THE LONG HAUL

I’m saying goodbye to my old writing community; after three years it’ll seem strange not to click in there for a chat, but it’s time to move on, for a while. I might return at some point because it feels like home. I’m a bit like a teenager, running off to join the circus – belting out into the world to see what kind of life I can make for myself. More like what kind of trouble I can get myself into! No – I’m too old for trouble.

And, I’ve got a new one to pick up the pieces, to critique my blunders and help me shape this novel that feels as if it’s on the road to the end. This week I posted what I thought was a well-edited version of Chapter Two but there were a couple of great slovenly elephants sitting right in the middle of it! Cheek. Litopia has so many brilliant eyes and opinions that a writer can’t help but improve because of it. It’ll do me.

As the years went on, I neglected my old group, Women’s Fiction on WriteWords. I also neglected my writing but I keep the online friends I found there and hope to always have them around, in the ether, in the world of writers and artists – some of them are in Litopia too. Maybe all roads lead to this utopia for writers. I know that I’ve trawled and tried many, many groups and communities, as have a lot of fellow Litopians – so I’ve moved in lock stock and smoking barrel.

WriteWords is worth every penny of its yearly fee; it served me very well. Over the years I was also part of several other communities and enthusiastically took part in all sorts of writing games and exercises but now I need to settle down for the long haul; it’s time I was serious and put my nose to the ground/grind. I think Litopia is the grown-up place, the colony where career is held up to a mirror and you have to see your real self - not a picture of Dorian Gray.