5th May 2008

So I spent my bank holiday huddled over my laptop working on Mr Sandman, it’s going fairly well at the moment. I reckon I am almost one third of the way through, with twenty chapters plotted, fifteen drafted and I don’t feel bogged down about the rest of the story, so I am taking that as a good sign. There is however, a long way to go.

The draft of ‘Within’ is at the ready to be edited stage. There is a lot to be edited! I didn’t have it easy with this book. I don’t know whether it was because it was my first, but the entire thing was one hell of a hard slog. I don’t like it the way it is. There is a major rewrite required, it was a definite case of the ‘muddle in the middle’ syndrome and I am not 100% convinced I’ll be able to fix it.

I have never run a marathon, or trained for one, (the closest I come to exercise is trotting to kettle and back), but I imagine that writing this thing was like running three marathons, one after the other. I started off with a great deal of enthusiasm and then all of a sudden hit a brick wall. I kicked that down, only to find another brick wall in its place. It has been one brick wall after another. I’ve left it for a while and come back to it. I’ve asked for advice, sounded people out for ideas, scrapped entire chapters and killed off characters...you name it, I’ve done it, including hovering over the shredder with the manuscript.

It’s been horrendous! There was a point when I thought ‘Oh sod this for a game of soldiers_ do I really need this stress in my life? Who wants to be a writer anyway?’

It has taken me eighteen months to get a first draft. I cried when I typed the words ‘The End’. I had it all planned. When I reached the end of the first draft I was going to get a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Fisch Food ice-cream and the biggest bottle of Barcardi in the world and celebrate_ but no_ I was in floods of tears and nearly suicidal.

I am sick of the thing. So it’s stewing away in a box under my desk. I feel it malevolent presence, permeating through the oak vaneer. I just keep kicking it and thinking when I am stronger I’ll edit that B***tard! I am NOT giving up on it. It has cost too much of my time to do that.

I have learned from the process though_ two very valuable lessons. Firstly, I can write a book. Yes, it may be terrible and I may, at the moment hate it, but I did write it from the title right through to ‘The End’. This is a biggy for me. I am the world’s worst procrastinator and in those psychometric tests I get a nil score on being a completer-finisher!!!

The second lesson is that I wasn’t particularly organised while I was writing it. Because there were periods when I didn’t write, I forgot important details...then when I finally remembered them, I had to go trawling through the manuscript to figure out what exactly they were. My research technique was lousy too. So this time I’m being more methodical about it.

If there was a third lesson, it is the fact that I am writing a second novel. I have another story in me. Always a good thing for a novel writer, don’t you think?

I have a day job. Most writers do...but I have been on leave all last week, which means I’ve been able to put a lot of time in at the laptop. I’ve been getting up at about 10am. I’m on holiday, so a ‘lie in’ is the law. After a cup of coffee, provided by my other half, and a quick walk of the dog, I’ve been hitting the manuscript by about 11am. I have been having a break at about 1pm, gone into town to the local coffee shop with a notepad and my notes and just letting the creative juices flow for a couple of hours in the afternoons. I’ve come home had some dinner and gone back to the writing until I get fed up, which has been fairly late. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it...and I have been convinced into thinking that, yes...I’d like to do this for the rest of my life!

It’s the business end of the writing I’m having trouble with. I need to make the contacts. I need to network. And I need to build a CV. How the hell do you do that when you want to write novels? I like writing short stories and articles and I’ll go as far as saying I have written a couple of half decent ones, but they take up so much time. If anyone has an answer I’d love to hear it.
Tomorrow, I’m back at the day job and with a more ‘connectable’ internet connection. I’ll be starting off with the networking again, so if you see me...come and say ‘Hi’. I’d love to chat with you for a while.