Well, I hit 37K words of the first draft of my Fledgling Novel at the weekend - which means I'm pretty much a third of the way there. *Gulp*. I know. How did that happen? The trouble is, at the same time, the Terrible Rampaging Doubts set in (the 'Every word I write, every idea I have, every character I create is utter crap - Who am I kidding here anyway?' stage). It sucks. Hence me prevaricating by emailing and blogging instead of writing now. Bad Jenny! No Jelly Babies! Seriously. No Jelly Babies until I've at least finished the chapter I started yesterday. Symptoms of Rampaging Doubt include: fanatical urge to abandon the Fledgling Novel and write The Other One that's been brewing in my head instead web browsing; blog reading buying books on Amazon general miasma of bleakness Anyway, the Rampaging Doubts are pretty much par for the course, so I'm doing my best to ignore them. Hmm. Kind of. I did buy some books on Amazon yesterday. I found myself in freefall on Saturday night, so floundered around seeking a rope to cling to, and found it in the shape of blog posts by authors taking about their own fears, doubts and insecurities as well as their success stories in finding agents and publication. It's heartening to read that I'm not alone in feeling these things, and some of the posts I found were extremely encouraging and full of no-nonsense advice. Reading other people's success stories is also heartening (once you learn to get beyond the jealous greenies. Which makes it sound like something that happens when you have a cold, but you know what I mean). Anyway, other people's stories reassure me that these people whose work I admire were once in exactly the same position as me, and it happened for them, and can happen for me too. Yes it can! Sorry, Rampaging Doubt is keeping me from believing that at the moment. Bugger off Rampaging Doubt, I've got a book to write here. Besides, I REALLY want some Jelly Babies.
