Pressing on!

Here I am again.

The draft is written and now, all I need to do is review and polish the next bestseller-to-be. And, of course, half way through the second set of revisions, all I can hear in my head is “Oh, this is a really weak story. This is terrible. Everyone is going to hate this.”

I hate this stage. I’m now so close to the story and have gone through it so many times (especially Age of Oppression, parts of which I wrote very early on in my writing life) that I can’t judge it properly at all. Doubts and worries abound on every page.

All I can do is press on. By the time I actually come to publish the book, I’ll have realised that it is okay after all. And when I read it again in a year’s time, I’ll be happy with it.

Writing is like that!

In fact, the most critical ingredient for getting a book to publication seems to be the ability to press on. At every stage, there are frequent occasions where it all feels like really hard work. From gaping holes that won’t be plugged at the planning stage, through words that won’t flow in first draft, contradictions and confusions in the editing and ending up with good old-fashioned doubt at any and every stage, there are reasons to quit.

But the world is full of unfinished master-pieces by authors who didn’t know how to press on. All I can tell you is that isn’t going to happen to me…