How I Beat OCD

So when the thick, fat package arrived, special delivery for me, my heart did a little skip.

Direct from the publishers had arrived my edited, type-set and proofed book and now was my time to have my final say.

This was it. The finale. The home run. The last leg.

Here it was, almost ready to be printed ‘How To Buy Property At Auction’ by little old me.

And it really has been such a journey. And I have loved every moment of it.

Writing a book is a yearned for dream of so many people, and truthfully now, having (almost) got to the end, I can hand on heart say: I get you. I understand you. I agree.

You should do it.

Without a doubt, writing a book has been one of the most rewarding, satisfying and proudest moments of my life.

But the proof reading has been a mind suck.

The editing bit was a doddle (although according to my google research this was meant to be the worst bit). For me in my little writing world, the proofing just seemed to use a part of my brain I am not used to using. Hmm – that sentence seems to have used a lot of uses.

Well, anyway that’s how it felt.

Me and the red pen felt it hard to keep up. And the red pen got hot. And I got hot. And red. Red hot.

And so I have now returned 60% of the manuscript with my red pen doodled all over it. And I realised I have become rather OCD. Or rather in writing terms, I suffer from: Obsessive Comma Disorder.

I use them far too much, or sometimes not enough.

And then I realised I was getting sucked into the vortex which is “analysis paralysis” and I had to step away from the manuscript.

Which is so hard; because it’s part of me, and yet somehow not part of me. What I have written will one day soon make its way out to you and will stand on it’s own two feet. And it kind of feels like I am now sending my child off to school to learn, and to be a grown up.

And I feel a bit tearful; a bit excited and a bit scared. Like any mother would.

And on top of that I feel a shed load of disbelief that somehow me and my child have come this far.

Because hand on heart, I cannot believe, having now proofed this entire book, I wrote all of this.

And, you know what – that makes me feel like one incredibly proud parent.