Eclectica

Mostly cogent, most of the time.

Spent

So Children’s Crusade has been delivered to the mandarins at Abaddon. Even now they are scoring my manuscript with their enchanted red pens of doom – their eldritch powers ensure that every edit they make results in a fresh cut on my body.

Those authors who have only written one book for them? Now you know why! Authors have died as a result of lazy comma useage or a slapdash attitude to apostrophe’s.

ARGH!

I am suffering the customary free-floating anxiety that normally accompanies releasing a manuscript. I have a sense that somewhere, something remains not done, like I’ve left the gas on at home or forgotten to put the handbrake on the car. Past experience suggests I’ll feel like this for a few days, with constant low-level butterflies in my tummy, waiting for someone to shout at me for fucking everything up.

What next, I hear you cry? Well, I shall spend some time licking my wounds. The St Marks trilogy has consumed three years of my life, years during which I’ve moved house twice, become a father twice, changed day jobs more times than I can count, written four audio plays on the side, and generally been as busy as a man can be.

Time for a break, I think.

I shall take a month to read other books, catch up on my Big Finish listening and generally enjoy consuming rather than creating. But then I’ll start something else. It will either be a book or a screenplay, but whichever it is it will be by me, for me, written without a commission or a deadline, just for the hell of it.

Feels quite reckless doing something without a commission, but if I want to continue to grow as a writer I need to throw away my safety net.

That’s not to say I won’t acccept commissions if they’re offered, especially for audio stuff, which I love writing. I just don’t relish the idea of another novel deadline (unless it’s a Doctor Who novel deadline, in which case all bets are off!)

The only issue is which of my many getsating projects do I tackle. Do I continue with my screenplay, plough on with my Young Adul Sci-Fi novel, dive into my adult fantasy series, write my thriller or do something else entirely.

Decisions, decisions.

Comment

1. Commissioner down! Commissioner down! All units converge on this location! Unfettered freelance author on the loose … be aware, individual is literary and adjectival … do not approach without backup … remain at your location and await the arrival of the Special Commissioning Unit … set tasers to nasty-little-paper-cut-right-on-the-tip-of-your-finger …
   — Mike    Apr 6, 4:04pm    #

commenting closed for this article