Now that I’ve completed and delivered the commission quilt (with no particular feedback one way or another, which is frustrating after all the angst I suffered over it), it’s time to turn my attention to the next big project on my list. Getting SEPARATION ANXIETY ready for publication before I leave for summer vacation.
It has not been an easy job.
I know that I always go through extreme highs and lows in the process of writing a book – moments where I think that nothing more brilliant has ever been written before (few and far between) and moments when I wonder why I bother at all. I think all writers go through these ups and downs. Knowing that doesn’t necessarily make them easier to deal with though, and the low moments for me tend to cluster more during the editing period.
Editing is hard work. It’s very difficult to read your own work for the umpteenth time with a fresh and objective eye. As much as you want to make it as perfect as you can possibly make it before sending it out into the world, the last thing you want to do is read the story yet again. (Snore) And because I feel so bored by it at present – the new, incomplete story calling me to write it instead – I can only worry that my perspective is a bit skewed and that in fact this isn’t just one of my low phases but that the story is boring and will be a complete flop.
So I’m doing the best I can do, taking it in small chunks and then stepping away to put the finishing touches on the Noah’s Ark baby quilt or to make a homemade cheesecake (yum!). I’ll get there bit by bit. And when I do, I’ll have to hope that the feedback I get from those reading purely for entertainment is encouraging enough to get me through the next story.
