I'm about to break a personal record: longest time without blogging!
On the other hand, I've never written so much in my life. I've got a
steady stream of work from AbcMallorca magazine, which challenges me on a daily
basis to write on a variety of subjects.
Last week I wrote about construction companies, architects, yoga retreats, restaurants and everything in between. Although fiction remains my primary passion, I definitely get a lot of satisfaction from writing articles. I feel I'm getting better at it too. When I think of my early travel articles, I used to take so painfully long over them. It wasn't very lucrative. Nowadays, my words flow much more quickly and coherently. It just shows that it's all about practice. If you put the hours in, you'll get better, whatever the discipline.
I think most people will agree that crossing things off their To Do list
gives them a little rush of pleasure. It does for me. With my journalism work,
I'm completing tasks every day. Writing a novel is different. It's definitely a
marathon, and rather than hoping to cross the whole thing off soon, you've got
to appreciate the effort of completing each kilometre, each chapter written. As
planned, I did finish a draft of my new novel by Christmas.The trouble is, after writing it, I had to read it.
I went through the whole draft on the plane over to the States. It had some good bits, but on the whole I wasn't convinced it was a good enough story. I've since killed off a couple of character, given one a new name and identity, and another a new job.
I went through the whole draft on the plane over to the States. It had some good bits, but on the whole I wasn't convinced it was a good enough story. I've since killed off a couple of character, given one a new name and identity, and another a new job.
Although I'm calling it Draft 2, it's closer to a new draft altogether. My new deadline is mid May. I'd like to say I'm leaping out of bed at the crack of dawn each day to get it done, but that would be a lie. I'm just scheduling the fiction in around the journalism during normal working hours. I'm not speeding ahead, but I think I'll get it done if I write a bit each day.
I'm really enjoying using Google calendar. I find it really useful to organise
and balance my time. Balance, that's the key. There's two big chunks in
my week blocked out for yoga now. If it's in my calendar then I've just got to
do it. Perhaps that's the only reason I haven't been blogging; because I
haven't blocked out the time for it. We'll see, Google calendar is great, but
it's not magic... or is it?
