Sometimes you need to just . . . breathe.

Breathing . . .

Breathing is a good thing, and not just for the obvious reasons. Breathing clears the mind. And for some people, it clears the soul.

I am an anxious person thanks to genetics and certain childhood experiences. When I get to a point where I feel my anxiety creeping up on me, the first thing I do is try to breathe.

Unfortunately, that usually causes me to hyperventilate and then I get that needle-and-pins feeling in my hands and feet . . .

So why am I talking about this, and what does it have to do with my writing?

Well, it has to do with my LEAST favorite part of writing . . . revising.

There's something about finishing the rough draft of a novel (or any other piece I'm working on) that puts me on another plane. Almost a giddiness. Then reality sets in and I realize, once again, that the easy part has been completed, and the real work needs to be done.

I mentioned in my last post I had figured out the tie my two main characters in the current book I'm working on share. I've spent what little writing time I've had today (apart from writing this post) focusing on that.

But I'm fighting off that "feel like I'm over my head" feeling I get when I do.

The Quote of the Week I posted on my FB page is, "If at first you don't succeed, try . . . try again." I wrote that because I've been going through some stacks of papers today and found my REJECTIONS folder. It used to be that my "old" pile - the rejections I received very early in my writing career - was bigger than my "current" pile - the ones I've received since 2004.

Seeing the "current" pile kinda hit me like a ton of bricks and that quote immediately popped into my mind.

However, I'm hoping my revising work on Sophia, Alison, and their problems will help me forget about mine.

Revising, rambling and breathing . . .