Jitters

I'm having an attack of nerves. Is it good enough? Will an agent like it? Have I done enough? Who the hell do I send it to? How do I choose?

This point that I'm at, this juncture in time, is something I've been working towards for years. There's something unnerving about sending off your written work for complete strangers to judge. And this is the true test.

I'm trying not to metaphorically hand wash with worry, but I'm standing on the 'do or don't' precipice. Where one more step forward will...

*sigh* Every published author goes through this. Every published author worried. Every published author had something rejected. And yeah, I've had the last.

I like to think I've progressed since then, that I've worked harder, focused more, created better and made my books more readable.

I've been doing this for years, taking one step at a time, improving until I'm at a stage where I think my work won't be dismissed out of hand for poor grammar or jumping timelines or changing hair/eye colours.

Getting online was the first step to overcome chronic shyness and I think it's working well. It took a dare from Sheila to post stories - the next step - and I think that's gone well too. Forward Motion taught me to write short stories; Nano to write books and various other websites, school courses and books to edit.

Is there a longer apprenticeship? Or one more worthwhile?

It's time to get back to the final edits. Then onto the writing of query letters and synopis... synopsi... synopsises... um... yeah, you know what I mean.