It is now three months since I left work and started this scary journey towards being a published author that I hope I'm on and I thought it you may be interested to know how it's going.
I can honestly say I have now take my writing much more seriously, well the task if not the content, and have actually got pretty good at writing something every day. My average weekly word count is up to around the 5,000 mark and, my first book itself is coming along nicely now that I have got over the little timings bump you may remember I had and I am up to over 90,000 words now and, I think (hope and pray) that I will have finished the first draft by this time next month. I have three pre-alpha readers who are saying very encouraging things like 'gripping' and 'hurry up and finish the next chapter - I want to know what happens next' and today I went to my first writers group which was helpful beyond words.
Working at my friend's, who is a published author already, is a complete blessing. She has just the right mix of motivation, encouragement and cake to mean that at least once a week I am writing for five, almost solid, hours (well we all need a little natter!). I find I really looked forward to those days and wish there was a way to fit more days in at hers because, when I write at home, my most productive times are in the evenings when the housework, shopping and friends are not calling but this means I'm often ignoring my wonderful, long-suffering, very supportive (yes he reads this blog) husband and staying up until silly o'clock.
One of the most perplexing dicoveries I've made is the motivation paradox I've discovered.
I love writing, always have, always will. I love watching as characters come to life and develop before my eyes and stories take me on journeys I could never have imagined when I first sat down so why then do I so often struggle to begin? Unless I get really tough with myself I can go for days and days and days without writing a word and the longer I leave it the harder it gets to start again so I think the best change I've made to my writing in the past three months is the 'one word a day' rule. I have to write at least one word a day, I know it sounds daft but I write directly on to the laptop so it means I have to go to the bother of setting it all up and opening the document etc so I am never only going to write one word, in fact it's generally around the 1,000 mark. But, if I don't enforce my rule then it's generally around the 0 mark. What is that about?
Answers on a postcard, or below, in no more than 200 words please?
Anyway, that's my update so far. Hopefully in another three months I'll be able to tell you I've finished the second draft and am ready to send it off to agents etc but who know what the future holds?
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