Writing a book isn’t just sitting down and pumping out a half decent story in one slog. (I wish!) As romantic as that notion is, it isn’t reality. Especially for an emerging author who has a full time job and a full time family. If I were gifted with the ability to warp time, I would (but unfortunately for me, that is not my reality). I have a certain amount of hours (and constraints upon those hours) in which to be productive, creative, and hopefully (but not always) both at once.

Writing a book is late nights after work on the laptop, typing an email to yourself while the kids play weekend sports, using the dictaphone in the car, stealing 5 minutes here and there to scribble post-its when a word or phrase dominates your brainwaves (then, frustratingly, losing said post-it).

It is desperately trying to find the time to write, because you’re feeling inspired. OR it’s sitting at the computer, staring at the screen, waiting for inspiration to slap you in the face. Sometimes, thankfully, it’s a delicious cocktail of both. In those moments, it is glorious! And smashing out a huge slab of story just comes naturally. Then, suddenly, it’s 2am and you’ve got 4 hours until the alarm will scream at you to get ready for work.

So how am I doing it?

I set myself a timeline- one year. 12 months for a full manuscript draft. Since then, I’ve been working on my first major novel (a historical fiction). I was lucky that my biggest enabler gifted me a laptop for Christmas, which has certainly helped in the process! I started writing on Boxing Day, driven but disrupted by the events and people Christmas brings close to you.

I was aiming for 80,000 -10,000 words by the end of the year. I’ve been very roughly tracking my progress since I started:

After a quick count, I realised that I’VE MET MY WORD GOAL!

The manuscript isn’t completed yet, however. Just 2 more scenes to go and I’ll have my entire manuscript’s first draft done! Then, the REAL work of editing will begin!

BRING IT ON, says I!