Questions and Confusion - it's all good

First edits, so exciting, so confusing. For those of you who are writers, can you remember feeling overwhelmed the first time you published? I got my first edits on Cassie’s Space the other day. This was the first time I’d even seen track editing (is that what it’s called, I’m not even sure.)

And what did I do, the moment I saw it I began pestering people for help, before I’d even looked closely to see if I could do it myself. As an educator, this is something I always caution my students to avoid. Read it, I tell them. Look it over carefully before asking for help, I say. But I’m no different than them. I see something different and immediately feel – dumb. I reached out for reassurance before I'd even tried.

Several of you were so kind to offer to help me with questions. It’s hard to ask those you really don’t know yet, for help, so hard to expose your ignorance. I believe I need to start seeing other writers here as real live people who really don’t mind helping out a newcomer. I think we tend to come into a new group feeling everyone else is an expert.

So don’t mind me – if I asked a silly question, feel free to laugh, and then answer me, please. I’m going to try to stop seeing everyone as unapproachable experts and you all please don’t view me as the dunce, just as a beginner.