This might be a little unorthodox, but I’ve seen (and written) some stuff on goals this week, and so I decided to set myself one, and thought maybe my thought process was just a little interesting… (okay, maybe I am just doing stream-of-thought organizing).
I am almost done polishing the 7th version of my novel—oh it’s not the 7th full out major revision—there’ve really only been 2 of those (making this the 5th… no… 3rd), but the first was followed with a clean up and a polish, and both of the next two were followed with a polish… That makes seven.
Thus far I’ve sent six query letters—all pushing the 200,000 word (750 page) version, and from that I’ve received five form rejections and one total silence. So this next one will be my seventh.
So if I’ve got two sevens going here, I thought maybe it would be a little lucky to throw a third seven in the equation. Do you see where I’m going? Do you? Do you? Only the geekiest among you will. I’m going to mail this seventh query on the 11th. I see you all scratching your heads as if this makes no sense UNLESS you are an uber-Potter nut. Yes, August 11 is the birthday of the seventh Weasley child (she’s turning 28—also a multiple of 7)…
Do I really think this matters? Not at all. Well… maybe just a little… but MOSTLY this is because it gave me a deadline that required I push myself, while at the same time being possible. I have ten chapters left to polish—two a day is definitely a push, especially on weekdays. I can be a procrastinator, especially when I have nobody to answer to but myself, and this forces me past that.
I’ve adopted my little superstition as a practical matter… (and hopefully made a wiser choice in who to query in the meantime—it IS the first agent I really have a reason besides “oh, she looks nice!” to query…)