Recently I received the news that someone I know was getting published.  Now, normally I wouldn’t have a problem with this scenario.  Being a writer myself, I know how tough it can be.  This particular case was a bit more closer to home, which brought out the green-eyed monster.

From my own experience I have also taken years to write the rough drafts for three of my own novels, however, my novels are still not of a high enough standard to send out to publishers.  I began wondering why my novels were taking so long and asked myself ‘when is enough editing and re-writing enough’?  Clearly, I was being unreasonable and too hard upon myself.  This is what I did to overcome it:-

• I began telling myself that everyone’s road to publication is different.  For some authors, they may have been writing only a few short years before they become published; others can take a great many years.
• I listened to music and went for walks.  Exercising gave me time to think clearly and rationally, while music helped to cheer me up and de-stress.
• I shared my feelings with fellow writers.  My writer’s group meets casually once a month, so this is where social networks really do help.
• I tried to stay positive, recalling what others have said about my writing.  For example, a writing teacher once wrote that I had ‘great potential’ – something she didn’t see in many of her students, a member from my writer’s group said that my ‘writing was good.  You’ll get published one day; it’s only a matter of time’.  Stop the negative and embrace the positive.
• I began writing.  The only way around a problem, is to work your way through it.  To get better at writing, one must keep writing.  Being a perfectionist, I need to realise that my rough drafts are bound to ‘suck’, but I will be the only person to see it in that form.  Rough drafts can always be fixed.