Taking the pledge

Inspired in part by a post on a fellow writer's blog, I've reached the conclusion that I need to shuck off this bad habit I've fallen into - of seeing writing as yet another chore, a means to an end, when I used to enjoy it as an end in itself. I'm putting a voluntary embargo on submitting flash fiction, on checking for news of contests and the like. I'm concentrating what little free time I have on the new novel, making use of the lessons I've learned so far, especially the one that tells me when I'm enjoying writing THAT is when I write my best stuff. I've been encouraged, vastly, by some feedback from a reader of the first novel who is helping me to get a proper perspective on its strengths and weaknesses. This new novel will be so much better, because of that perspective but also because of this pledge to restart the process of writing for pleasure. All bets are off, all pressures relegated to the background, for now at least. Let's see where it takes me.