Bryan Murphy's Blog - Posts Tagged "commitment"
The Great Anglo-Portuguese Novel
Writing a novel is, literally, a challenge for someone who is used to writing short stories and poems. A sizeable challenge. Size matters. Instead of a story of three to five thousand words, you are looking to write about eighty thousand words. That is, naturally, a rough figure, but it gives you a quantitative target to aim for. It is a back-up motivation that can kick in when you begin to doubt the quality of your words, or even wonder whether the whole endeavour is in vain.
It was hard getting started on my novel. It had been a project in my head for years. Once I’d actually begun, early in November, completing the first chapter was not difficult. What proved really hard was starting chapter two and getting into the swing of it. After I’d managed that, it started to flow. By mid-December I had drafted the first quarter. Following a holiday break, I again found second-rate reasons not to get back to it. Yet once I put fingertips to keyboard, the momentum returned. I have now completed more than one third, and nothing will stop me finishing it.
It was hard getting started on my novel. It had been a project in my head for years. Once I’d actually begun, early in November, completing the first chapter was not difficult. What proved really hard was starting chapter two and getting into the swing of it. After I’d managed that, it started to flow. By mid-December I had drafted the first quarter. Following a holiday break, I again found second-rate reasons not to get back to it. Yet once I put fingertips to keyboard, the momentum returned. I have now completed more than one third, and nothing will stop me finishing it.
