Of Weekend Whingeing March 30, 2008
Posted by Jen in : Journal, Novel , 30 comments
Well, there it is. The Novel. All printed out and bound, new pen at the ready. Crikey. There’s quite a lot of it. All those words wot I thunked with my Brian. Oddly, flicking through, I barely remember writing much of it. And no, this would not be a good time to point out the wine glass on my desk.
Hmmm. I realise now, of course, that I should have been reading about editing over the past four weeks instead of fannying about. I really have no idea where to start, short of reading it through with fresh eyes. Even that feels a bit daunting on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
A year to write. God, is that mad? I’m giving myself three months to edit. Re-write. Roll my eyes. Sob bitterly. Whatever. The delete key is looking quite alluring at the moment. If my keyboard had a fuck it key, I think I’d be quite tempted to press it.
But. I have to get it sorted before August so that I can submit it to the RNA New Writers Scheme people for crit. Yes, I’ve joined the Romantic Novelists Association. They sent me a magazine last month called ‘Romance Matters’. Bet that gave the postman a good laugh. How embarrassing.
A year of my life to write a novel that’s probably crap. God. And, if that weren’t bad enough, I signed up for the A363 Creative Writing Course with the OU this morning. That, in itself, is a good thing. But I have just bought all the past course materials for the other half of my degree which I’m doing in French. I’ve got a bit rusty since I took the foundation module. The reason for this? According to my OU academic record, it’s 10 years since I last studied French. Ten Great British years. How did that happen? I could’ve trained to become a brain surgeon or astronaut in that time. But no. I’m still just me, sitting here with a glass of wine and a pile of piffle to edit.
I think I may be on the brink of a mid-life crisis. Fat, forty and a failure. Ok, so I’m not 40. But I will be one day. Pass the bottle.
