End of January Update...

January is finally over! Phew. What a terribly long month it had been. 

I somehow managed to completely avoid my December Update (whoops), but this month I have plenty to talk about so I shan't shirk my duties this time. 

The BIG NEWS is that (dun dun duuuun), I have a new job! 

In a strange twist of fate, after months of applications and interviews and heart-beating frustration, I was approached by an agency looking for a graduate to enter an Insurance Broking firm. Somehow, in spite of never having even thought of such an avenue before, after two interviews, a half-hour written test (word meanings and spot-the-mistake a cake walk, spelling and maths more a treacle skid) and a grilling by the Managing Director, I somehow walked away with a job offer. So from the middle of February I'll be an Accounts Handler in the firm's charities and non-profits department. Mad, mad, mad. I shall be a Monday to Friday office girl! With pencil skirts and deadlines and meetings! How terribly, awfully grown-up.

And rather terrifying. Oh dear. 

I keep reminding myself that there was a reason they hired me and that they know what they're going and that I. Will. Be. Fine. But little waves of worry keep washing over me and I have tiny, half hour panics about such a huge career change. It's a very big, very sudden step that a month ago I didn't even imagine making. I want to do well, though and I really hope it will be fine (IT WILL). I'll try my best. 

Right, deep breath and Big Girl Pants back on. 

Writing wise, I've been pretty productive. My third New Years Resolution, to write every day, has been going well. There is one, little gap in the chain, but in my defence it was the day I got The Job, so I'm letting myself off the hook. 

(In case you're interested, I've been using the 'Don't Break the Chain' 2015 calender designed by Karen Kavett.)

Mostly I've been cracking on with The Sequel, writing little chunks to keep the plot moving. I've also done a few little writing exercises on the days I couldn't get to my previous writing or couldn't think of where to go with the story: describing characters in detail, creating scenery or, today, writing a blog post instead. Lots of little things to keep those writing muscles exercised. 

I've also, for what I think is now the eighth time, been reorganising the opening to Grey Sister. I mean really: what is wrong with me?! I just can't leave it alone! Ha ha. I'm wanting to get the new edits finished this week ready for new submissions before I start The New Job. 

New Job is going to take up a lot of time in the coming weeks (months, even). My greatest worry is that my writing and my ambitions for Grey Sister will fall by the wayside with all these new pressures. Progress may become very slow, but I desperately hope it won't grind to a complete halt. 

I've worked too hard to give up just because the real world gets in my way. 

Finished!

I... Oh gods, give me a moment. *Deep breath*

Ok, I'm alright. I'm good.

Right, OK, so.... I'm finished. Done. Complete.

I just wrote the final chapter of 'Grey Sister'.

For the past eight months, this has been my whole goal. Everything I've been working towards. A whole book, written from start to finish. And I've done it. I actually made it. I didn't give up half way or forget about it or move on to something else. I actually finished. And you know what?

It was easy. 

Don't get me wrong. It was hard. REALLY hard. Its been hours and hours, day after day, of work. I've not stopped thinking about writing for more than twenty minutes at a time. It's constantly on my mind, constantly wanting my attention. I've sacrificed a lot of hours that I could have been spending with friends or family or my boyfriend for it. I've put aside books I've wanted to read, stopped watching TV shows I loved, I've even cut down on my long, lovely soaks in the bath because The Book Always Comes First. I've kept working in a shop and put aside my career plans aside, passing up on job opportunities because I so wanted to do my best and try to achieve this one, stupid, outlandish dream.

The writing itself has been a huge learning curve, figuring out all the rules from scratch and working my way through plot holes and poor grammar and my constant desire to repeat the same basic writing techniques again and again (and again. See? There I go again with the triplication!)

But it's been fun. So fun. The best fun (Triplication again, dammit). Even though it was tough, writing has never actually felt like "work". I've never sat down to write and wished I could be doing something else. Even when I struggled to find the words or got stuck in a scene, I've constantly enjoyed the simple pleasure of writing.

While it has been a long time, it never really daunted me how far I still had to go. If it had been an university assignment, the idea that I would be working on it for the next who-knows how many months would have made me want to run and hide. But the only thing that's ever really scared me about writing has been finishing. Because next is the really hard bit and I'm equal parts excited and terrified to enter the publishing game.

I'm so happy that I've finally made it. I keep insisting that getting published is the main aim of all this, but actually writing a whole book has always been the biggest goal. If nothing else, even if 'Grey Sister' never comes to anything more than a series of files on my computer, I'm so glad I've done this.

So then, for one last time.

The word count, as of 9th March, 2014 is:

135, 917.

Eight months since starting. Prologue and twenty three chapters. 

Completed.

Now, where's my champagne? 

End of January Wordcount...

110, 202. 

Prologue, sixteen chapters and a quarter. 

Six + months since starting. 

January has been another busy month for me. I only finished my extra work in the library in the last week, so time still hasn't been on my side writing wise. I also had my five year anniversary with my other half to celebrate which, of course, kept my away from my laptop (but, for a pretty nice reason, so I can forgive him).

I have, however, reached a very big milestone this month: 100k words! Really pleased to have made it to such a big milestone in my writing. It's also been a full half a year since I began The Book, which feels at once like a long time and not enough at all. The Book has become a huge part of my life and, to be totally honest, almost my entire vision for the future. I find it hard to believe that this time last year I hadn't even had the first idea for the story.

Now I'm so far into writing I'm starting to think seriously about What Comes Next. That has scared me a little and I think my pace has slowed recently because of that. Nevertheless, I'm almost finished plot wise. I figure I have three major events left before the climax, which really isn't much at all. Another 20,000 words, perhaps?

Next month I hope I can get a really good focus and start heading for the finish line in earnest....

Hitting the Big Hundred...

So, I got a little carried away (and a little terrible at adding up) and whooshed right past the 100k mark today while writing. Which means my word count as of January 10th is: 

102, 673 !!!

It's a crazy amount to finally be hitting. I can't quite believe I did it all myself. Perhaps the elves came at night to add to my wordcount? That being said, it's been a long haul to make it this far. A massive number of hours (I can't even imagine how many) have gone into The Book (which may have a name now, but I want to keep trying it out in my head before I start using it out loud) and I've put a lot of myself into it. 

It's not just the time, but the amount of emotional effort and sacrifices that go into a project of this size. There's little things, like not playing on the Wii or reading as much or watching as much TV because they're all big time eaters, but there's also the bigger things. I know I've given a lot of the time I would have been spending with my boyfriend away to the book, which I feel very guilty about. He's incredibly supportive though and he knows that this is a hugely important thing for me to do, but we struggle to get time together as it is (his work is a fair commute and we very rarely have days off together, especially with me working two jobs just now) and though I always want to be with him I have to keep up with writing. Even when I do have time away from The Book, it's constantly on my mind and I've become a lot more introverted I think. I certainly feel like I spend a lot of time "in my head" so to speak. I'm a prolific daydreamer as it is but having a story constantly being tweaked in my head makes even someone as scatter-brained as me seem more preoccupied than normal. Which I think makes me a bit of a pain to be around right now, so I hope my friends and family will forgive me.

The other thing that's really taken a back seat to my writing is my real-world job hunt. I knew this was going to be the case and prepared myself to not be progressing career-wise for a while. But it's a bit of a tricky thing to explain to people who ask why you're still in That Shop Job and not looking for something more. But I'm still not comfortable telling people about my ambition (though a few more friends know now) so I've taken to casually changing the topic when it comes up. It will still be a long while yet before I'll know if I'll be able to make anything career-wise from The Book so I'll have to try and hold on on the job front for a while yet. 

Until the end of January I'll be continuing working two jobs, so the word count might not be as healthy as I'd like by the end of the month, but I'll try to keep plodding along and hopefully I can keep adding bits here and there. 

But, Holy Poop: look how far I've come! The finish line is in sight! We're going for gold! And other sports metaphors!

On Having Two Jobs and Meeting Deadlines...

While my dream of being a writer sits happily in the possible-future-time of my life, bills still need to be paid. So, during the day I have a shop job. The pay isn't great but the work isn't too demanding and when I leave of an evening I don't have to think about it again until 9:30 the next morning.

When I finished my degree in May I had the idea in mind of becoming a Librarian. Now, don't get me wrong, it's still my go-to occupation of choice and if I had to pick a career goal outside of writing, that would be it. Anyway, when I finished uni I got on the job application band wagon and went for the circular tour straight back to Where I Started, but I did come away with a casual position at my university's library. I didn't hear anything much from them after my training until I got the email asking me to work for them over the busy Christmas assignment period. This was originally just Sunday afternoons but, as of tomorrow, I'll be doing three evenings a week as well. This means as well as my full time 5-day-a-week job, I also have another 12 hours of library work.

Yay bank balance! Boo writing!

About 2 months ago I set myself a target within the story to reach by Christmas. It's about half way through the book, ties up the story line nicely and sets the scene for the major happenings in the second half. After hearing about the extra hours I'll be doing, plus the looming threat of the holiday season, I've been glued to my computer to still try and reach that target.

Today marks ONE MONTH until Christmas Eve (oh bottoms) and I have every hope that I can still make my goal. I've had a very productive November of writing (even if it's no where near as impressive as all the NaNoWriMo-ers out there. I doff my hat to you people: 50,000 in a month is just bonkers), so hopefully it'll make up for the lost time in the last month of the year. Here's hoping it does and that I'm not a cranky mess by the time Christmas Day rolls round.

Fingers crossed!