My Manuscript is a Victim of Distraction

I’ve been working on my manuscript for two years and am currently in my third or 10th draft of revisions. I honestly have lost track. Writing is a tough process, but getting published is way more challenging and painfully heartbreaking. But I haven’t even gotten published yet.

When you come to a stopping point in your writing, you typically take a break to see what everyone else is doing. There are zillions of distractions and temptations, especially on social media.

Every few days, I am tempted to research lit agents or participate in a Twitter pitch contest or something related. However, each of these distractions take me away from my main purpose and goal: To have a complete and polished manuscript.

Temptations come in all different forms to distract you from your writing/revising focus. If they offered free donuts and coffee, I would be screwed. Here are some typical questions that may come to your mind when you are feeling tempted:

Am I ready to query?
Is my MS good enough?
Am I missing my big break?
Does anyone care about my story?
What if I just try it now and see what happens?
What have I got to lose?

Stop! Be HONEST with yourself. Are you really ready? Sometimes, you have to pull your head out of the clouds and ask yourself the tough questions. Combat those questions with ways to continue working on your MS:

What is your story goal?
What does my main character want? What does my main character need?
Why is my character reacting like that? What fuels him/her? What is their motivation?
What is my word count?
Do I have a plot? Is there tension, conflict?
Who is the antagonist?
Do my characters have bios?
Have I checked for overused/unnecessary words? Should I check for crutch words?
What does my CP think? Do I even have a CP?
Have I received all feedback from my beta readers? (Tip: make sure you have objective beta readers, not just friends who will tell you what you hope to hear.)