Hello Fellow Writers and Friends,

This will probably be short and sweet, but if I don’t write it now, I may not at all and that simply wouldn’t do. I have to blog so I can be seen, I have to be seen so I can be known. I have to be known to have a better chance of publication. I also have to do that new course. I have to finish the other courses I’ve already started, or not started, but paid for. I have to do my day jobs and all the other everyday things everyone else does, whether they write or not.

That’s right, this last month or two, I’ve discovered something new- or perhaps something I haven’t encountered since the very early days of this journey. I discovered paralysis through overwhelm. This blog for example should have been written over a month ago, then again at two weeks ago, then again two days ago. Not three different posts, just one- this one! I’ve had several ideas in the couple of months since my last post, but every time I attempted to write about them, I thought about all the things I could or even couldn’t write (definite side of imposter syndrome mixed in for good measure) instead and frozen.

The fact that my Picture Book, Star is due for release later the year and I should be doing a little promoting on here has also weighed on my mind a bit. I want to do it well of course, but maybe simple is best. Here’s Little Pink Dog Books Cover Reveal.

I’ve read and read so much about about what I should be doing as a writer to learn, network, promote myself and my books. I’m good at that, I love reading and I’m a natural learner. If I’d known it was a thing and I had an affluent patron, it might have been something I considered as a career 😁🤣 Still, while learning is important and reading enjoyable- obviously, I know I ought to be writing. This blog if nothing else! The funny thing is I have written several first drafts, creating stories is not the issue. I do not fear the blank page: at the moment. It’s more a case of not knowing what to do next or rather, first. It’s prioritising! I’ve prioritised many times before, but usually by date, not by importance. I seem to have so many important things happening in my life: personal and professional, right now, that pinpointing which is the most important is proving problematic.

I don’t have any answers to this strange and frustrating condition of second guessing what I should do first so much, that I don’t do anything, but I just wanted to make other aspiring and emerging authors aware that it is real and that if you are or have experienced this you’re not alone. Oh and by the way, if you know a quick and easy way out rather than the long and difficult way through, I’d love to hear it!

Well, I did it, not so short or sweet after all, but that’s it for now,

Farewell fellow travellers,

Savour the quest (and all it’s stops and starts🙄😉)

Journeygirl