Hectic is good

Been a little hectic here as Larry and I were away for a week in Ireland for a family affair. Wonderful to catch up on parents, siblings and nephews and nieces.

Novel is now DONE. I spent many late nights prior to my departure working on it. It was horrible to have to read and rewrite until two in the morning, one of those times wehn I don't like writing. But, of course, once the finished product is in one's hands, it becomes a horse of a different color.

Novel has been read and enjoyed by Jeanne, a member of my writing group. That was an anxious time as Jeanne knows what's bad and what's good and lets me know--which is what I want. Will make changes she suggests and get it off to my agent in NYC.

More anon

Writing blues

I finished the first draft of the novel last week, took a few days off to celebrate and now have started the rewriting.

This is the time when a lot of authors become uneasy, nervous or downright despondent.

They read what they've written and say to themselves, 'This sucks' or words to that effect.

Well, I'm no exception.

I've been going over a large chunk I gave to my writers group a couple of months ago and I HATE it. In fact, I wanted to burn the whole thing, jump on it, dance on it, shred it, eat it.

So, I grabbed a published novel--not my own, but rather one that garnered critical acclaim--and read a few pages throughout the book.

"Hey, this is good, but it's pretty much the same language as I use," I said to myself. "Maybe I'm being to hard on myself."

And so I go on. As Hemingway said, "The first draft of anything is shit'.