As a writer, you soon realise you need to grow a protective shell, and that your passion comes with a large dose of waiting. When a draft is finished, it is best to have a break from it, to allow the story to breathe and leave the centre of your mind so when you return to look at it, a fresh focus is available.

I enjoy working on multiple projects in various stages. I am working on edits to two stories while researching another and there are always different characters and scenes knocking on the creative door, demanding time to shine. I find an intense pleasure in writing that first draft and then moulding, shaping, occasionally completely starting from scratch to construct a story.

I had set myself the goal of having a story ready for submission to Publishable, a manuscript development competition run by the Queensland Writer’s Centre. I had a wonderful sense of accomplishment when I was able to submit an entry to the competition; having finished a draft, gone through beta reading and re-working, and making the deadline. I do find enjoyment working to deadlines. It is easy for life to get in the way, but when you have a deadline to meet, it does focus your priorities. My friends and colleagues became accustomed to seeing me madly scribbling or typing away during breaks, or staring off into space, lost in my own world.

I submitted my entry when the competition opened and then got to enjoy the wait between April and September to see if my entry was selected. I received multiple requests for updates from my beta readers and those who knew I’d entered the competition. Then, the common refrain, ‘how can you handle all the waiting? That would drive me insane!’

Let me make it clear. I am not a naturally patient person. Patience is not one of the virtues I possess, although I do get told during my day job as a trainer that I am wonderfully patient. However, I have been a writer for as long as I can remember and the waiting game has always been part and parcel of being a writer.

It would do no one any good to sit back, marking days off the calendar until finding out a response. It would drive me completely crazy if I attempted to function in that way. No, I have always had plenty to occupy myself with. And although I had to keep my hands off one project, while I waited to see if it was part of the longlist, there were always other projects to keep me busy.

I’ve been able to enjoy some time really flexing my research muscles for a story idea that is percolating away in the background, a dual timeline narrative partly inspired by an ancestor. My husband also had need of my attention due to an unexpected retina tear and surgery, and so my active writing time was non-existent for a few weeks, and I didn’t have the brain capacity or energy to even contemplate whether I would find a place in the longlist.

There are so many wonderfully gifted writers and I congratulate the winners of the 2026 Publishable competition, whose longlist has recently been announced. My entry did not make the list, but that doesn’t warrant sitting around moping or chucking my manuscript on a scrap heap and lighting a fire. When I received the notification that my entry had been unsuccessful, it clarified my own goals for my work. Those thoughts had been poking around in my head over the last months, along with the occasional chirpy ‘What if?’ Yet it wasn’t until the outcome was firmly placed before me that my mind was able to work instead of a kaleidoscope of different options.

“I am no longer afraid of becoming lost, because the journey back always reveals something new, and that is ultimately good for the artist.” Billy Joel.

I am proud of the story that I crafted, and I promise that the story will see the light of day. Do I know exactly how that will be achieved? No. All I can do as a writer, is keep on writing. Keep honing my craft and doing the one thing in life I have always been driven towards.

My next steps are polishing the draft to the absolute best I can. Searching down those pesky words that weaken a sentence or are overused. Then, I will submit to a publisher, I have already selected who I feel will be the best fit for the story, and we will go from there.

I would love to find my stories traditionally published. I believe there are few writers that wouldn’t, however I know that publishing is very much a numbers game and I will certainly investigate all options available to me.

Life is about putting one foot in front of the other. It may seem like you are trudging along, not achieving much, however if you stop for a moment and look back, you will be amazed at the journey you’ve taken. Writing is life. The ink, the blood of the story, until it takes root in the minds and hearts of readers and finds a life of its own.

If you are a writer and ever doubting yourself (we all have that horrible inner critic), just take a breath, sit down and start writing. Write because you can’t think of anything else you would rather be doing. Write life into those blank pages and keep moving forward.

“Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?” Garth Nix, Sabriel.