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I finally—finally!—made it past chapter 2, where I’d been stalled out for a couple weeks. I’d thought I just needed new graphics but ended up entirely rewriting the chapter and creating new graphics. I’m pleased with the way it turned out, however, and I’m glad I listened to my instinct that the chapter was falling short of my ambitions. Imposter syndrome will whisper that in your ear all the time if you let it, so it can be tricky to know when to listen and when to tell that voice to shut the hell up. Two questions to help you decide: Does this thought come to you in the middle of the night or when you are actually reading the pages? Can you pinpoint specific things you think you can do better, or are you just feeling free-floating anxiety? After sinking about 15 hours into chapter 2, I sailed through chapters 3–5 in an hour. I think I’ll have some time to work on the book during my trip—at least enough to keep it front-loaded in my brain—and my goal is to have a draft ready for beta readers within the next couple weeks. If I don’t hit another chapter 2, I think that’s do-able. (If you’d like to sign up to be a beta reader, you can do so right here!) Next week, I’ll be back with some photos from Sydney and another book update, plus maybe a peek at the specifics of that very long to-do list, which includes everything from “write takeaways for chapter 28” to “update Amazon author bio.” Self-publishing involves a million knobs and buttons, and most authors are like a one-man band, trying to push them all ourselves at just the right time, while we keep the music rolling along to entertain the crowd.
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