{"id":6144,"date":"2015-07-26T07:00:45","date_gmt":"2015-07-26T06:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6144"},"modified":"2015-07-26T07:00:45","modified_gmt":"2015-07-26T06:00:45","slug":"nervous-about-number-nine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6144","title":{"rendered":"Nervous about number nine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Those<\/a>
Those two little magical words<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I did something amazing this weekend. I wrote two words. Those two words you can see there on the left.<\/p>\n

Those two words of course had been preceded by about 70,000 other words. I have finished book number eight. Well, when I say finished… This first draft has to be re-read and polished. There are a couple of extra scenes I want to put in, and a couple more I want to develop further. I do a bit of editing as I write, but mostly I make notes and go back later to fix the bits that need fixing.<\/p>\n

That usually means I write a lot more words.<\/p>\n

So for me, The End actually means only about another 10,000 to 15,000 words to go.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s all that punctuation and spelling to worry about, not to mention grammar.<\/p>\n

But those two words are an important event, because once I\u2019ve written them, I am allowed to start thinking about the next book. Which is a good thing, because by this point there are quite a few characters banging around in my head saying \u2018Me next!\u2019<\/p>\n

I find it really hard to believe I am about to start my ninth book. How did that happen? It seems only last year that I submitted The Farmer Needs a Wife to an editor and crossed my fingers. All of them. And some toes as well.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be totally clear about this,\u00a0I\u2019m not sitting here thinking how clever I am to have written eight books. I am sitting here wondering how on earth I managed to do that and if I will be able to write number nine.<\/p>\n

You see, for me, books have always been magical. And the people who write them \u2013 well, magicians of course. I never thought I would ever be a magician,\u00a0even after that first editor rang me to tell me she wanted to publish my book. I still have trouble believing that I\u2019ll ever be able to do it again.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it\u2019s been for those books\u2026<\/p>\n

Book 1 \u2013 OMG! They want to publish it!<\/p>\n

Book 2 \u2013 Just because I wrote one book, doesn\u2019t mean I can write another. I probably can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Book 3 \u2013 OK. I had two good ideas. But this one is rubbish. No-one will ever want it.<\/p>\n

Book 4 \u2013 Why am I writing this book? It will never find a publisher.<\/p>\n

Book 6 \u2013 I have bitten of more than I can chew. I\u2019ll never make this idea work.<\/p>\n

Book 7 \u2013 There isn\u2019t enough time to get this done and if I miss my deadline my publisher will drop me.<\/p>\n

Book 8 \u2013 Arrggghhhh. Book 7 was nominated for an award \u2013 I\u2019ll never be able to match that again.<\/p>\n

So now \u2013 I\u2019m up to book 9. What I am thinking?<\/p>\n

All of the above really. Even after all this time and all those words. Writing is a privilege and a wondrous thing. I am honoured that people want to visit my fictional world and get to know my friends there.<\/p>\n

Of course, I now know just how much hard work is involved in making magic. But oh \u2013 when that magic works, it\u2019s just the best feeling in the world.<\/p>\n

So number 9\u00a0… here I come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I did something amazing this weekend. I wrote two words. Those two words you can see there on the left. Those two words of course had been preceded by about 70,000 other…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-1B6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}