Seeds

I ploughed through my chaotic stream-of-consciousness first draft in 37 days. I knew it didn’t make much sense, and that was fine – such is the way of first drafts. The last 10,000 words were bashed out in a perfectly blank hotel room in Tunbridge Wells with a ‘you can’t edit nothing!’ mentality.

Now, though, I’m working on the second draft, and I’m having huge doubts about an entire section. If I’m not very careful, that doubt could extend to the entire manuscript. And then I’ll ditch it, feel like an abject failure, start writing something else, and carry the seeds of self-doubt into the next project.

So, the best thing to do is recognise that self-doubt is part of the drill. No need to give those seeds too much attention. Let them be food for the birds!