Yesterday afternoon, sitting in a coffeeshop while it rained outside, I finished Chapter One of Finity. All that pressure, fear, and resistance beforehand gave way in the end to the simple act of telling a story, which is just fun.
I have Strategic Coach work to do today, but I’m going to figure out how best to post the serialised chapters, then send this first one out to the readers as soon as possible. Trust me, I’m not going to sit on it at this point. I was starting to feel like one of those people who talks about the book they’re going to write and keeps describing the plot to test it out on other people, but never actually sits down to do the work. But no, I am the king cat of self-discipline (which, to give away the secret, is always about finding the fun in the task).
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My friends have been great lately for listening to me and handling me gently, talking me down from my tree. On Friday, though, I had a conversation over Skype with Cosgrove that was one of those Big Talks, the kind that alters the whole trajectory of life after it. He really unravelled my whole relationship thing, and, at the end of an hour, something completely different was possible. What a relief.
What’s great is that Patrick is also getting very skilled at listening through what I’m saying and calling me on my junk. It’s annoying, because it requires me to be the best potential version of myself instead of the lazy, automatic, reactive human machine I can default to.
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On Saturday, Chris and I went out wandering in the rain and did a photo shoot. I always get horribly self-conscious during these things and end up making funny expressions unintentionally as my face tries to deal with the scrutiny, but I think we got a couple of useful shots. And the cover of my most recent book no longer has a nine-year-old portrait on it!
