Second and third thoughts on the previous post

As someone who follows The Rejecter , Pub Rants , and formerly, Miss Snark's blog , I read the Guardian article with a sick feeling in my stomach. The reason isn't a particularly acute attack of cynicism; it's that anyone who reads and learns from publishing blogs knows exactly why Jane Austen couldn't make it past the 27-year-old know-it-all who opens your agent's mail.

I have to remind myself to stop wasting time--wasting time worrying about the formula-touting assistant with a letter-opener, and wasting time second guessing my writing goals. I have a stack of books next to my chair that need to be read as research (mostly folklore), as well as two academic books (Bakhtin, and a lit crit anthology) that have been bookmarked for months, and a novel to write.

Write well, keep the faith, and when the time comes to go out with the manuscript, you will make it happen. In the meantime, learn all you can and take any formulaic approach to fiction with a grain of salt. Good books get published all the time.