There is an ancient proverb, I think it may be Sumerian, or perhaps Babylonian – but it goes like this:

If Jodi asks you if something is too crazy, think long and hard before you give an answer

Had I heard this proverb earlier, life might have been a little bit different.

Certainly, it would have been less stressful. The past seven months or so have been, and I use this word in the most understated way possible, “interesting”.

When we first began to press ahead with this project, I had no idea how hard it would be, and how many mistakes we would make along the way. After all, how hard could it possibly be to put together an anthology of new writing from emerging artists, with a slightly “out there” concept? 90 days? Bah, we’ll do it in 80…

Amongst the problems that arose:

1. Recruiting writers. There are a lot of women out there writing, but it seems that the men are either hiding away, or they just don’t do a good job of advertising themselves, because finding guys to take part was the first hurdle.

2. Retaining writers. Just when we got to ten writers, we’d drop back to nine (at one point eight!). And so the process of finding new writers would begin. At the start of the project that wasn’t so bad, but when you’re close to the end? Welcome to Stressville, population you.

3. Timelines. Good in theory, not so good in practice. They started as mandatory, passed through the purely advisory stage, and then became an inconvenience. I think after version 12 of the timeline we gave up revising it. To give you some idea of how far off the timeline we got, had we stuck to the plan in the last timeline, we’d have been finished in August.

4. (In)Experience. Almost all of the writers involved were unpublished, or had very little experience of being edited. But that’s ok – your editors had very little experience too! Jodi has extensive experience with non-fiction editing, but me? Nada. Zilch. None. I’m amazed that people actually took my suggestions on board (in fact, I’m amazed that some people are still talking to me…)

5. Communication breakdowns. Not once, not twice, but three times I think spanners have been delicately placed into the works due to miscommunication. Things did work out in the end, but I still cringe thinking about the mistakes I made.

It also coincided with an incredibly turbulent period of my own life. A car crash followed by emotional upheaval and severe depression rendered me at times unable to do anything, and in those dark moments Jodi had to shoulder the burden of being an editor, a project manager, and a friend all at once.

But we bounced back, the project kept going, the writers kept writing, and somehow it has all come together. Because of my contributions, and sometimes in spite of them, everything is falling into place.

So yeah, had I said “no” rather than “yes” all those months ago, life would be very different. Less stressful, less busy, but a lot poorer for my not taking part in this. I am privileged to have been involved with such a diverse and creative group, and I’m looking forward to the next one.

But maybe after a long holiday…