Reader, it’s only days until November and that means 30 days of intense writing and not much else.
Except I’ve enrolled in a two day writing course with Kate Forsyth. Yay, I am so excited. To add to the already hectic schedule that’s scribbled on my calendar I am still trying to get the editing finished on Something In The Water.
As I draw closer to the time to send SITW out to some publishing houses, I get ever more nervous of doing it. I wonder if I will ever feel that it’s ready to go. Each time I read through it I find I am still changing things. Restructuring sentences and deleting extra full stops. Instead of feeling as if I’m getting closer, it’s making me more nervous about it ever being good enough to send to an editor. I could pay to have it edited but I really don’t have the money, so instead I’ll go over and over and over it.
The feed back from Charlotte Ledger has been helpful, and as I apply her recommendations it only serves to make me feel that I’m not up to par. On the other hand, I think I should just send it out and see what happens.
Finding where to send it is a whole other ball game. I’m simply not sure where it sits in the market. I didn’t write it with any particular imprint in mind. If I’m honest I didn’t even know what an imprint was when I wrote the first draft for last year’s NaNoWriMo.
As I approach the pointy end of writing, the bit where I have to do the hard slog and not just spew out convoluted prose, I can see that my dream to be a writer is a dream worth the blood, sweat and tears. And yes reader, there has been all three. While day dreaming about my story I’ve managed to cut myself instead of the carrot I was chopping. I’ve trudged up steep hills to visualise a scene for my story. I’m cried because I can’t get a scene right and feel like giving up. Or cried because my hobby is now a job and therefore it required that I actually work and not faff about.
So, is it worth it? I think so. Whether I ever get to sign a contract to have one of my stories published or not, I know that I will continue to write. Because I actually enjoy it. Well maybe not the editing, but the making stuff up, absolutely.
Do you write? Do you feel like it’s all too hard sometimes? Or is it just me and my wimpy tendencies? (note- you can lie here)
By the time we chat again reader I’ll be firmly bogged down in NaNoWriMo and just back from a weekend of writing in Sydney, so keep an eye open for a crazy dribbling post from me. Have a good week, I’ll be getting my house in order before the madness begins.
