Talking of handkerchiefs - nice rejection this morning from a publisher suggesting I need an agent.

I get the "wallowing too long" - I suppose I was going through one of those "did I actually write anything in 2005?" moments or did I just edit?

I suppose with the first book it's emotional investment - when do I put baby to bed and write the next one which should be better? I want to write the second book in the series which almost certainly will be better but is there any point?

Should I just write "the other one" instead?

Think I started too many projects in 2005 and gave up too soon on too many of them!

Now I feel guilty about writing glib remarks about "life sentences" - why is it always easier to say something daft to avoid treacly sentiment about children?

Someone said something about parents reaching a point where they give up on their own dreams and project them onto their children - and how unfair it is - I suppose writing is my way of trying not to do that?

Especially as it is entirely possible that mine might publish something brilliant at 17 and then go off to do brain surgery instead?

This cold's getting worse - sorry everyone!

Sarah

It's funny how something can be finished one day, and then unfinished the next time you look at it.

I couldn't agree more with this! What is it that happens in those few hours/days/months since you last looked at a piece of work, that makes you see it from a whole new perspective? I've just posted a short story I wrote about three months ago (shameless plug! http://www.writewords.org.uk/archive/12385.asp). I worked so hard on this story, took so much trouble in editing it, re-editing it, shared it at a writers' workshop...and yet when I went to post it I spotted several clunky phrases, a couple of images that didn't quite work, a sentence with a needlessly repeated word and a typo!

So I am definitely a proponent of putting something away for as long as you can bear!