It's a proper, novel-length story and I have a fairly clear idea of where it's going to go. I think the idea is an original one as well, which I'm really happy about.
In my mind, I can see the story unfolding gracefully, like a film, and I realized last night the difficult part is going to be getting it all down in words. Writing is hard!
I got in from work yesterday, grabbed a drink from the fridge and sat in front of my laptop. "Right", I thought, "I'll spend a little while making a start, formatting the document etc." and then I looked at the clock and an hour and forty five minutes had passed!
I have made good progress on the first chapter, and even in the short space of time I spent on it I learned a few interesting things:
- Writing in Wordpad is rubbish. I need to get MS Office or something.
- Proof reading / editing is important, but interrupts the flow of writing.
- Deciding on, and sticking to, tense is hard. (i.e. telling the story as it happens, has happened, will happen etc.).
- Writing is hard!
One of the main things I'm going to struggle with is keeping my motivation. It's going to be a long hard slog, but I have to remain focused on what I want to achieve. Those that know me know I flitter between obsession and complete lack of interest like a poncy butterfly, but this is something that will really suffer if I don't stay focused. I spoke to my writer friend a little while ago and we agreed that taking on a project like this becomes like a second job. Working on it half an hour here and there will never get it done. I will need to properly invest time in it, in chunks of a few hours or more. And I can't lie, that fills me with a low level dread...
Still. If I give it my best, and I realize it's not going to come out as I want it, at least I've tried.
I won't be posting a lot of the work online for review / comments - I think that will be counterproductive. But, I may post excerpts from it as I go, if I'm particularly proud of a scene or piece of the story.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll keep this blog up to date with how I'm doing.
Peace.
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