Books, blogging and the internet

Having read Hadriana's excellent summary of the workshop at the Edinburgh International Book Festival entitled Books, blogging and the internet I'm not sure I'm qualified to write anything.  Except that I was there and last-minute-stand-in-Vanessa did an excellent job of guiding this blogger with L-plates into the wonderful world of internetworking.  Sorry it has taken me so long to get my thoughts in some sort of coherent order!

I'd spent all week trying hard to learn how to write (just do it!), publish (rejection is nothing personal) and still maintain some degree of self-confidence (you do still have value, honest).  It appears that the road to riches is a long one: lots of potholes, several false summits and unlikely to be paved with gold - ever.

Yet my week of workshops has encouraged - perhaps even forced - me to persist with my writing, to set aside time every day to write something, even if it is a load of waffle.  Hopefully most of that gets edited out of the blog and the book but every time I edit or re-read there is something else that gets a line straight through.  There are supposed deadlines that I plan to meet (although I refuse to make them public, as I am sure I'll fail them all, then feel really small and useless).  Still, two weeks in to my new routine and the book has progressed another 12,000 words and some of them are excellent.

I found this cartoon and I think it sums up very well what I learnt about blogging, or indeed publishing in general.  Tickled me, anyway!