I mentioned in my previous Writing Reflections and Plans post that this neetswriter blog
helps to keep my writing in check, and that’s certainly true.
I’ve been working on my novel daily with a new determination,
updating my spreadsheet with the word count, working towards my end of month target, even when the word count decreases because I’ve
cut bits out. This is the year of my book, this is the year that I’ll submit my
book 2, and my goal is to get it finished before the Historical Novel Society Conference. My deadline is 2 September 2016.
There are days, aren’t there, where you write, and you
produce rubbish, and you read it back (or don't even bother because you know it's totally rubbish), and think, ‘this isn’t working, and it
never will.’ The next day, you say to yourself, ‘I’m going to leave it today,
it’s just not working.’ Then it can be a week or more before you return to your
manuscript. But I can’t do that this year, if I’m going to get book 2
finished. I need to produce the rubbish to produce the good stuff (but ideally produce writing gold all of the time). Because it’s
like learning to drive (pre-Sat Nav), when you got lost and drove around for
ages, trying to find your way to the right road. I had to get lost all of those
times to get to know the roads around me. And isn’t that the case with many
things? You have to get a bit lost to find your way, you have to make mistakes
to know when you’re not making mistakes.
So there you go, my first neetswriter post of 2016.
A belated Happy New Year, and best wishes for a fantastic
2016.
And in true neetswriter blog tradition, I’m posting a summer
holiday photo because it’s cold out there (in the UK), and the above photo is of a place where I’d like
to be right now, watching the boats speed up and down Lake Garda. With perhaps one of these in my hand and a good book to read:
