When the book no longer comes first…
I’ve just emerged, blinking into the light, rather like Mole in Wind in the Willows. ‘Up we go! Up we go! Till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight and he found himself rolling in the grass of a great meadow.’
Okay, I’m not rolling in a great meadow – it’s still a bit chilly and damp for that kind of madness here in West Sussex in the middle of March but in another month there will be bluebells and who knows what I’ll be tempted to do then.
Glued to the keyboard
I have spent the winter glued to my keyboard, writing the third of my Maybridge Murder Mysteries. For days I was not aware whether it was raining, snowing, or if the sun was shining while trying to figure out — along with my sleuth Abby Finch — whodunnit. Now, having finally sent the manuscript to my editor for her feedback so that, between us, we can knock it into shape for publication I feel exactly like Mole.
(Her trusted editor is an author’s best friend. I refer you to Cautionary tales of indie authors and editors – Liberta Books on the absolute necessity of this stage even after nearly eighty books.)
Emerging into daylight
Image by Jill Wellington from PixabayI have emerged to daffodils and willow catkins in the hedgerow, there are camelias flowering in gardens, magnolias are budding and like Mole I’m saying to myself ‘This is fine!’ and ‘…after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout.’
There’s a kind of giddy freedom to being able to take an afternoon off without thinking I Should Be Writing – The Book Comes First. No guilt about taking a couple of hours to go out to lunch with a friend. No guilt about having a lie in and listening to some drama on Radio4Extra. (There’s been a Daphne du Maurier season on recently). To pick up a book written by someone else and get lost in a story.
It’s not all good news
Of course it’s not all good news. The minute I send off a manuscript I realise all the stuff I should have put in there — but that’s for revisions so I make a note and move on. No, it’s the fact that when I finally hit “send” and raise my head from my desk, the sunshine is lighting up the dust lying on shelves and the windows that haven’t been cleaned because The Book Comes First.
I can no longer look at a pile of ironing and say that will have to wait because The Book Comes First.
So the first week becomes the spring cleaning and reading week. Housework in the morning. Reading in the afternoon.
Spring cleaning
Image by StockSnap from PixabayI can no longer ignore the fact that while I was writing – the best part of twelve hours at day at the end – other stuff wasn’t being done because The Book Comes First. (That phrase is beginning sound obsessive, but believe me, I said it myself at least once every day for weeks!)
I may not be splashing whitewash on the walls of Fielding Towers, but like Mole I have had to do a serious amount of spring cleaning and get to grips with some things that have been bugging me even while I was saying that phrase.
The office
I have cleared my desk and removed post-it notes from my cupboard doors that I hadn’t looked at for months. I’ve tested dozens of pens, sharpies, markers and disposed of a large number that were no longer working. Disposed of papers, magazines and a heaps of catalogue that arrive in my letterbox every week. My accounts are up to date and everything is filed.
I have been through my wardrobe and taken a load of clothes to the charity shop – and binned a few that no one would want, including me. Pink socks…? Really?
I’ve bought new organisers for my kitchen cupboards. (I’m a big fan of Stacey Solomon’s Sort Your Life Out.)
I have ordered peat free compost for the garden and I’ve even repotted the avocado stone that I stuck in a pot and put out in the garden last summer and much to my surprise grew. It’s a bit wonky because it got lost among a lot of other pots and had to fight its way, like mole, into the light. Next week I’m going to tackle the garden if it stays dry.
I have even made new covers for a couple of my romance backlist and republished them – that’s not work, that’s fun.
…with the cupboards sorted, the windows gleaming, the desk clear, it’s time to start brainstorming the next book when the whole process will start all over again.
