The Master Edit

So today I submitted the Master Edit for my collection of short stories that is set for publication this year. I'm going to be honest, I kind of left a bit of the editing work until the last minute. I have a job and since receiving the Master Edit I've spent probably a grand total of two days in my own house. I've been so frustratingly busy and so last night I poured out the coffee, sat down and combed through every sentence and really worked at it. The fact that I had a deadline (the deadline was today) was scary. I thought that after university I wouldn't ever be writing fiction to a deadline again. I was wrong. I'm not very good when it comes to deadlines. I spend a lot of time thinking about it before actually doing it. Then in the final few days I'm cramming in all the work and really hammering everything out. Hey, if it's what got me through university and earned me a good degree... Of course I can't go through my whole life like this but it definitely seems to be how I get things done.

I had to work through the night last night as I had to work a six hour shift today which was a little stressful to juggle both. I'm really happy it's submitted. Hopefully it's just smooth sailing from this point onwards and we can talk about fun things like marketing strategy and what the cover will look like. It's literally only just hit me that my collection of short stories will have a cover... Wow, that's actually very exciting. I've only been thinking of the literary content until this point.

I suppose I'm writing this blog entry more for myself. It's a way of documenting honest feelings and then sharing them with other people. I've noticed that quite a few authors/aspiring authors have clicked onto my blog so it's important to write about writing as an art and as a process.

Once this is out of the way I'll be entering the planning stages of another hardcore writing month much like NaNoWriMo. Throughout February I'll be sitting down and trying to finish the novel that I started in NaNoWriMo. Yes, even on my birthday. Swiftly after that I have another novel that I'm itching to get started on. It'd be really cool to have a collection of short stories published in the year and two novels completed at the end of it. I'm about 25,000 words into the first novel and ideas are coming thick and fast for the second. I'll just be happy to finish one at this rate.

I'm very thankful to have this current experience of having a collection of short stories published. It's like having a full book/novel published but on a smaller scale which has made everything a lot more manageable and is a wonderful first step for me as a writer. I'm thankful to the publishers, to my editing team and everyone who has been involved in making one of my biggest dreams come true. It has been such a wonderful learning curve. Much like having children, I don't think anything really prepares you for stepping out into the world of publishing. It feels a bit like being a fish in a shark tank: you feel a little vulnerable and exposed, sometimes you can go by totally unnoticed, you're worried about making a bad move, sometimes you're snatched up perfectly...

See.
I'm an author now.
Look at me churning out vague metaphors on the spot.

So yes, to summarise: I am grateful, I am thankful and I am sleepy but I think 2014 is going to be a pretty rad year. Let's keep writing.