Hello again fellow Children’s Writers and friends,

Have you ever found yourself hating what you have always loved? Hating the whole process of writing? It can’t be can it? Well probably not, you may just be hating everything around it because you’ve inadvertently stepped away from what you really love. Actually writing!

I found myself in this exact situation recently. I had been so busy reading blogs, checking writing websites and Facebook pages and learning my craft that I was not actually writing. The result; frustration, exhaustion, and the writer’s curse- the feeling of simply not being good enough. Yes self doubt, and of course, as mentioned earlier, really finding myself hating the whole thing!

It took me a while and some time away from it all (thanks to a glut of work, no don’t get excited, in my day job) to realise that I had not lost my passion. It was not writing that I hated at all, thankfully. It was simply that I had been putting too much time and effort into “doing all the right things” to get published. In the process I had done very little editing of what I had already written and even less physical writing, certainly nothing new. Sounds ridiculous I know, but the fact of the matter is that it is so easy to do. I’d like to think it’s a trap you fall into the closer you get to publication. Whether it is or not, I’ll certainly let you know.

In the mean time, it is one of the traps I’ve fallen into on my own personal road to publication, so I feel it’s only fair that I pass on to other emerging authors this warning, no matter how obvious. You can read blogs, research websites and build your author  platform till the proverbial cow comes home, but you ain’t getting published unless you write!

So, how are you going? I’d love to hear. Did anyone else get a submission in to Little Pink Dog Books? Has anyone entered one of the many competitions I wrote about last month? Good for you- and if you haven’t then now’s the perfect time as most are still open and others will open soon. So get back to those pens and notebooks, iPads/tablets and computer desks and write!

Farewell fellow travellers.

Savour the quest,

Journeygirl.