It’s crazy to think that I spent almost all of 2020 editing my novel, The Black Rook. Besides the regular drawings that I did exclusively for my Instagram account, all of my creative energy was poured into that novel. And once the editing was finalised, my time was occupied with university work and trying (and failing) to find an agent, then a publisher, for The Black Rook.
There were times when the dozens and dozens and dozens of rejection emails almost caused me to pack the writing in entirely. Fortunately, I never caved to that insidious voice instructing me to give up, and instead listened to the even stronger voice that was commanding me to never give up, no matter what.
Of course, it hasn’t only been sheer determination that has kept me going. My girlfriend has been a constant cheerleader for my work, encouraging me to keep going, there for me every step of the way. Without her, I doubt I would have got as far as to self-publish my first novelette, Putridity. (For the link to buy, head to my home page). For that, and for a thousand other reasons, I decided to dedicate Putridity to her.
Okay, I’ll stop being sappy now. The point of this blog post is to say that although I didn’t really get much done, besides a LOT of editing, over the course of 2020, I learnt a lot. I became sturdier, able to take a lot more criticism and bask in rejection. (I still see them as a victory, as they infer somebody actually read some of my work).
Since the beginning of 2021, I’ve written a few short stories and polished The Black Rook to perfection (at least I hope I have). I also have many, many, many ideas for novels/novellas/ short stories going forward. And self-publishing something for the first time has given me so much confidence for the future already – and it’s only been on sale for 24 hours!
Honestly, even if only a handful of people read my books, and even if all of those despise my writing, I will still be happy that I gave the author game a go.
This post ended up so much more sentimental than I’d intended. Hope everyone had a lovely Easter break.
Davey Cobb 