Tyler Hillis

I’ve hit some big milestones since my last update.

I finished another round of editing on the book. I feel as though it’s really coming together into what I had envisioned. The more editing passes I take, the more refined it becomes. And the more confident I become in the story I’m trying to tell.

With finishing up the latest round, I decided to go out on a limb and begin sending out query letters to agents.

This meant writing out the letter, a pitch sentence, a brief synopsis, a long synopsis, a personal bio, and a collection of samples from the start of the book (first chapter, first three chapters, first ten pages, first thirty pages, etc.)

And with all that sorted away, I sent out a total of ten queries so far. This is what I’m considering my first round of many more to come.

But taking this step feels like a big commitment. I feel as though I’m finally ready to get eyes on this thing, and really put my weight behind it. So I’m excited, while also terribly nervous. Putting creative work out into the world is such a hard thing to do.

And at the time of writing this, I’ve already received my first rejection letter. Which feels like a relief. I’ve never been great at receiving rejection, but this one felt like part of the process. And I hope all the future ones do as well, up until the one email that comes in that is not a rejection.

In the meantime, I’ve got two other writing projects I’ve been tooling a way at to give myself a break from editing. The first is a second full-length novel. It’s still in its early stages so I won’t talk too much about it yet. But it feels good to be writing something long for again.

That’s because the other project I’ve been working on is a 500-word short story competition I’ve been participating in over the past few months. It’s hosted by NYC Midnight and a total of 4,200 people signed up for this specific competition.

My first round submission, “The Trial,” is posted on my site under the “Writings” section. It managed to get me a Top 10 spot that moved me on to the second round.

My second round submission, “Dragon’s Nightmare IX,” is not yet posted but will be in a few weeks. This one was such a challenge as I was assigned the genre of comedy—something I don’t consider myself well suited for. But, I read some satire and struggled through nearly five or six ideas before settling into something I knew and could extract some goofiness from. And after all that, it managed to get in the Top 5 of my group and moved me on to the final round.

My final round submission, “Drifting Among the Stars,” is not yet posted and probably won’t be for another month or two. The results of the final round aren’t until the beginning of January.

Out of the initial 4,200 entrants, only 125 remained by this final round. So to be involved, even if my final story does not get into the Top 10, has been a huge boost in my writing confidence.

Because through this all—the many projects and this book—I’ve dealt with creativity’s nemesis: doubt. It has threatened, on many occasions, to make me stop all together and give up this silly dream.

But I’m starting to believe, perhaps naively, that those who succeed creatively are just the best at smothering doubt.

So everyday I’m doing my best to ignore it and blaze on.