Letting Go of Your Writing (Manuscript)

Now that I’m no longer working at the university (five months!), I’m exploring and enjoying the creative writing world, whether it’s providing creative writing assistance or, in my new Client Manager role at Ocean Reeve Publishing.

Undertaking manuscript appraisals is turning out to be ‘my thing’ and, I’ve just celebrated providing feedback on the tenth one. I use the word—celebration—with a dual meaning: as a personal milestone and, to congratulate writers who have overcome that fear of receiving advice from other writers, in a professional capacity, as well as, letting go of their manuscript.

How hard can letting go be, you may enquire? Well, imagine working on a draft for months if not years; you’ve questioned the way you’ve phrased things, if the writing style is appropriate and how the story is progressing. It’s all very personally and then, you are putting it out there for someone to give their opinion.

Basically, it feels like, lying down on a railway track and waiting to hear whether that train is heading towards you, to crush you or, if it will swing onto another track and go on its merry way, seeing the world and hopefully providing enjoyment to others. Dramatic? Well, I am a creative and honestly …that is what it feels like, or at least, it did for me, when I was an aspiring author.

Fear is what holds us back in every aspect of life. Fear of putting ourselves, our thoughts, our emotions out there. Let’s turn fear on its head. In the words of Norman Schwarzkopf, “True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing it anyhow, that's what courage is”.

One day at a time, let’s be courageous!

Marisa Parker - Author www.marisaparkerauthor.com