Reasonable Expectations

Posted on September 9, 2016 by juliajsimpson

When I finished writing “the book” in December of 2013, I knew it would be the first of my novels that I would publish. The other four, written between 2009 and 2012, would sit on the shelf and await their turn. “High-lariously,” I had thought those turns would come sometime over the subsequent three years, but here it is nearing the end of 2016, and I’m not even done with the final draft of book one.

In January, when I threw myself headlong into this publishing thing, I anticipated a summer publication date. Then I hoped for fall, but that’s not happening, either. And for weeks I’ve been really stressed out about that–so much so that my productivity did a bit of a nosedive. Progress has been gummy at best, and “non” at worst, but today I decided to stop worrying about it, because here’s what I know:

I have written a book, I am currently editing the book, and at some point in the not-too-distant future, I will publish the book. It may be late fall, it may be late winter, it might even be spring–all that matters is that I get there eventually and that I’m happy with the finished product. So, I’m still here, still working, and still have every intention of making this happen, but I’m going to do it without unreasonable expectations.

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2 Comments on “Reasonable Expectations”

Ann Jansson
September 9, 2016

That’s my girl!!!! You have learned a valuable lesson! You just can’t rush creativity. I have wondered if the authors who only wrote one book had just the one book in their heart and in their head, or whether the process of writing that one book was so onerous that they just quit because it wasn’t fun anymore. You would kick yourself if you rushed to print with something that you wished you hadn’t because it just wasn’t ready yet. You’ll know when it is done! It’s a wonderful story and you will do it justice by taking your time
Bobbi Clementi
September 11, 2016

We all need to set goals but not timelines. Timelines create stress and consequently we do not produce our best work when we are stressed. Enjoy what you’re doing.