October 9th – 870,069

For the third time in six days I’ve managed to squeeze out more than 5k words in a day, with a total of 5,227 words to blast me past 870k, and suddenly the home straight seems that much closer.

This work in progress is starting to shape up very nicely, and I’m approaching the climax of this story, but it’s obvious there will have to be a sequel, there’s just too much material to get it all in the one book. In other words I’ve done it to myself again, just as I seem to every time – why write one book when you can write two, or three…

At least I’ve found an answer to my frustration with the builders. It turns out there was a simple reason why I couldn’t make contact with the builders – they changed their mobile phones, contract and all, on Monday, so I’ve been ringing a phone that no longer exists, although the computer system kept the answerphone message alive, which added to the frustration.

Now at least I’ve made contact with them again, only to find the scaffolding company didn’t book the job until the 14^th rather than the 7^th. It’s a dumb excuse, but at the same time, it has removed the frustration and I can get on with life instead.

The course I started on “novel structure” on Monday seems to be good, with a great group of students, and the challenge for Victoria will be to teach across such a wide range of stages of writing – only three of us on the course have ever completed a novel, the others are just starting on their “journeys” as writers. Ah, the poor idealistic lambs, they have yet to learn just how hard it is. Getting the words down is one thing, getting them right is entirely another.

 

As I’ve said before 2013 is my year of writing, 2014 will be my year of editing, and editing, and editing…