Playing With the Big Boys

Hi All.

Yes, it lives, it breathes! LOL, ah, I’ve been scarce about these parts, I know, and whilst I’d love to say that’s going to change, I’m afraid I’m going to be even more scarce for a wee bit longer.

See, I’ve decided that I need to step up and play with the big boys. For real.

I’ve been writing my novel for mumblemumble years now and it’s starting to drive me batty – the length of time it’s taken me to get where I am (a combination of draft three or four of the manuscript), and the book itself. Yes, I know I’ve blogged before about how patience with one’s progress is a good thing, and how a great deal of the lengthiness of my book writing quest is down to me climbing a very steep learning curve. And I still believe these things.

However, I’ve come to realize that for me, with the busyness of my life as a wonderfully convenient excuse, it’d be so very easy to sit back and let another mumblemumble years slip by without any further progress made with my book, or with my dream of writing for a career. And I don’t know whether I’ve hit that dreaded midlife crisis, but lately I’ve been thinking that while I love being known as someone’s wife and three someones’ mother, it would be so very, very satisfying to do something, and to be known for something, that I did just for me. And I know, in the very marrow of my bones, that writing is that thing.

Anyway. Long story  - and lots of navel gazing on my part – short, I’ve decided that to get where I want to be I have to man up and write like I’m already a career writer. Yeah, I’ve said that before, too, and have done so, to an extent - I write just about every day, I set goals and I’ve definitely got the neuroses and anxieties down pat - but I also too quickly and too easily allow my writing to take a back seat to everything else.

No more.

So the house will be going to even worse rack and ruin; the kids will not die from catching the bus home instead of riding in the car, or from eating the odd dinner of toast and fish fingers. And I also have a couple of deadlines. They’re of my own making but I’m going to pretend like they’re not. And those deadlines are (1) I must have this draft of my book finished by 31^st May, and (2) I must have this book to an agent-querying level of completeness by 1^st November 2012.  Not “would like to” or “am aiming to”, but I MUST , as in “I’ll have a fire-breathing editor screaming down the phone accusing me of breach of contract if I don’t”, kind of “must”.

And with this in mind, I’m going on a blogging hiatus until the end of May. I may pop in, if things are going well; if not, then I wish the best of luck to one and all, and I’ll see you on the other side!