You might have noticed
my absence, and if you have, I am both sorry and impressed.
I did a lot of work
over Christmas, in spite of the family situation (which I don’t really want to
go into here). I edited over 25k of words, some of which required some heavy
re-writing. I still have the first chapter from hell to edit rewrite, and then
about 2 chapters of Rowan and 6 chapters of Lacie. It’s about 45k still of
editing though hopefully it won’t be any nearly as difficult as Stus’s stuff.
Ideally I’d also like
to have another read through to try to cut down on superfluous words and
phrases. The book is long – over 130k – and way too long for a YA novel. But I
also think it’s roughly the size it needs to be. After all, I have two plots
intermingling and so really I have two stories in one. But if I have any chance
of this working, I need to make sure the writing is as tight as I can possibly
make it.
Unfortunately, that won’t be any
time soon. Easter is the closest I think I’ll be able to even glance at the
damn thing.
If you’re following,
then yes, it means I haven’t made it. This was the year I finished. This was
the year I finally let go, and it looks like it might be another six months at
the very least. 'The Year' finishes on the 19th February.
But my current
circumstances mean I can’t focus on my book right now. It’s a ‘now or never’
moment in my professional life, which means that it’s my priority and takes up
all of my energy, creativity and time (and health).
Anyway, I like to
think positively. The point of this year, this blog, was to get me back to
writing, after a disastrously writing-free 2013. And from that point of view, it has been a massive success.
So in a few weeks’
time, when it is the one-year anniversary of this blog, I will hold a little
something special to thank you all for following and give a summary of my progress.
But in the meantime, and
all the way until Easter, it will be a bit of a downtime here. See you at the other end.
