📕 When I was 22 I started writing a book, the first 10 000 words were a breeze. The rest felt like torture. I was crippled with self-doubt and the weight of my own expectations was suffocating.

“I’m not a writer!” “This isn’t a good enough piece of literature.” “Will anyone ever read this?” 

I realised I stopped not because I didn’t like the process of writing but rather the expectations and my mindset.

With a renewed sense of optimism I’ve started writing again, I’m at 40 000 words and looking for an editor to work with.

I reminded myself of the fact that in all of Australian history only 4-5 Indian/Australian women have ever written a memoir/autobiographical text (there are roughly 350 000 Indian/Australian women in Australia right now). Yet Melbourne is a UNESCO City of Literature which is an “acknowledgment of the breadth, depth and vibrancy of our literary culture.”

Now I’m really enjoying the process, the fear isn’t entirely gone. It’s just now I acknowledge it and remind myself why I started in the first place, it wasn’t to write a book that would win literary awards or be a best seller – it was simply to share my story and through the process of writing make sense of the world around me.

If you’re interested in book updates, I’ll regularly be sending updates via my email newsletter. Drop me an email and I can add you to their list – daizymaan[at]Gmail[dot]com with “book updates” in the title. I’ll share what I learn in the process of publishing a book.