The Orr Report | August 2025
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Hello and Happy Summer!
As I approach the official two-year anniversary of starting the first draft of my work-in-progress novel about two female founders and their billionaire mentor, I am extremely ready to be “done,” and by that I mean, start pitching agents. To that end, I scheduled four (virtual) pitches with literary agents on Saturday, August 16 and will be sending out cold query letters after that. Eek!!
But it's time. I’ve subjected my poor mom, sister, brother and two writer friends to reviewing parts or all of earlier drafts, and sought professional feedback from a developmental editor on the story, the query letter, the manuscript and my first three chapters. I’ve written and rewritten the entire story more times than I can count, and I think it says what I want it to say (finally). It's time to send it out into the world and see what happens.
As an expert-level perfectionist, this is impossible for me. However, I am buoyed by the knowledge querying agents could take up to a year (or however long I give it) and in the meantime, I can still make tweaks. But mostly I feel like I have done all I can with this manuscript and feel very ready to move on to my next novel and implement all the things I’ve learned over the last two years.
Ordered this from Etsy to hang in my office!
What Have I Learned As a Writer?
So much! But here is one lesson I learned the hard way:
Word count goals are the quickest way to majorly mess up one’s arms, hands, fingers and wrists!
When I started my first writing class in November 2022, I followed the advice of many authors and set a goal of writing 1,000 words per day. I hit 85,000 words in less than two months for my current manuscript, only to ultimately discard it and rewrite from scratch. Ever since, I’ve been revising: restructuring, reworking, adding and deleting scenes, reading out loud, reading on paper, working in Scrivener, working in Word, and so on. Millions and millions of words typed between my novel, my next novel, short stories and my blog.
Along the way I developed a ganglion cyst and MAJOR wrist pain, resulting in a two-year-long Wristery. After screening for carpal tunnel (negative), three xrays and two MRIs, three different orthopedic surgeons gave me three different diagnoses. I've tried OT, PT, massages, steroid shots, a wardrobe of sexy wrist splints, and arthritis gel and I still don't have clarity on how to fix it.
I have thus learned a very expensive and painful lesson: don't do daily word counts, especially if you are a fast typer!
Going forward, I will track my progress by time spent writing to plot point--not words. This brilliant advice came from one of my favorite writers, Rebecca Makkai who has a wonderful Substack.
Takeaway: To be a writer, you must first take care of your body which means taking breaks from writing. Who knew? I was never very good at taking breaks as a lawyer, but in my second career, I am going to try very hard!
Three Happy Things
Here are three things that brought me joy this past month (and if you’re looking for books recs, please see my blog.)
1. Give me rich people acting badly and I am pretty much in heaven. Sirens was my favorite show of July. Starring Julianne Moore and Megan Fahy (who was in Season 2 of White Lotus), the limited series is set on a luxurious beach estate and features falcons and ladies in fabulous dresses and complicated family relationships and did I mention falcons??
2. The crime/mystery/thriller series Department Q is not the type of show I typically watch (per the above, I like falcon-rehabilitating fabulously dressed ladies behaving badly), but WOW. The twists and turns and the acting and the sets! I can't stop thinking about it. My only criticism is it should have an arachnophobia trigger warning. . . other than that, perfection!
3. My third happy thing this month was volunteering for the West Suburban Humane Society to sell raffle tickets at the Festa Ferrari in Burr Ridge. The whole day was thrilling--not only did we raise lots of money for the animal shelter, but the people-watching was next level, the cars were sick and my nephews came to see me. Per below, they were apparently too overcome with emotion to stand next to their Aunt Sara in the photo, but that's cool.
Do you have any recommendations or updates re: things that made YOU happy this past month? Please share!
That’s all from me this month! I am so lucky to have you!
xo,
Sara
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