*cracks open website backend*
*dusts off literal dust from keyboard*
*pushes aside stack of papers that still need to be organized but there’s no more time to waste*
*begins*
Hello and welcome to Fifth Draft, the website where I, Robert Acosta, attempt to log everything I can about what I’m learning to be a professional, published author. I’ve done book reviews, book analyses, skill assessments, informative posts about the querying world for the layman, and overal general updated about what I’m working on. And, I think, the most important lesson, the lesson I think I anyone who wants to pursue a career in writing should learn is: Life always wins.
Stephen King once famously wrote, “Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around.” And I’m trying really hard to keep that at the forefront of my mind, and not imagine I just wasted the last 6-8 weeks of my life. (There’s a brilliant webcomic that adapts the entry from “On Writing” I need to find.) (Found it.)
We got a baby coming. The house needed to be ready. WE needed to be ready.
So no matter how I might feel, deep down in the dark parts of my heart, about the time I spent over the last few weeks, not writing, not being able to sit with a notebook for longer than five minutes, but instead moving in a giant gaming table my family will be able to spend unknown amounts of time at…
…or writing the first RPG campaign they’ll ever play as a fun, creative writing exercise…
…or playing video games with the boys…
…or hanging shelves all over the house, alongside general house maintenance because, hey, when you own a house and something breaks, it ALL breaks…
…or taking the family out…
…or taking a quick birthday trip with one of my oldest, best friends to Sedona…
…or trying to find thirty minutes to sit by myself and focus on my hobbies, non-writing related…
…that it’s still okay.
It’ll all be okay.
As of writing, I have a little less than forty days until baby girl is here. During that time I want to keep this website as active as possible. I want to finish the Revise and Resubmit I received from that literary agent. I want to pitch as many new agents as possible. And I want to write. I want to prove to my children now, and my kid coming, that I am what I think I am.
That I am a creative. A creative who loves them and wants them to see that.
Life gets in the way. But that’s not always a bad thing. Mostly, it’s a good thing. I don’t have an office anymore. I have a little wall space in our bedroom which, honestly, suits me just fine. Though, in a couple of months, it might be covered in baby clothes and blankets. But that’s okay. Really.
T-Minus: 39 Days…
Thanks for reading,
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E-mail: robertmichaelacosta@gmail.com
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