My sweet (and very promising) friend Keri asked me yesterday if I thought that keeping this blog was in some way helpful to my process, and honestly, I hadn't really thought about it.
My initial reaction, which is what I'd told her, was that I thought it might make good fodder for speaking when the next novel was released and that it seemed a potentially interesting feature for the young adult audience increasingly likely to visit my site. Also, I supposed, I was trying to be hip (feel free to chuckle).
But having slept on it, I'm pretty sure there's more to it than that.
People often compare "birthing" a novel to "birthing" a child--that you forget the pain afterward. Part of me hopes this blog will serve as a reminder how much work and uncertainty and internal cheerleading is involved so the next time I sit down to do this, I won't be intimidated by my own most recently finished effort.
No more of that "But it'll never be this good!" whining for me! (Or at least less).
I'll remember that it can take a long--often challenging--path to get to that point, and that the journey is an end in itself.
