My writing progress this week

I finished a book! I finished a book!

Never does this get old – finishing a draft. No matter how many novels I write, or short stories I complete, it never gets old. Nor should it – every story is a challenge, an adventure and getting to an important milestone of that journey needs to be acknowledged.

So here's where it's at – my still untitled contemporary romance currently tips the scales at 42,000 words. That will undoubtedly change – there's a lot of research I need to do, mostly of police investigations and the NSW court system for both adults and minors and I don't doubt what I discover is going to impact the book. I've written the story making major assumptions on how things work – if I'm wrong, I'll have to change it.

I also need to do a colour chart of it and see how it's going pacing and plot wise. I already suspect that I need a little more duelling between hero and heroine at the front of the book before things start to change. The important thing now is to just let it sit and mellow for a while – at least a month, maybe longer depending on future projects.

So, what next? Well, the plan was to spend the next week pottering around with things. I go to Melbourne next Friday for a few days and I'll be taking a break from all things writerly. When I return mid-the following week, the plan was to get stuck into whatever brilliant idea occurred to me in that time.

Except – brilliant idea occurred yesterday. It's funny how when you're getting to the end of a project – be it drafting or editing – your brain is there ready to point you toward the new thing to do.

And I know this is an idea that I will work on because I've not just thought of it and then forgot it. Last night, I went to sleep picturing some of the opening scenes. Today, even as I write this, I can see a bit of my brain sitting at its little desk and furiously scribbling stuff down so it doesn't forget.

So I'm going to spend the next week writing shorts, polishing stories, submitting and so on. Then I'll go to Melbourne and when I return I'll be starting my new contemporary romance, based on one of my favourite Shakespeare plays – Much Ado About Nothing.

I've never tried to re-write another story before so that will be challenging and interesting, and I'm intrigued by how strongly this particular idea has gripped me. I think it's going to be longer than the past two contemporaries – up around the 80k mark. And having overdosed on some Jennifer Cruisie on Wednesday, it's going to have a different feel to the others as well. Not Jennifer's trademark witty conversation, but things such as having multiple POVs in a romance.

That will probably be my main focus for the rest of this year – drafting that book.