Friday 7 December 2012

'A writer writes'* - apparently...

For the last 15 months or so, *lowers voice to a whisper as PM is well aware that there is nothing unique in a blogger making the following announcement* I have been writing a novel.  I'm not going to lie to you; it's been stop/start.  I haven't really concentrated on it, not at all.  Real Life has insisted on getting in the way, dammit.  I would have a couple of weeks when I powered through a couple of chapters, followed by months of inactivity when it gathered metaphorical dust in a metaphorical filing drawer, waiting to be noticed and added to.

I wasn't really bothered by this as I figured I had plenty of time.  I would get round to it - eventually.  But time moves on, and so do our lives.  It's become clear to me that it may be now or never on the novel-writing front (and no, this does not mean we have imminent plans to move back to the UK - just  that - well, who knows what's around the corner?).  Something had to change, I decided.  So this is what I posted on fb last Sunday:


'This week I am going to write 10,000 words. (I'm hoping that by making such a public declaration of intent, I will be too embarrassed NOT to do it...).

Oh. And not on the blog, twitter or fb, by the way. (For a change).'

And in the last 5 days, I did it.  I wrote 10,000 words.  Nobody is more amazed than I am at the fact that I actually managed it.  But you know what has amazed me even more than the fact that somehow I was able to carve out the time and find the impetus to do it?

How much better I feel for having achieved this.  What I've written may well be rubbish.  It may never see the light of day.  But I'm about half way through what could feasibly considered a decent length novel, and it feels good.  I may even repeat the experience again next week...


*Billy Crystal in 'Throw Momma from the Train'.  Yes, I'm showing my age.


3 comments:

  1. You often read that writing is a discipline - less of a 'when inspiration strikes' and more of a 'sit down and do it regardless of how you feel' thing. I'm sure it's like anything else - the more you do, the better and easier it gets. I take hours to put together a few hundred words in a blog post - 10,000 seems overwhelming. Well done, you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Absolutely well done - legendary. A book I have says to work at it for x amount of time every day - even if it is crap, it is the doing that is important...

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's amazing, well done! What's the novel about ? X

    ReplyDelete

Go on - you know you want to...