What I learnt this week: 23rd March 2017

Writing hiccups

So, a quick update on where I am with The Christmas Book…and yes, I hope it gets a better title than that, too. I’m working with The Christmas Hotel. I know, I know, two of the three words are the same, but with a bit of luck replacing that last one will haul the title up from dull to interesting. Thankfully my publisher will have their own view, one based on years of knowing what titles sell books. Not just my stab at making the title have something to do with the content.

Current word count: 12,600.

Of course it would be higher if I wasn’t sitting here writing this blog, but I couldn’t let you down. You were waiting for an update, weren’t you?!

By my reckoning this means I’ve written only 4,100 words during the last week. Have I been:

  • watching daytime television. No!
  • faffing around on twitter (umm, guilty, but writers need to get out there on social media, honest).
  • sitting at my desk twiddling my thumbs? No (though maybe I’ve gazed up at Jenson once or twice. And yes, you’ve guessed it, that does rather give me an excuse to slot in a photo of him).
Where I look for inspiration
Where I look for inspiration

 

What happened, was that work got in the way. Now I’m not going to complain, because my medical writing pays the money that helps us to eat. But it does rather stem the flow of the book writing. I’m used to this though, because I often find myself diving between the two types of writing. The trick I’ve found is to try and keep the book alive in my head even when I’m writing about cardiovascular events rather than beating hearts. So when I’m making a cup of tea, driving the car, doing my morning run or swim, I think about my characters. It often leads to me playing around with dialogue in my head which, I have to confess, at the time I think is rather brilliant. Sadly when I finally get a pen in my hand to note it down, the brilliance has often faded (or perhaps it was never there?).

I’ve finished my medical writing work for this week though, so I’m heading back into the book. I’ve left it in the middle of a chapter which is a great tip I was given as diving straight into some action or dialogue makes it much easier to pick up the story. Now I just have to translate the not quite brilliant scribbles I made after my run yesterday, and off I go.

I’ll update you in another week. Go on, you’re interested now. Aren’t you?

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