I want to share a secret with you!
I have totally, totally chilled out about writing. Honest. Last year I went through a lot of angst about fitting it into my life, lack of self-belief, being stuck in a writing rut etc etc and for the past few months I have really managed to get my head around it.I had a novel I was afraid to start - but I now realise I couldn't start it because I didn't fully believe in it and didn't completely like my main character. I took a break from trying and while I was lying in the sun the solution came to me. The setting is the same, the characters are slightly different and so is the plot. It needed a tweak, was all. I'm 6,000+ words in now. Progress is slow because I've got the 'fuzzy head' that affects women of a certain age (which seems to basically mean anywhere between 40 and 60!) and I have to work harder to pull my thoughts together, but if I do 200, 300, 400 words a day I'm happy. More than that and I'm dancing!
I stopped trying to write shorts for women's magazines, although I'd had a lot of success initially. My mind isn't in the right place and I needed to find other outlets. I've had several stories accepted by Xcite Books and although it's not going to make me a famous millionaire, having stories accepted is as much of a thrill as writing them (ahem!) Seeing a list of publications containing my stories on Amazon is a pleasure I have to keep on revisiting! I think that little bit of cheeky success spurred me on to write my novel, actually.
Xcite are offering a free e-book on Kindle between the 8th and 12th September here. Beltane Fire is an historical collection which may or may not contain one of mine. You'll never know! Ha! If it's your sort of thing, why not grab a freebie?
My advice to anyone feeling insecure is to try and find a way to chill out about writing. It's not that easy, but once you find that place in your head that blocks out doubt and desperation and just lets you enjoy it, everything becomes easier.
Enough from me! I'm off to read your IWSG blogposts! (This is a blog-hop - find the list here at Alex J Cavanaugh's blog.)
