The Novel

Friday:

I've mentioned before that I've taken some time away from paid work to write a novel. It's something I've always wanted to do and planned to do but never made time for. I've made a few starts before but never got past a chapter or two - I'd say that 10,000 words is the most I've ever written on one project.

I started this novel at the beginning of July and gave myself until the end of the year, six months, to show it was something that I could commit to and make decent progress on. I hoped to have a first draft written by then. I can only type for a couple of hours a day, with my RSI, but it still seemed do-able.

I am making some great progress, much better than ever before. I am about to hit 25,000 words. But that is not where I'd planned to be by this point! Nearly four months have passed, I should have written twice that much or more. But I write nothing during school holidays, or all those weeks when I was sick, or if I am busy ... some days I have to choose between writing and exercise. And on days when I do write, it's generally for one hour not two. I'm still not managing my time well enough to fit in all the things I want to do in a day.

BUT.

I'm still very excited to have got this far! 25,000 words seems awesome to me. That's a quarter of a book, more or less. I'm definitely pushing on with this. I am going to get this done.