A write old challenge

Uh oh. Two of my writing buddies and I have made a pact to have submitted our work to agents by the end of this year. Eek. 

Since my novel is currently undergoing it's third rewrite, I know it should be ready but I keep rewriting the first chapter in a bid to make it as good as possible. It needs to be perfect. It needs to be engaging and captivating and enticing enough to make a very busy agent want to read the second page. Which, obviously, 

needs to be even better than the first page so that the hugely busy agent reads another page. And so on. 

It's a terrifying prospect. But although the fear of rejection is one reason I am procrastinating so much, the thing I most dread is the endless waiting for a reply. I know it might be weeks and months before an envelope lands on the floor, probably A4 sized and heavy with the returned first three chapters of my novel. I also know that that won't stop me from impatiently waiting for the mailman all day every day (sometimes we don't get our post until half three in the afternoon - that's a lot of staring at the door for one day). 

However, I think it is time. Time to start sending out chapters, time to start a new novel and definitely time to start pinning those rejections on the wall so that I can proudly say that I am trying to get published rather than hiding behind my laptop making just one more adjustment to page one and, oh, just adding one more line of dialogue on page five and changing that last sentence of chapter two.

Incidentally, Lady M is pushing me to read less and write more too. She emptied out my wallet at the old people's house the other day and my library card got left behind. So, there is no teetering pile of library books demanding to be read in three weeks time. Of course, there are at least twenty bought books waiting to be opened but the majority of those have been waiting about three years so another month or so won't hurt. 

One more reading by aforementioned writing buddies and the three chapters are being sent. It's been decided. End of this month. Four submissions. New novel started. Done (in the words of Gordon Ramsay.)