Slow

It’s been a slow few months. It’s so hard trying to fit writing into the rest of the day-to-day - you know, crazy things like WORK and CHILDREN that so often have to take priority - but I’ve managed to add another five-odd thousand to my running total over the last few months. Not much, but from my perspective - hell, it’s better than nothing.

That said, it’s frustrating to think that many people could spew up an entire book in the time it’s taken me to shuffle together just a few thousand words.

Since submitting the first chapter to competition (results still unknown - winners are due to be contacted at the end of August. I shan’t hold my breath :P), I’ve found that I definitely know more about where the story is going, and firmed up some of the hazy, weaker areas of the story where previously, I understood little of where I was going, and less still about how I was getting there. As I write this today I understand Charlie and Will - their justifications, their backgrounds, their conflicts - considerably better, and feel far better equipped to tell their story. Only Friday, after re-reading an early chapter and noting that, still, I haven’t had the courage to commit to paper the precise moment where their relationship jumps from one of friendship to one of more, I muttered something to myself about sucking it up and just did it. Two thousand words later I have the bare bones, and whilst certainly not polished and complete, at least it’s there. Will did something I hadn’t expected him to (isn’t it fantastic when characters do that?) and I believe it all flows with a naturalness and spontaneity that I couldn’t even have hoped for three months ago.

All I need now is to suck it up some more and finish the fucking thing.

Posted on 19th August, 2007 at 9:18 am |

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