent and stayed on the phone as I deleted 150 pages of a manuscript I thought was ready for publication. And, you know what? They were all right! It’s damn good; but, I couldn’t see it, I was too close emotionally.

So, where am I now? I’m waiting on the agent’s response to the requested changes, again. Fate once again has me in limbo, slowed time and I run to the post office checking my box daily in the hopes that I won’t see a package with a note of “thanks, but no thanks” but a letter offering representation, a contract and someone who will tell me, I really loved it. After six years of active submissions to agents, am I back to Phase One? Perhaps.

Meanwhile, I shall continue working on my next best seller, you never know about those multi-book deals.