I've come up with a plan. Sort of.
The first rough draft of my novel,
The Stone Men of Raksaka, is complete, and has been for a while. I come back to it from time to time, really getting into it for a couple of hours and then ignoring it again for days, or more accurately weeks. I get distracted easily. Things get in the way. Sure, I want to be on my laptop day in, day out, tapping away at the keyboard. Unfortunately, like so many other people, I have a job. Then, when I get home from said job, I have social obligations. I know, as a truly dedicated writer these things shouldn't be a problem. I could stay up late into the night writing, slurping down coffees and pro-plus, but I don't want to that. Well, I do, but my body could not handle that, I can barely get up in time for work when I go to bed at ten.
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| Doodles I do at work, that sort of counts right? |
Before I nod off to sleep I do think of Emin and his adventures in Minadril and Adruhal. I imagine exciting, and sometimes deadly, scenarios he'll end up in, plan out conversations he'll have with Princess Cailyn, or Prince Percy. I plot out back story, and the lore of Kardenia. I think about which actor would play Emin in the big Hollywood blockbuster that is sure to happen. If only I could just finish the damn thing!
Right, The Plan. It is my intention to have this novel complete in its entirety by July 2015 and ready to sent of to agents and publishers. Why July? That's when my boyfriend's job at the school ends, and when we (hopefully) will be moving in together, away from home, for him to study his PGCE. It's a big moment of change, and growing up, and if he gets to do something worth while in becoming a teacher, I want my dreams to start happening too. So July, that's when everything changes and that's why I need to up my game and start being serious about writing.
This time last year I was serious. I was sitting in my kitchen writing thousands of words a day, utterly focused (apart from carving out the Halloween pumpkins). Now, I look at my laptop and feel that knot in my stomach tighten. Nothing is stopping me really. Work isn't too tiring. Social obligations aren't set in stone; people would understand that I need to write. I'm just being completely lazy. Self-discipline is so hard! It's so much easier when your told by lectures what to do and when, and face failure if you don't do things on time. But, I suppose, this past year I have reached my many other goals. I lost over a stone of weight since February, I passed my driving test a month earlier than I had planned, so finishing my novel shouldn't be too hard right? What's writing a novel compared to a driving test?
So here I am saying, promising, that I will have finished
The Stone Men of Raksaka by July 31st 2015, or I'm a total plonker, let-down, failure, terrible excuse for a writer. Any of the above. So, July, I'm ready for you!
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