Sunday 11 March 2012

A Mail Obsession


'Every click is a sentence not written. Life is short.
Make it count.'


Click got a bit of an addiction click click
You might click have it too.
The obsession with checking for e-mails.
Stopping every few minutes to refresh your phone, just in case...
Just in case of what?
I’m a daydreamer click click
I like to indulge in imagining what my next book cover might look like, the book launch, the dress I’ll wear for it, the interviews, seeing my book in the window of a real, physical book shop...
Click click click
I generate energy from these little daydreams which keeps me writing the next word, one after the hundredth thousand other... all screaming for my attention.
When I click on my e-mail I’m hoping for some life-changing news that will validate my work and let me breathe a sigh of relief because I’m suddenly closer to achieving my goals.
It has happened to me twice before, e-mails which have arrived out of the blue and made my mouth drop open and my heart start racing.
The first was from a publisher, which led to the publication of my book.
The second from a literary agent, which led to nothing, since she wanted me to write Young Adult novels and I wasn’t so sure.
But did they really come from nowhere?
Were they really quite so random?
The truth is I approached the publisher first and as for the literary agent, she specifically contacted me after I won an award for my blog.
Basically, if you want the good news you have to do some work!
Checking for e-mails is so much easier than working on my book but it doesn’t amount to anything.
No amount of clicking, be it updating my facebook status, twitter feed or checking my e-mails will bring me any closer to completing the task at hand.
Without a book, what use is a publisher or an agent to me anyway?
My phone is perfectly capable of updating me by itself so I should get let it get on with its job while I get on with mine.
If there’s wonderful news (or more likely, spam mail) I’ll hear its gentle click click alert sound.
And only then will I let it interrupt me.
And only, then if I’ve finished my sentence.