I’ve written and publish a dozen or so non fiction (heath, well-being and spirituality) articles, but I decided a long time ago that I wanted to be a novelist. Wanting to be and getting on with it are very different things, and although I’ve been gathering material, carrying out research and messing about with names and plots for a long time, I hadn’t actually sat down with my laptop and written ANY of this story that I have carried around for at least two decades. Last year I committed to actually writing, and finishing the story that burned within me, but it was sporadic.
At the end of last year I had an epiphany; I was scared. Scared that this story wasn’t worth the telling, or more likely, that I could not tell it. It would be feeble, juvenile, leaden writing, boring, cringeworthy.
I sat me down and gave me a talking to. Lets make 2015 the year you write out this story, for better or worse. Write it down, edit, print it out, re-edit, have it beta read, publish or self publish.
So these posts will follow my journey this year. I have set myself a target – to write up my story as an 80-90,000 word novel, and have it ready to publish by the end of this year. The weekly word count isn’t a huge challenge: 1600 – 1700 words. What will challenge me is to see this through, to approach it as I do a project at work, bringing my planning and execution skills to bear on something I am wrangling from my own imagination and history.
Follow my progress here and the progress of my first novel, And The Buntings Flew, together with lessons learned, any new tools I discover to help new writers, and my successes and opportunities to improve. Join me on my journey!