Breaking New Ground

Because that novel isn't going to delay itself
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JB Toner (euclid)
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Joined: April 20th, 2011, 11:24 am
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Breaking New Ground

Post by JB Toner (euclid) » April 20th, 2011, 11:57 am

I used to be quite good at procrastination. It took me 15 years to write my first three books. Persistent and dedicated procrastination limited my attempts to find an agent, with the result that I didn't find one.

So there I was, happily writing away between bouts of inspired procrastination, moving, you might say, at a snail's pace. Getting nowhere fast. And then the recent ePublishing incidents all came along. Guys and gals were self-publishing on digital platforms and being successful! The gatekeepers of old were becoming redundant, or if not actually redundant yet, they were packing their bags. The writing was on the wall, and the fat lady was clearing her throat.

Suddenly, the way forward was clearly visible and all obstructions had been removed.

I resolved to follow in the footsteps and stand on the shoulders of giants. Giants like JA Konrath and others. If it is good enough for Barry Eisler, I thought, it's good enough for me. I will write a book, a Young Adult book - no - a Young Adult trilogy, and self-publish. Forget about queries, agents, big publishing houses, long delays, and miserable royalties. I have seen the light.

I built my outline and began to write. And that's when the trouble started. I wrote 10,000 words in 10 days. But it took two months to write the next 7,000. My writing got slower and slower. At this stage I'm spending almost every available moment of every day networking: Writing blogs, like this one, reading blogs (like Nathan's), following other people's blogs and chasing down links all over the net. I lost about a week reading eBooks, reading about eBooks, the pitfalls, the pros, the cons, the success stories, the dangers. Now, the first thing I do each morning is to log on to Twitter and key in my 140 characters. Then I flip over to Facebook...

I seem to have about one hour in the middle of the day to actually write my book. At this rate, it's going to take forever.

So what's really going on here? It seems when I was banging my head against the gatekeepers' brick wall, I could write freely. But now that those restrictions are gone, some new mental block has taken over. Perhaps I'm afraid of failure? Is this some new kind of Imposter Syndrome? Or am I losing what's left of my mind?

Evidence of my procrastination skills can be seen at http://euclid-thoughts.blogspot.com/

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