Dear Daisy...my Mum is putting the pressure on

I advise a reader who is dealing with a Parent Trap of expectations

Photo by Luke Stackpoole on Unsplash

Hello, and happy Friday, Team CCC! I hope you’ve had a glorious week. I’ve been high and giddy on relief. My editor really likes my first draft, and now I’m excited about going back to work on it! It doesn’t matter how many books I write, I can always convince myself that my WIP is so bad that the book is going to get pulled. I’ve been celebrating by getting out in the sunshine and swimming. (At the time of writing, I’m on my way to the tidal pool!) and I went on my Artist Date. I saw The Fall Guy. It was ridiculous. I adored it. (Paying subscribers, check out the Artist Date chat, and tell me how your ADs went this week! I’d love to hear from you!)

I’ve also just ordered a book I’m so excited about.

Emma Gannon

has written a beautiful essay for my favourite indie publishers, The Pound Project, called A Year Of Nothing. It’s about burn out and recovery, and it’s going to be nourishing and gorgeous. Julia Cameron has written the foreword! You can order it (and find out more about the Pound Project here.)

Now for this week’s Dear Daisy! If you’ve got a question, I’d love to hear from you. Email creativeconfidenceclinic@gmail.com with Dear Daisy in the subject head.

Dear Daisy,

I am an aspiring novelist and my mother kindly let me stay in her home to write recently, while she was away. It is a lovely place, with views of the national park where Darcy emerged from that lake in the BBC version of P&P in the nineties - quite the literary inspiration! But ever since this mini ‘retreat’, she has been asking me when my novel is coming out. How do I explain how writing works to her? Do I have to? PS. She also bought me a beautiful leather book with my name embossed on it in home a few Christmasses back, and told me it was for me to write a book in. Why??????.

Yours, failed and failing, but still writing.