Ellis Mill – Lone Survivor

So, what is the general consensus on Census Day, how many people will fill their details in with writer or author as their profession?

Will we have hundreds of thousands of writers in the UK? Millions?

What do you think?

I’ve just chopped a character out of my first draft of The Wait’s Son! It feels weird getting rid of someone after spending time crafting their character. But it just wasn’t working out. The character was confusing the story and in the end she just did add what I thought she was going to. Oh well, bye, bye…I’m sure she won’t be the only one.

Tomorrow it will be 3 years since I turned 50 and decided to take my writing seriously.

Since then I have self-published 3 short works, but I’ve still not completed my first novel. I’m not going to beat myself up too much, as I can see now that I spent too much time doubting myself and jumping from one course to the next to try and find a way of writing that worked for me. After just completing Plotstormers with @Writer’sHQ, I feel as though I have written more quality work in the last month, than I have in the last year.

I’m understanding now what my novel is about and I’m feeling confident that I will get my book finished this year. I’m under no illusions that there’s still a lot of hard work ahead, but I do think that I’ve finally found a method that works for me.

Onward and upward…

To plot, definitely, always, without a doubt. I know this is a subject of some debate, should you plot or just let the story take you where it will, but I can honestly say, for me, I cannot write a book without a plot.

I’m just coming to the end of the plotting course with Writer’s HQ, and it has made me see where the holes and weak spots are in my book (I’ve already written 60k words), and given me the confidence to now go on and actually get the book finished. Which is what I hoped I would get from the course.

Plots, themes, inciting incidents, conflict, resolution, story arcs, all the things you hear people saying when talking about writing a book have suddenly come into focus and all has become clear! I have re-read a couple of first chapters of my favourite books and I can now see that I was not just reading a good story, I am getting a masterclass in storytelling. And that is why they are so successful.

If you’re a pantser, I take my hat off to you, because your brain at some level must be able to contain all the info needed to write a book, without having to type it out, plot it out and have it laid before you like a roadmap.

But for me roadmap it is, and now I’m ready to start the journey.

Duma Key by Stephen King, read. Not like me to take so long to read an SK book, but I lost my way with it a little bit 3/4 way through. I’ve done the same with The Institute, and I still have that to finish. But both Duma and Institute have picked up towards the end and pulled me in again.

Note to self: keep the interest coming when you’re writing a book…