Letting Go

I've just realised that it's almost two years since I have published anything on my blog. The fact that I had titled my last post (in October 2013, for heaven's sake) 'Excuses, Excuses' proved to be oddly prophetic.
A lot has happened since then - the demands of juggling two part-time jobs (both of which I've loved) has meant that writing blogs (and writing in general) has tended to get fitted in around the edges. I've also been lucky enough to get some fiction published in a women's magazine, which I'm delighted about.
The Sound of the Sea did eventually get finished and it wasn't until I had some free time this summer (oh, bliss!) that I felt ready to knock it into shape to send to a publisher, though I want to tinker with it some more.
Sometimes letting go of a novel is the hardest part. You know it's not perfect, you know you want to do more to it, yet you know the longer you hold onto it, the more you will start 'thread pulling'. You pull one little thread ("perhaps I should move that scene to an earlier chapter?") and the whole darned thing unravels.
So you know what I did instead? I took an earlier novel and knocked that one into shape instead. The Girl in the Farmhouse just needed a good edit but I had originally written it as an experiment - a short story that kept getting longer and longer and I was never very sure if it was strong enough to stand up on its own two feet.
And you know what? Time had sharpened my editing skills and I was suddenly transported back to the heart of the story, to the original 'magic' that made me keep writing in the first place. I fell in love with the story all over again. I edited and 'developed' the story from the heart and then sent The Girl in the Farmhouse off to a publisher (before I could change my mind and start pulling any of those darned threads).
It's hard, letting go of your babies, wondering if they'll be all right in the big wide world on their own. Now all I have to do is wait...
ends