Remember the Journey...

There is a saying that the destination isn't important, it's the journey that counts and it came to me recently that I've been so focused on my attempts to get published I've forgotten to enjoy the process of getting there.


Okay so I don't have an agent, I don't have a publishing deal and it may be many years before I eventually get there but this whole year has been amazing. If I think back to where I was last year at this time then I can hardly believe how much has changed-
You see I spent most of 2010 in agony from the prolapsed disc in my spine, I could hardly move off the sofa for much of it and the constant pain made me miserable, grumpy and depressed. Last Christmas I had such a bad episode I couldn't move off the sofa, at all, for five days...


Then in January I had surgery on my spine and while recovering I started writing and this is my journey...

In April I went to my first writing event, then a workshop, then a SCBWI event- something I wouldn't have been able to do at all a few months earlier.
I finished my first book and started my second.
I submitted and got rejected.
Alot.
I got requested.
Got rejected.
I rewrote my first book.
I finished my second book.
Then I submitted again, got rejected, got requested.
Twice.
Got rejected.
Twice.

But that's only part of my journey, I've also;

1. spent this year going out, meeting other writers and agents and publishers.
2. read masses of childrens books and loads of books about writing.
3. spent hours on the internet looking at agents and blogs and joined an online SCBWI crit group.
4. discovered that I love writing, I particuarly love writing fantasy for children.
5. found out that I can complete a project, I can edit and rewrite and I can work to a deadline.
6. And most importantly, my biggest achievement, the one thing that I was desperate to know when I started is that....YES, I CAN WRITE!

I can write. I wasn't sure I could when I started but I can do it.
And I can write well enough to interest agents, okay, not quite enough to sign me but interest nonetheless ;)
So my resolution for next year is that while I try and hone the craft that is writing I will also try to enjoy the journey, to remember where I started and how far I've come.
I've got my eye on the destination, that's true and it may well take me years to get there but the journey is going pretty well.
Here's wishing you well on your journey.
Bon voyage fellow writers!