Hello Verity!

I was beginnig to give up. A few words of advice, if I may. Self publishig and publishing on the internet are two very different things. A collection of poetry is a beautiful thing, but keep in mind that a legitamate agent will not even look at anything you publish on the internet. And you do not want to self publish (it's called vanity press) anything-the cost is staggering, though they will not be honest with you about that initially, and a short collection of poetry would never make back the moey you would have to put into it.

As for your novel-hurrah that you are so ambitious. Don't waste another second worrying about writing a novel that is 'good enough'. Your task, rather, is to write something original enough. You are clearly at the starting gate, but that's okay. Now you need to learn your craft and your tools and the biz. There is a novel inside of you that wants to come out so don't diminish whatever ideas you have at this point.

There are writer's sites and some books I would like to reccomend-so please PM me. And thanks for posting!

T&S