CBMused

It’s been two months to the day since I’ve announced my sabbatical to dedicate time to my novel. Where does the time go? Since a few of you have kindly asked about it, I’m going to share my progress to date.

In a nutshell, the novel has been progressing very well. Thanks to some invaluable advice and steady encouragement, I was able to put my head down and just write. I made sure I let the creativity flow and didn’t allow myself to become hindered by analysing every word to death. I tackled each remaining chapter, including the difficult ones I had previously filed in the too hard basket. As a result, I now have… drum roll… a complete story.

I printed the entire document and for the first time ever, I read the story in sequence. I expected a degree of cringing, as I’m my worst critic after all, instead, I couldn’t put it down. I read page after page. I looked for inconsistencies, flow, gaps and continuity. Any glaringly obvious edits were also noted and corrected.

I am now aware of the story’s strengths and weaknesses and where I need to devote more effort. I have a list of tasks that need special attention and I have already started to address those. Completing them with the quality output I have in mind is not something I can rush, and that has made me reassess my expectations of what constitutes “first draft”.

The sabbatical has been well spent so far. As for my return to blogging, in a subtle way, I have been easing into it of late. With the amount of work ahead me to get it to a standard worthy of publishing, the novel will always take priority. In the meantime, the blog can look forward to semi-regular postings.

1. Start by cleaning your desk (so you’ll have a clear mind), making yourself a drink (in case you need it for inspiration) then check your watch and confirm that half an hour had already passed and you haven’t opened a word document yet.

2. Set yourself a word count target for a writing session and continually click on the Recount button in MS Word. Or, better still, locate a script that counts words as you type and watch the figures grow as you write utter garbage.

3. Google ‘tips for better dialogue’ and read the same articles rehashed by different authors subliminally designed to discourage you from writing, then ponder why writers’ websites have this 1990s web look and feel that make them an eyesore to read.

4. Engage in a mind-distracting fantasy with one of your characters and create a scene in your head that has no place in your novel.

5. Convince yourself that you should make a place for the scene above then ponder if you’re straying from your novel’s prime directive.

6. Check your email(s), blog, IMs, RSS feeds frequently and tell yourself these are rewards and positive reinforcements for the seven words you’ve just written.

7. Reread your favourite parts over and over again so that when it comes to writing the difficult chapters, you then dismiss whatever writing you’ve achieved as utter crap.

8. Instead of writing the missing chapters, start revising and editing chapters and get all excited when you’ve eliminated adverbs, fixed some stray punctuation, thought of a better word than ‘she grinned’ then check your word count again to find it has gone down by two.

9. Ponder for the umpteenth time if you should join a writer’s forum then dismiss it as a time wasting exercise with pretentious people offering pompous advice.

10. Tell yourself that you should start each writing session by making freewriting part of your daily (wishful thinking) routine and tap yourself on the back for formulating a plan you’re going to stick to this time and celebrate by imbibing that drink that’s been tempting you from the start.

Word count = 345