I have been scoffing the rich advice of other writers on writing like someone who's been on a lettuce diet for the last six months.
I'm not so much anticipating indigestion, on the contrary: there is so much sustenance out there for the newbie author. I am indebted.
However, after reading Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen's Fear of Success - Signs of Self-sabotage in the Writing Life, I realise I need to take a few moments for self-assessment. Or, proper digestion, if I'm not going to mix my metaphors.
Don't get me wrong - read further down my blog and you'll see the reference to the state of my house. As I write, tiny tumble-weeds of animal fur are rolling across the laminate flooring in the slight breeze caused by my husband's journey from the sitting room to the kitchen. Domesticity is not an issue here, as far as diversions go.
(Actually, not-so-tiny, and one appears to have its own eco-system. Ew.)
There is no doubt I need to research self-publication, to occasionally nibble the nutritious goodies, but I also need to retain a sense of what I am trying to achieve and not lose myself in what others are saying. I have dined, I am full, I can stop eating for a few hours.
The irony is that a theme of my novel is this very thing: forgotten dreams, the forgotten magic, lives diverted and some so thoroughly derailed that those who live them can't get back on track.
Now, I used a railway symbolically in my book, so that's not such a clumsy introduction of imagery as it first appears. However, to continue the food metaphor, let's say some of my characters ordered the wrong main meal at a restaurant, others accepted the wrong dish, and not all of them have the gumption to change their minds or complain to the manager.
Anyway.
I will quickly post this to my blog, forget about it until tomorrow, and get on with the process of learning how to actually prepare my novel for ebook and print. Perhaps even jump right in and do it.
The manuscript is ready, you see. It's as ready as it's ever going to be without the input of an agent. It's been pored over, spell-checked, ruthlessly has anything remotely purple edited out.
So I need to have faith in my judgement at this time, and go ahead, push forward, and not sit here writing about it any more!
Until tomorrow.
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