Here we go again...

People have blogs for all kinds of reasons. 

To sell stuff. To make comment or to inform. 

To sell stuff.

I think a blog is also a great way to document progress on a project and to keep the blogger honest. It can also be a means to reflect on how things are going: what worked, what didn't and why.  An inspiring example is that of those two Italian creatives at Sefirot, Matteo and Andrea (although their format is that of an email newsletter). They have done some amazing things while endeavoring to keep a fresh perspective, and an attitude of play and wonder. 

Although Herbert wrote "Fear is the mind-killer", in this context, fear is the creativity killer. When one allows fear of failure and self-criticism to dominate, it's very hard to be creative. Notice, I'm saying fear (not failure).

Jimmy Carr said it well: 

"Failure is a superpower. All failure is just feedback. If something doesn't work you change your behaviour, you recalibrate and make it better. You fail differently each time until you run out of ways to fail. And at that point, it's called 'success'." (Before & Laughter)

I really like that. The more ways one fails, the closer one gets to success. All of a sudden 'having a go' has less risk. 

I'll admit I've taken a while to get to my point, but this is my first post (in this blog, at least). It's the setup, so hear me out. 

Before this blog, I was blogging WWM. It's a progress journal of a  Sci-Fi novel project, World War Mars. I stopped blogging abruptly because of another manuscript Not My Circus, a Young Adult coming-of-age novel. (Yeah, I know. They're hard to sell. I've been told). 

That book has occupied space in my head since 2018. It is written. Parts 1-3 are done. All it needs is a little tightening up in the final part (removing some of the adult traits of the protagonist to make him 'younger' and more gormless), and applying some reports from my editing tool ProWritingAid.

This blog is about getting Circus done. To paraphrase Alan Shepard, it's about lighting this candle. This means remaining edits completed and selling the damn thing so I can devote my attention to writing WWM. Meanwhile, I'll be alternating between these two projects to keep some momentum going in WWM. Therefore, I'll also be alternating between the two blogs. 

Hopefully I'll learn a thing or two along the way about how to sell a book. Whatever happens, and however many times I fail in various ways, this blog will document the journey.

Let's see how it goes.