Itchy Fingers

STEPHEN KING, in his no-nonsense guide On Writing, suggests taking a six-week break between working on the first and second drafts of your manuscript.

Can't quite afford the same luxury as the millionaire-horror-maestro, but he must be doing something right, so, I decided to follow his advice and take my first break from daily bashing a keyboard in eight months.

It's been almost three weeks since I completed the last chapter and crept back into the land of the living from behind a closed door.

While out tramping around the chilly Somerset fields with my dogs in the mornings, the characters are creeping back into my head and I'm getting itchy fingers.

Can't can't wait to dive back into the story on Monday morning, closing that office door firmly behind me.

Thanks Stephen.

The End is Nigh

EIGHT months and 87,000 words later... and I've just completed the first draft of my manuscript.

Can't quite believe it's almost in the can. All it needs is a rewrite, a cull of 7,000 words and a journalist friend to run his professional eye and pen over it before it does the rounds of agents and publishers.

Attempting to churn out 1000 plus words a day, every day since last August has been the most fulfilling and scary period of my life.

Fulfilling, as I jacked in my full-time, yet predictable day job to embark on a lifelong ambition.

Scary, as I have no agent, or publishing deal lined up and a rapidly depleting savings account.

Then there's the bleak reality looming in the back of my mind that getting a book published is like winning the Lotto.

I'm pushing away the thought of the book sinking to the bottom of a very large slush pile and the soul-destroying return to the 9-5 grind of life as an office-monkey.

However, I’m sure you have heard the old saying that it’s better to have tried and failed, than to have never tried at all?

Life would be so depressingly dull without the thrilling element of risk involved in embarking on a brand new adventure.