It’s An Addiction

It’s been two weeks now since I finished my new novel Building Character and since then I’ve been too busy with editing and formatting to do any writing. After putting 117 000 words on the page in that book over a period of three months, you probably think I must be in need of a holiday anyway.

But I’m already starting to get that ‘itch’ again. It’s a restlessness that can only be cured by writing. I love the whole creative process so much, that I’m only really at ease now when I’m writing. It’s practically an addiction.

I’m actually behind (my self-imposed) schedule for this year. I took a whole unanticipated month off writing at the beginning of the year and when I did finally knuckle down and start Building Character, it soon became clear that this book would take longer than the two months I’d allowed for. There just turned out to be a lot of story in that story. And I enjoyed writing every word of it.

I’ve so many ideas for books, I’ve the whole year booked. I know exactly what my next full-length novel is going to be about – and for those of you lovely readers who have told me in no uncertain terms that they want to see more of Scarcity from the short story of the same name, you’ll be pleased to know that I’ve discovered she wants to be part of the next book, even though the main character won’t be Teresa but someone else. Scarcity will fit right in though, I know that already. I can see the story in my head, all that’s left is to start writing it.

Before I dive headlong into that particular book, however, I’ve a number of smaller projects I want to finish up. There’s the short story version of Fat Pat and the Accidental Death of Maryanne, which I’ve decided I want to include in an anthology of short horror stories (just for fun, don’t ya know), and there’s also another Michaela and Trisha story waiting to be finished. It was supposed to be a short story too, but so far it’s sitting at almost 20 000 words. I don’t expect it to be too much longer, but with those two characters, I can never quite tell.

So it’s not time to start another novel yet. I need to finish some of those small projects I amused myself with working on when I felt like a break from the long stuff. They’re fun and I like them too much to leave them all unfinished.

All the same, I really can’t wait to start the next novel. Novels are where my heart really lies. I relish the opportunity to burrow deep inside a story and tell it from start to finish, to live it like I’m right there with the characters. They’re my favourite thing to read, so I suppose it stands to reason they’re my favourite thing to write.

Ah, so many books to write, so little time.

In the meantime, faithful reader, keep an eye out for Building Character – it should be out as an ebook late next week. I’m bringing this one out in print too for any of you who like the heft and smell of ink on paper. I’m really excited to find out what you think of this new one – a bit of the old biting-your-nails nervous excitement, but looking forward to the feedback all the same. If any of you are bloggers or reviewers who think you might be interested in an interview or reading the book to review, just shoot me an email.

Tomorrow however, I think I’m going to have to do some writing. Finish one of those short stories, I think. Just to keep that itch from turning into a rash.

(I almost forgot – I’m going to post the first chapter of Building Character sometime in the next few days; you might wanna watch out for that too! I’ve also made a board on Pinterest with pictures that remind me of characters and places in the novel if you want to have a look.)

Filed under: Writing Journal