Writing a Novel

I’ve reached 92,000 words of my next book and am getting close to my target of 100,000. With luck I should have my first draft finished by the end of the week. After that comes more hard work. And for any of you who read my blog and are thinking of writing a novel, simply because thousands of writers are at it now and publishing on Amazon, think carefully of what you’re letting yourself in for. Preparing any book means research, which can mean a great deal of writing and time spent before putting pen to paper. Depending on whether you work for a living or are retired, there’s the prospect of having to knock out a weekly target. Mine wasn’t set in stone but I like to think I could manage 3000 words a week. Sometimes I manage more, sometimes less. Over the last four weeks I have pushed myself and added about 7,000 words every week. What next? Now I have to go through my work line by line and make corrections to the grammar which includes spelling mistakes, punctuation etc. and the biggy of them all really: making sure my timelines are right, my characters remain the same age throughout the story, I don’t have someone living in a bungalow one minute and a house the next and the hero actually ends up with the right heroine. There are so many hurdles to cross that it makes you wonder why we write. After I have corrected my work, I will print it out, double spaced and my wife will read through it with a red pen. No doubt she will find errors and point out where I have misunderstood a woman’s intentions or something equally absurd. But the point about this example of which way I’m going is to show that I’m still a long way from finally producing a novel that I’m happy with (are we ever happy?). Then I have to send it to my publisher, and if she likes it, she will make me an offer and if I accept, the book will be passed on to the professionals for editing and proof reading. Phew!

I find I tend to get a bit insular when I’m closing in on the end of the book. I make excuses to myself for not doing those jobs that require my attention, and I neglect other pursuits like reading or playing my keyboard. I try not to but my focus does seem to be drawn away from everything else. I don’t miss my sport on TV though. Saturday might was the Scandinavian Speedway Grand Prix won by Niels Christian Iversen (brilliant rider), and this afternoon, Sunday, was the derby football match between Manchester City and Manchester United. City won 4-1. Oh, and there’s speedway tomorrow evening on TV, then football again on Wednesday evening. It’s a good job I only write during daylight hours. But first things first: Let’s see if I can finish my first draft by the end of the month. Wish me luck.

One more thing: if you check out my website, you find that you can click on the jackets of three of my titles currently on sale at $0,99. A good buy.