My Writing Journey – Week 5

Welcome back to my journey! It feels like we’ve come so far already, doesn’t it? I’m going to start this post by telling you something that, in all of the excitement of last week, I forgot to mention.

I broke my mug!

Let me give you some context. I’ve had this mug for about five years, it was the last of a multipack, nothing special but I loved it. It’s no secret that I am obsessed with tea, I mean, genuinely I can’t get enough of it! So during these five years I completed my degree, which consisted of many, many assignments, I have also written three and a half novels. Through all of this,  I had my mug. If you follow my instagram you will have seen it pop up a lot! To those of you who don’t place much significance in a mug you might think I’m odd for being quite so attached to an inanimate object. And you might be right. But it was like my lucky charm!

So, after finishing ‘All I Left Behind’, I went downstairs to make a cup of tea and the mug slipped! I can’t explain how sad this made me, I don’t believe in signs but it definitely felt like a bad omen. I’ve now had to switch to my Harry Potter mug which although it’s cool…tea just doesn’t taste the same!

Anyway, enough about that, it’s time I move on and I have.

This week has been dedicated to planning. I had an idea, an extensive idea that took me a while to realise was actually two separate story lines. So, the first thing I had to do was find the two different characters and paths and pick which one I would carry forward first. Once I had decided on the novel I was running with I set about fleshing out my characters and getting to know them.  My actual planning was slightly different to usual, I have a rough beginning, middle and end, and the first couple of chapters are already laid out but I will have to continue to revisit the plan as I go so the characters can tell me where we’re going!

I’ve started writing now, 1,500 words later and something feels strange. It’s like I’m suffering from separation anxiety, stuck in some novel hangover because of my last book. The story doesn’t feel mine yet and I can see this one taking me a while to immerse myself in. I’m still in Lauren’s head and I need to find a way to move on. Do you ever find this with your writing? Considering that my original plan for ‘All I Left Behind’ was to have finished writing it by next week, it’s no wonder I haven’t quite moved on yet, it all happened rather quickly!

I’m hoping to be back next week with 14,000 words and have the initial stage behind me. Hopefully, as I go along, the pieces will fall into place in my head.

***Just a blatant plug here but ‘All I Left Behind’ is currently free to download on Amazon, there’s a few days left to snap it up!***

Let me know below about your own writing endeavours this week!