Today's Advice

I started writing that novel yesterday. Okay, I re-started writing that novel today. I got about 500 words done.

The things that go through your head when you're writing a novel numerous, ponderous and really quite strange.

On the list of things which I've thought about:

• A Scottish children's verse
• What would the world be like without grandmothers
• The use of intertextuality
• Where the above could fit in the book I'm writing
• The using the first person,vs using the second person vs using the third person
• World building
• Old political slogans
• Argentina and The Disappeared
• Dumb Ways to Die
• Civil disobedience

This is just some of the stuff I thought about in regards to the novel.

Then there is the other stuff. The questioning myself that I can really do this - to write something that other people might want to read, the the standard that I want to reach (Dammit I'm hard on myself). 

I had a quick chat to a mentor of mine. She's an incredible woman. Bright, brash, sassy, outspoken - and the dealer of kicks up the arse when required. 

We spoke about school. I told her of what I was feeling and the jitters I was having going into all this.

I'm the first to admit, this is a huge endeavour and I'm rather at odds as to how I'm going to pull all this out. Lots of self-doubt and fear come at you. I've been feeling a lot of this.

Speaking to my mentor, I said that I need to get out of my own way. I'm good at getting in my own way.

This has to stop.

My mentor's advice: Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to stop participating in it.

As I said, my mentor is a very sage woman.

I'm getting on with it. It's the only thing I have to do. 

Today's song: