Novel Progress: May

Novel progress.

Novel progress?

Noooovel progress.

Novel: a fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism.

Progress: forward or onward movement towards a destination.

Hmm…

It’s fair to say that my novel progress is non-existent. Why bother writing this post, I hear you ask?  I bothered because, for the first time in months, I’ve started thinking about my novel again, and hope to return to it soon.

For a while, I was writing my novel in short snaps while I was commuting. But when I started thinking about what I was producing, I realised I didn’t like it. For instance, a scene I had been looking forward to writing was suddenly over in a couple of paragraphs – which was certainly not what I intended.

The pacing was off, the characters were going down routes I wasn’t happy about and scenes were missing. The result? I stopped writing on the train. As life has been hectic and busy, the real result was I stopped writing at all.

Over Easter, one of my aunts brought it up and asked how I was getting on. She has always genuinely supported me with it and sounds interested rather than humouring me. It was frustrating to say it was going slowly. But being able to talk about it suddenly brought it to the forefront of my mind, and I’ve noticed the last few days that ideas are stirring again.

I need to get back to it. My concern is that when I do, I’m going to have to make friends with the delete button, always a difficult thing to do. I know it will be worth it though! The last few chapters that I wrote need to have a lot more depth added to them, and I have a strong feeling there are a few gaping plot holes amongst them.

I need to also just let myself get carried away with a writing session. I used to do it in timed bursts as otherwise I kept just editing the same part rather than moving on. But now I believe that it might have been forcing the plot along at the wrong pace because I was trying to get to a certain point rather than paying attention to what the characters were doing.

I am hoping that in writing this post, it’s made me consider some of the issues that have been preventing me from working on my novel. Teaching at uni is now over and although I am working on my dissertation, there isn’t the same pressure with the deadlines right now. I need to make sure I have time to myself – and I’m hoping that means time to work on my novel.

My ideal aim was to have the novel finished by the end of the year. Although I’m sure that was my target last year as well! I don’t think that will happen. But if I can aim to be writing again, that suits me!

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