Back story

I think everyone has a book in them. But it’s only a handful of us who are mad enough to want to actually sit down and commit that book to paper. And even though most of us say we’re doing it for ourselves, it’s the worst kept secret that all of us – deep, deep down – really want to be published and become stinking rich and quit our day jobs so we can do what we love for a living.

Which would be talking about ourselves.

I am dying to get this book out of my system. I’ve been dying to get this book out of my system ever since I was seven and precocious and annoying the hell out of all the adults with my precocity and penchant for verbal diarrhoea. The problem is that I start writing and then I reach a huge hump at about 65,000 words, give or take 5k. And then I lose my nerve or – worse – suddenly go Meh.

These last 12 months have seen me Meh twice. Twice. Once at 66,000 words, once at 72,000 words. These are separate books, by the way – that means a total of 138,000 words. And they’re quality words, too – not the sort mashed together one night on two shots of speed, but mulled over and re-read to death day in and day out. It’s driving me bats, and I’ve missed all my personal deadlines.

I wanted to finish my first draft by the time I turned 30. Whooshka.

I wanted to finish my second first-draft by the time I headed off for my month-long vacation in June. I then choked at 72,000 in May because I decided to change from first-person to third-person. SHOULD HAVE FIGURED THAT OUT FROM THE START, NO?

No. I figured that out at 72,000.

So where am I now? I want to start all over again. Except this time, I’m borrowing a couple of characters from draft 2 so hopefully I can recycle copious amounts of copy. I’m also giving myself a new deadline for a completed first draft: 5 March 2011. About 6 weeks to flesh out characters and back story, and then 7 months to actually write like a fevered monkey on happy juice.

Target: 100,000 words, give or take 20,000.

As for this blog, it’s basically a means for me to chronicle the process and, on occasion, rant until I break through writer’s block. If you are so kind as to drop me useful comments and make me laugh now and then, I just might dedicate this book to you one day…