AUTHOR'S CORNER;

FADING INTO THE PAGES

The funny thing about getting what you want and having that overwhelming feeling of complete and utter joy, is that it only ever lasts a few minutes!  Euphoria was not meant to last forever; if it did we would all be absolutely helpless to carry on with life.  Once all the gaols have been achieved and the dream has been realised, there seems to be not much left, nowhere else to turn and certainly not many left who will listen or are in admiration of you!  Though they recognise your talent, and have praised you a thousand times. You've been told you are wonderful, they've given you all the feedback you desire, you should feel satisfied, the way you felt last month....but the feeling is not sustainable, because once all is said and done, there is not much left to say, and not much left to do!  The stillness seeps in... nothing happens, all that can happen has happened...now what?

You've written it, the pages on your book are filled, you've published and now, now you are sitting at your desk feeling empty.  In the last two years you had a goal, a purpose to live for; you were busy writing a novel, you were busy showing it to the publisher, proofreading and editing your work.  You were busy telling people about your pending work, you were busy living on the dream...living on the glory of that imagination of yours.  And last year, last year you were real, a real person trying to write a real novel....now you are a novelist who is only really alive within the pages of your book!

It is almost as if the reality has sort of made the realism of it all seem unreal....Is this how being published actually feels, lost?  It is as if the end point, the goal achieved has left  you redundant somehow; you've done it, now what?  Aren't you supposed to be enjoying all that fame?  What fame?  What should you do now, take a break?You can't take a break, because you simply don't know how to!  You are a writer...it is not a job, it is who you are. 

You feel like you have come to an anticlimax, you are at a dead end and the motivation has left you, not because you are unhappy with the outcome, but because you have simply burnt yourself out!  You've been racing for so long, you lost the breaks and now you've crashed!  The reason you are so uptight is because you have been trying so hard to achieve your goal, once it is achieved you are scared to sit back and relax, in case you are forgotten, or you suddenly lose that platform, or worse, you fade into the pages of your novel and never recover again!



BUT ASK YOURSELF.....

What makes you doubt your own success?  Why do you fear the quietness of a well earned break, and what makes you believe that you are forgotten?  It was exciting writing and getting the novel published, it was great having the first burst of praise from family and friends, but now it is time to let it do its magic, let it circulate, let people read it and know this, as long as somebody reads it, you will never fade into the pages of a book!  

NOW SIT BACK AT YOUR LAPTOP, AND START THE FIRST CHAPTER OF YOUR NEW NOVEL!