I went back and rewrote, very slightly, the first two things I submitted here. I remember my nerves at putting my baby up in a shop window, but after a while (and somewhere in the region of half a million words)it got easier. Some hints? Get yourself a beta-reader, someone to read through the stuff and spot any glaring stuff-ups, such as characters changing names or horrible typos.They can also tell you what they think of the plot line, but you and they should remember whose story it really is.

The only other advice I would give you at this stage is patience. It is probable that you have a 'big scene' somewhere in the future, and there is a tendency, a temptation, to rush the preceding part of the story to get to that point. Writing Big Scenes can be fun, but as Bailey said, the getting there can be a delight. Just think of what the Aussie back country is like; the red soil and the heat, the blackbutt gums spaced against the red haze of the wind-driven dust as your hand flicks past your face every few seconds to get rid of another bloody fly. There's a raucous sound as a flock of black cockies goes past, and the smell of yet another roadkilled roo as it bloats by the side of the unmade track you've driven down to wait for the doc's ute.