Sarah Z. Creates

One of the things I have learned about myself over this journey to self-publishing is that I am a perfectionist. And it’s terrible.

It took me a little over a year to write the first draft of Harbinger.

It’s taken me another five to revise it— and I’m not done!

Part of the challenge is that I wrote Harbinger with very little advanced planning. So I spent a lot of time going back through to make sure everything worked!

Another challenge that I’m still trying to overcome: I read too much about writing. Pacing scenes, showing not telling, staying light on the adverbs … there’s a lot of great advice out there, but there’s also A LOT of great advice out there!

Which feeds into my third stumbling block, which is absolutely part of my perfectionism: I’m intimidated by the publish button. Once I hit that button, it’s real, I’m committed and my not-so-little passion project is going to be held to the tender mercies of its readers. (Meep!)

But I do, actually, want to publish my story. I want someone other than me to read and (hopefully) enjoy my stories.

So that’s my goal: to write more and to PUBLISH more. So even if this post isn’t perfect, if I dashed it off over lunch today, I’m still going to hit that little publish button. And make this, at least, real!