Marking time has come round again. I mark GCSE English Literature and once I get going it's fine. At the moment however I am waiting for my first sample papers to come back from my team leader to tell me if I am marking at the correct standard, or not. This is making me very, very nervous. My record is good, I've been trained, so why the panic?
Because I don't like getting it wrong.
And what has this got to do with writing?
Well everything. I think it is one of the reasons why I find it hard to promote my work and why I can dither over what exactly I want to write and when I'm going to do it. I have at least two ideas for books, but at the moment I can't decide which one I want to start. Which is the best route to go down? Should I go with my books for adults? My kids books? Short stories? Play? At least I don't have to worry about poetry, because I don't do that.
All this worrying takes time and creative energy. It wastes hours of what could be productive and enjoyable work. I know, deep down, I would be better off just getting something written. However, I suffer from the curse of getting it right, which is why for the next few weeks, or until marking is done and dusted, I'm going to be a little short tempered and edgy
I know exactly how you feel as I am pretty much the same. I'm not marking anything but I am translating three French language workbooks to Italian, and although fluent in French and a good knowledge of Italian I still feel nervous about 'getting it right'.
ReplyDeleteIt does take so much time and as you say creative energy away from writing. I have dabbled in short stories to try and keep the creative juices flowing, but my opus is neglected. My last short story ended up half written in French too!
My advice to myself is to write whatever comes - so long as it is out of my system I'm happy as I know that once all of the paid work is done the creative work can begin again.