It's good to be back

As mentioned in my previous blog I have spent a few days away from writing and enjoying time with my wife. Today though, she had music to arrange. Her time off after the pantomime is at an end. There is work to be done for the upcoming production - Anything Goes. There are only five weeks until opening night. She has to get busy now if it isn't to get too hectic later.

As a result I had plenty of time to get writing and I took full advantage of it. Today I added five new scenes to my YA supernatural novel the Stairs Lead Down comprising 3,243 words. And a few extras just for good measure. As I started to type this blog entry the way to start the next scene came to me. I just had to type it up before I lost it.

I did that last night. I had this idea for a twist to the plot of a future novel - or rather an interrupted novel. A while ago I started writing a SF conspiracy novel called a World out of Balance. I wrote about 6.5K and then decided I wasn't happy with the plot so stopped to reconsider. Before I had resolved it the idea for the current novel overtook me and so it will have to wait. (Maybe longer than intended as another idea I'm currently calling the Church... is demanding my time.)

Well last night a twist came to me. It wouldn't resolve the main problem I have with the central plot but I felt it would make things a little more interesting. The problem is I didn't write it down. I got distracted - a nuisance during an aside to my life. today I am left with this feeling that it was quite a good idea but no idea of what the idea actually was; annoying in the extreme.

Anyway, hoping that it does come back to me at some point - something triggered the thought in the first place, maybe it will again - let's get back to the point of this blog entry. Like I said, I get distracted.

The three thousand words I wrote today were the first since Tuesday last week;  Four entirely writing free days passed in between opening the word doc. Four days of enjoying time with my wife; in my opinion a far better use of my time.

Despite that break, and a similar pause right at the start of the month while I was finishing off the revision of the bawdy scifi novel and finalising the plot for this new story, I have written 42,658 words so far this month. With one day left to go until the end of February I think I might get it to 44K. Unless of course I have another day of wife-time. (She is likely to be busy so I may well be writing.)

I am content with this level of output. It feels good. And if I manage a good writing month throughout March - aided by the gradual ramp up in time my wife needs to prepare for the musical opening in early April - I am hoping to finish the novel.

You see today I reached the halfway point; or rather the halfway point to my original target of 80K for this story. It might well creep up a little; maybe 82K is more likely from where I am now. The novel now stands at 40,113 words. A month to add that amount again doesn't sound too far fetched. Of course this might be delayed by the need to revise my third Ben Williamson novella. The market I am hoping to send this into, a publisher very local to me, may well be accepting novella submissions next month so I need to get a move on.

And I need to get back to sending my novels into other agents and markets. I have been a little remiss at doing so these past two weeks. There is little point writing if you never give your writing a chance to shine. It's been a while since I've had a rejection - maybe I need to point some work into getting more of them. Let's see how it goes.

Right now though I am done with this keyboard for the night. I am going to post this entry now - tweet a quick link to it and then go and enjoy what remains of my weekend.

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