Losing frenzy, gaining trust

I have completed the research for my 2nd book (subject to be announced at a later date) and am 42 pages into my rough draft. As I work, I am struck by the gifts my journey of the last year has given me.

The franticness and frenzy is gone. I don't feverishly write down ideas at 2 a.m. Instead I ponder them for a moment, and let them go, knowing that if they are good ideas they will come back to me in the morning, probably with a new spin or quality enhanced by the nature of my dreams.

I trust myself a lot more. Knowing what I do now about the editing process (how anything can be rewritten, overhauled, moved or re-imagined), I have taken a lot of pressure off the rough draft stage. Instead of worrying about how I will perform in a certain scene, I trust that good dialogue or descriptions will come to me, or I trust in my ability to get down a rough sketch of the scene and then to fill it in when I edit.

Overall, the effect is that I am still excited, still passionate, but just a little more experienced, calmer, and less nervous. My personal growth has enhanced my writing process--just one of the ways that I celebrate the interconnectedness of life.