Hello everyone.
I’m back!
First of all, apologies for my short absence which, as you all know, has been due to my being submerged in the structural editing of my cozy crime novel, The Mysterious Disappearance of Marsha Boden, which is being published by RomaReads Publishing in May.
It is without a doubt the hardest thing I have ever had to do writing-wise. For almost six weeks, I had characters, plots, storylines and dialogue going round and round inside my head on a continual loop. I felt completely overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of adhering to the editorial report, sorting out my words and putting them into some sort of chronological and engaging order while taking on board various comments along the way.
It was at that point that I realized that writing a novel is very much like creating a painting. The blank screen is a blank canvas and you start with an outline, characters, plot, storyline, etc and each time you edit, you colour in the outline more and more until eventually, after many, many hours of sitting alone in front of the screen, thinking about the plot and how it could go in so many different directions and re-working it until you think you’re done. Then you lie awake night after night and think of so many different things, like did I answer this question there, or did I make sure that person was where I said they were, and so it goes on.
I finally returned my edited manuscript to my editor because I could do no more. I was mentally exhausted. Then I thought of something else. And so it goes on. Tinkering, tweaking, colouring in that outline and creating something beautiful. An interesting novel that will hold the reader’s attention. That is all I am asking for but I guess that because it’s very important to me I want to do the very best that I can. I need to get it right. I cannot let my readers down.
Perhaps it’s all the self-doubt that I had, which I have now chased away like warding off an evil spirit. I will not let self-doubt darken my door ever again, especially in the wee small hours of the morning. It’s not good for the soul.
Catching a nasty cold just a week after I had recovered from a previous one, didn’t help. I felt tired and had to push myself to finish, which I did. I worked every single day for weeks on end. Occasionally, I worked for twenty minutes, but on most days, I worked for ten hours taking short breaks to exercise or get some fresh air.
Writing is such a solitary pastime. We sit at our desks for hours on end with just our thoughts for company so it is important to take care of our mental health as well as our physical wellbeing. Lots of walks, plenty of breaks and immersing myself in other writer’s books helped me a lot. We should therefore remember to be kind to ourselves and now that I have emerged from the dark tunnel of structural editing, I feel proud and happy that I achieved what I set out to achieve, even though I thought it was an impossibly daunting task which had threatened to overwhelm me. I got through it with the help of my family and friends.
Although I was not very active on Substack and X during that period, I found the time whenever I could to cheer fellow writers on and to encourage them if they were feeling down or overwhelmed. My author friend, Helga, was brilliant. I rang her in a complete panic and she calmed me down and told me to tackle the editing one layer at a time. Which I did. And, like with any big task, I tackled it in bite-sized pieces until eventually, it started to come together and looked as though it might work. I sure hope so. I cannot thank Helga enough for her calming words and good advice and basically, just being there for me in my writer’s hour of need. Call it a virtual pat on the back but it was just what I needed. She told me that she had experienced the exact same feeling of panic and feeling overwhelmed but she got through it. And I did too. So, thank you, Helga.
My thanks also to my beautiful daughter, Rachel, for listening to me droning on and checking in on me, daily sometimes, to cheer me up and cheer me on. It did the trick!
My thanks also to you, my subscribers and biggest cheerleaders. I would like to thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
If you have a friend who is undertaking a big project, whether it be writing or something else, give them a wave, drop them a message, and be kind to them. A metaphorical arm around a shoulder, a thumbs up, a few words of wisdom, or kindness will make all the difference. I can vouch for that.
Now that I have more time on my hands - until the next round of editing - I will champion other writers and cheer them on because I think it’s the least that I can do. If you have any questions or would like to know more about how I pitched my novel to a publisher, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact me directly at: rosygee345@gmail.com
I wish you a healthy, happy and very productive New Year. In that order.
Best wishes,
Rosy x
The beautiful photo at the top of this post is by Jacob Rice on Unsplash
Do you ever visit Medium these days, Rosy? A bunch of us are busy writing daily drabbles (short stories of exactly 100 words). We started on the first of the year and hope to go on for the entire year. Whenever you get a chance take a look at Nancy Oglesby's new publication called Fiction Shorts.
All rings so so true!! Congratulations on this work, Rosy!