Being a writer was never my childhood dream, that came about when I turned 16. Before then I was all about anthropology and forensic science (I know right?!) and then one day, while in college studying forensics, my friend asked me if I wanted to do some writing. I had expressed my opinion on how being an author would be awesome but never in a million years did I think I'd fall helplessly head over heels in love with words.
The manuscript for the book I was writing with said friend is still in the works, if not on hold while I pursue my other dreams. I'm currently redoing my blog - I've recently got my own url (get me with the big girl pants) and started using squarespace. You'll have to wait a couple more months for that though. However that's not what I'm here to talk about today.
Last November I participated in NaNoWriMo or national novel writing month for those who don't know. I surpirised myself by writing 31,000 words in two weeks however that all went down hill once I started my 8-6 job in January. Since January (I didn't write through December) I've managed to write only 10,000 words and honestly this isn't good enough for me.
With this being my debut novel I feel that I should have written it already and be on edits by now, at least compared to other writers I should be. But then I read this post by Rae and it made me realise that there is no time limit on writing. You don't have to write 95,000 words in a year, especially if you're working full time and trying to build a side hustle business as well as writing a novel. I'm a super star right?
I'm plodding along through the 40,000 and given myself a small daily word count to hopefully get my first draft finished by January 2016. That's my aim and I'm going to stick to it. 300 words a day isn't a lot and if I really sit and try I can do that in an hour. An hour of my day is hardly a substantial amount and should be fairly easy to complete (so she says).
Writing a book is the hardest thing I have ever done, but also the most rewarding. I love the feeling I get when I aim to write 300 words a day and end up writing 1500, this happened to be recently and it’s such a good feeling. The feeling of achievement can happen with small goals and big goals while you go through the writing process. If you take anything away from this post take this: There is no time limit on writing and having something down is better than nothing. 100 words is better than 0 words, and don’t beat yourself up about it. As my boyfriend always says, “it takes as long as it takes."
Now for the juicy bits you're all really only here to read! My novel is titled The Collective: Pirate Beginnings and it's about two girls from very different backgrounds being thrown together and going back in time. One forced to go and the other to save her new found friend. There will be tales of love, friendship and magical artefacts along with loyalty and adventure. I'm currently working on a blurb for this book so pop over to my page and sign up for the updates if this sounds like something you would like to read.
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