I’m kind of (my own version of) pregnant—with a book. It’s been an eight-year gestation period…or thereabouts. It started with me journaling so it’s hard to know the exact conception date, but I’ve been writing it for many years.
And over those years, I’ve been woken many nights, feeling the kicking from within. I’ve been known to get out of bed at 1am to feed it, sitting in our dimly lit home-office, trying to type quietly as to not wake my husband.
It intermittently takes naps when my university workload peaks, as well as during exam time.
Last year I took it for its first check-up. Oh wow…. The editing process! Who knew how long and just how difficult this part was? I thought I’d done the hard yards in writing something from scratch. I thought I’d overcome one of the biggest hurdles by taking my personal experiences and scribing them into a memoir to share publicly. That seemed a big enough mountain to climb.
Yet here I am with my American editor who is helping me take my Australian voice and make it more universally understood. There is a constant battle being waged in my head over every line of feedback I receive as I fight to keep my author’s ‘voice’…yet recognise the need to change it at the same time. My favourite feedback was when she asked me what “pull your head in” means.
To remove my Australianisms is like telling the rest of the world that Drop Bears don’t exist. GASP! But, alas, I continue to methodically comb through paragraph by paragraph, scanning for drop bears hanging from the overhead branches.*
I estimate that I have at least another two to three months of editing before it can be taken to see the next specialist. And I’m so green. I’ve got no idea what comes after that. Every time I think I’m ready to announce its arrival, I find out about another whole process that takes another few months.
But I’ve been sitting on the edge of my chair, megaphone in hand, stinging to tell you that I’m pregnant with my first book.
And so there it is. Perhaps a premature announcement, but it feels good to share the news with you.
I will keep you updated with its growth (and likely the growing pains).
Big love from me until then.
xx
* If you’re non-Aussie, you might have to find an Australian friend to translate some of the above.