Joanne Anderton

How do writers deal with depressing news? I dunno about other writers but this one:

Drinks of a lot of wine
Takes a few days off to hang out with friends and husband (people well skilled in the art of ‘making you feel better’)
Makes two delicious varieties of home made pesto, from the forest of home grown [...]

Well, I just passed the half-way point in this revision and sure enough the middle is as big a muddle as I’d feared. Tonight, I sat down and worked out what wasn’t working and how I could fix it. Then I cut 9000 words, give or take a few.

But you know what, that’s ok. Because [...]

Is it really worth analyzing the writing of this novel draft any more than I’ve already done? I have angsted like an angsty thing about it. Hell, it even led to the creation of a ‘Writerly Angst’ category.

So, you know what? No more angst.

Instead, one of the positive things this draft taught me — well, [...]

Yes, a novel requires lots of planning. Notes and brainstorming and lists and timelines. But there is a point where the planning becomes procrastinating. For me, that time is now.

And I know why. It’s because I am afraid. Afraid that I won’t be able to replicate whatever it was I did right in the last [...]