For the past couple of months, Matt Haig has been blogging for The Book Trust. He's an honest guy, and a great writer, and many of his posts have struck a chord with me both as a writer and a reader.
A couple of weeks ago, he posted about the many (many many many) neuroses he has as a writer. I know A LOT of writers, and I can say that between us, we cover these particular neuroses. Several times over. I don't know many writers who aren't neurotic - but then, I don't know many people full stop who aren't neurotic in some way, and when you're doing something creative, and putting this huge chunk of your soul on show for people to judge, neuroses are pretty much inevitable.
Matt's neuroses are the inner buggings of a published author - these are the things we all have to look forward to. (Lucky us, eh?) For now though, whilst we're lingering on the slushpile, there are even more. Because, yes, we worry about what will happen once IT happens and we find our book on a bookshelf. But that's not enough to worry about, so we also develop a special set of neuroses to take us through the queries and rejections and dreams and knock-backs.
These are the Things That Make Us Anxious:
