My Writing Journey

I progressed with my WIP (work-in-progress) this week. Not as far along the journey as I would have liked and good intentions were lost due to unexpected family commitments.  I find the first draft the most difficult (as I am sure most writers do). I planned each chapter before I started and this helped. Of course  I veer off the path and change some of my original ideas. They go out the window if they don’t move the story forward. I’m  hoping to finish the first draft by the end of the year. Because I have the outline I can work on chapters in any order.  Writing is my priority. I plan my day to suit my writing and not the other way around. If you want to write why watch television?  Switch it off! Why do you need to do a million other things and fit writing around them? I know someone who goes overseas and writes for two weeks a year. That suits him but he’ll never finish the novel he is working on. That we need a balanced life is true, time for friends and family and exercise and reading. It’s  not difficult to put aside an hour a day to write. That means seven hours a week. Write five hundred words a day and it soon adds up. More importantly it becomes a habit. A problem for a lot of writers is the Internet; research outside writing time.  Check emails twice daily. If you are on Facebook or Twitter (or both) look at them once a day.   Each week for the next few  Sundays, as well as a progress report on my WIP I’ll give you a route map for your book. Lots of helpful writing tips, hopefully I’ll  re-absorb some of these tips myself!  Nothing has happened with the television proposal. It’s  the time of the year when the publishing industry slows down with people taking holidays and Christmas celebrations and parties coming to the fore. Dave Sabben, my co-author, is on his way to Vietnam and will be away  for a week. He was one of the commanders at the Battle of Long Tan and he will be doing a real-time battlefield tour with a group of cadets.  His first novel is  Through Enemy Eyes’ a ‘faction’ story where the ‘fiction’ is in the characters of the VC and NVA leaders but as much as possible of the rest of the story is fact. Currently in its second print. He is also one of the seven contributing authors to The Battle of Long Tan as told by the Commanders to Bob Grandin a factual account of the battle. The book went into a reprint within 12 months of its release. Currently in its fourth print. Good writing to everyone, I’m going to have a coffee and get back to my WIP, Cheers Elise