THE GRIND:     I spent years writing my novel Ceritha. It took me that long because it was pretty   obvious I couldn't write. Re write upon re write. Friends called me anal but that was only a small percentage of it. You see I had characters I happened to be very fond of. One wants to do justice to people of value.

 I have asthma and early on in the writing it would often get out of control. I would be sick for a few weeks then need several more weeks to regain strength. By the time I looked at Ceritha again I had raised another level in writing. By that I mean I personally would not accept my previous work and so,
re write upon re write! And then there were times I refused to look at the book. Heavy duty stretching is painfull.

 In these fallow periods the people of the book would enter my thoughts and speak: "You gave us a time period, you gave us characteristics, you give us periodic life then nothing. Will you never write an important section of our lives for us to have?" 

I love these people and told them yes. I began again, with a higher level of writing thus repeating the cycle. I probably started over six or seven times. It was not a complete restart but redos and new insertions.

I thought I would have learned to do it better but I am on my second book and astonished to admit I am doing the same thing. Possibly I am more anal than I would like. You think?