Following the Plan & A Schedule

Finally, I have entered the final phase. Notice how I'm smiling in my test headshots.

But before I look to close this chapter of my life and move forward, I have to go back to where I started to appreciate the road that lies ahead...


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When I first started grad school I was so nervous.  I had no idea what an MA in Writing Studies would mean. What was I going to be able to do with this degree? Worst case scenario, I'd be able to teach college courses. Best case scenario, I'd be able to write my book. Which honestly, was the secret reason I wanted to go to graduate school but I knew that my family probably wouldn't think that was a good enough reason to put myself in thousands of dollars of debt. But I was determined, even without the possibility of getting a MFA in writing I would complete a book.

Step One, I registered for a Writing Children & Young Adult literature class. I loved that class. And in that class, I knew I wanted to write my book and it would get done. I had a great idea about a super smart girl from Newark that creates a time machine. Think modern day Quantum Leap.

In that class I wrote.  It was hot garbage. I'm sure of it and Dr. Inskeep was way too kind in her comments and feedback. Needless to say, I wrote about 50 pages of words and I haven't looked at it again since the end of that semester.

After a full year into my graduate program, I was learning so much about writing in digital spaces and different theories of writing and writing practice. All super important and really academic stuff. I absolutely felt more intelligent but by this point, my creative juices had come to a halt. And then, Dr. Zamora offered a writing boot camp class during the summer. I jumped at the opportunity and in this class, I found my inspiration and conceived my master plan.

In the summer of 2017, I wrote a book. I wrote the first draft of my book titled, Misunderstood from start to finish. But that was just the beginning. I didn't want to stop there, I wanted to get my book published so I started researching and scouring Twitter to find out how to take my manuscript and turn it into a book. After I gathered enough info, I did what all teachers do, I made myself a visual reminder in the way of over-sized post list, known in the teacher world as an anchor chart.

Step One: Get an Agent

With the amount of student debt, I'll have when I'm done with grad school there was no way I was going to self-publish.

After almost a year-long process and about forty rejection letters from agents, which in all honesty is not a long time or a lot of rejections I started to see the forest through the trees.

I got an email from an agent named John Cusick who I'd met at a conference. He told me while he loved so much about my book and he thought I was a great (he might've said good, but revision is history) writer he couldn't extend me an offer of representation at that time. I was crushed, ready to quit my dream of writing and scratch my manuscript altogether when I re-read the last line of John's email. He alluded to the fact that if I worked on the manuscript some more and fixed some things, he'd be willing to take another look. Well, that was just the slither of hope I needed. I jumped up from my laptop and created my next anchor chart.

I was on my way. I spent the entire month revising and tweaking the manuscript pouring over it with what I hoped was a new perspective. I worked a summer job which allowed me the time to work on my revisions. I'm so grateful for that time. Then on August 8th, I resubmitted my manuscript to John Cusick. Eight days later he replied and said he wanted to speak with me. I'd made it to the next step. I was about to get "the call." In the publishing world, "the call" from an agent means they are interested in your work. And it could essentially go two ways. The agent could extend you an offer of representation or they could say I love this are you willing to make a few more revisions. Either way, it is a big deal. And as a writer, this tells you that you're onto something. In my case, my call ended with an offer. And on September Slowly but surely things are getting checked off of my list. On September 4th this was shared with the world:

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And now my list looks like this...

That was until I got an email from my agent which contained my editorial notes. I'm not done yet, I've got work to do. I have to keep in mind that my true end goal is getting published. I want a book in hand. And in order to get there, I have to keep a tight schedule. So far, this is what I came up with:

So far, I haven't been able to write at my alloted times. And even though I had a laundry list of things to do after I left class last week, I was only able to do one of them which was to go through John's track changes in my documents and then I will change that. 

I know this has been a super long post but I felt that I needed to get some things out. And this process of writing this blog has actually helped me think about and remember why I'm doing this work in the first place. Which is one of the questions I was supposed to explore but I am too busy tyring to stick to my plan which as of right now, is kicking my butt. I said all of this to say, I did not finish this week's homework.