As might be inferred from yesterday’s entry, I have let my writing muscle atrophy over the last four months while I was moving from Libya to Malaysia with a visit home in between. I’ve done a little editing of last year’s work, and written a couple of scenes, but it’s almost May and I haven’t got a new work underway.
This week, finally, was when I felt settled enough in my new home to put my writing routine back into place. Though you’d think it’d be the first routine to be replaced, it was the last: dog-walking and household routines came first. Perhaps I need my safe haven all sorted before I can devote mental energy to writing.
The routine is for afternoon writing [I have learnt over the last few years that I can force myself to try writing in the morning, but I'm not going to get much done, and nothing worth keeping...], 500 words a day.
This week, I only managed it for the last three days (as I had guests earlier in the week, as was just as eager to do some sightseeing as they were, since I’m new to the city too), but did get 2000 words done overall.
It also took me some time to decide what to write – which makes it sound like I’m rolling in ideas. That’s not true, but I did have a couple of options. In particular, my mind has been turning over ideas to do with the characters I was working with last year, but I think they’re too fresh and I need distance.
Therefore, I’ve decided on a sequel to a book that is about to be published. When I finished that book, I immediately jotted down a few scenes for what those characters would do next, and even went so far as to write about 20 pages of the sequel. But as with my characters from last year, I needed time to let them settle before I felt comfortable writing about them again.
So some of the 2000 words was lifted from the original 20 pages, but mostly not verbatim. I followed the layout of the first scene, because it allowed a good re-introduction to the characters while immediately outlining the new problem, but added more depth and detail. I found re-reading the 20 pages that my old problem of rushing developments was alive and well, and also that because I had written it straight after the first book, I did tend to skip over character relationships and descriptions because I knew them so well – not so for a new reader, of course.
It was a slow and shaky start, but I expected that, and was grateful I had early scenes to help me along. I am looking forward to getting my teeth into the story properly next week.
