About eight years back I conned my then boyfriend (now husband) into buying a laptop on the pretext that I would try to write romance for Mills & Boon, so I have to commend him on his admirable patience - I honestly don't know why it's taken me so long to start my journey, but I am just so glad that I finally have. Who knows how long the journey will take, but that's part and parcel of it isn't it? I've read the mills and boon forums for a good while now, and it was seeing the competition info there in black and white that finally spurred me into action - along with my little one starting nursery and suddenly freeing up my week day afternoons. Again, kudos to my husband for being cool enough to want me to spend my afternoons giving this my best shot - I run a business from home too which has really been forced onto the back burner lately, i'm not really sure at the moment how all that's going to pan out. I just want to spend my time writing, it's totally intoxicating to a level I hadn't fully realized it would be.
Finding writing time isn't simple around a young family, a knackered husband who's working all the time, plus running the business & home too - I feel like i'm juggling (and dropping) the balls all the time, and I don't even want to talk about the unscalable mountain that is my washing pile. I guess (hope) that's pretty normal though!
I find myself carrying my big notepad (note to self: stop buying pretty notepads. Butterflies, flowers, swirls... you name it, I have it. I've always been that way - I was always a sucker for sparkly pencils and fluffy pencil cases as a kid, this is just the grown up version) everywhere with me, and for some weird reason my writing juices seem to flow best just around 5pm, at which point i'm usually running around the kitchen making dinner for the kids, feeding the cats, washing up...I often find myself stirring a saucepan with one hand and madly scribbling away with the other.
When I look back on it to try to make sense of what i've written, it's generally a random collection of words and ideas for lines of dialogue - I don't think i'm going to be someone who plots heavily in advance, I seem to work best by pantsing it, so i'll stick with that for now. I also find that I prefer to work with music on in the back ground, but can't cope at all with the TV or radio. Chatter completely distracts me - but then I am easily distracted. (and in my defense, Loose Women sometimes offers up plot ideas, haha).
I've recently gotten really into spotify, and have built up a playlist that suits the characters and story lines in my book - it's surprised me how much inspiration i've drawn from listening to music whilst writing. It's got to be romantic though, no thrash metal thank you, or who knows what my H&H would end up doing...
Is it normal to eat more whilst writing? I seem to be incapable of engaging my brain without a bottomless cup of coffee and a bag of maltesers on the desk. Or the Christmas tin of quality street, as it is at the moment...BAD.
Aside from chocolate, I'm also developing a big addiction to reading romance writers blogs, but i don't think that's a bad thing. I'm a rookie in this game, and i'm learning so much from everyone else who's been at it longer and who are generous enough to share their ups and downs. I feel unqualified to post on other people's blogs who've been at it for a while, and really unsure of myself.... it's kind of like starting school where everybody else knows each other already. It's probably heightened by the fact that i've never blogged before, it's a whole new world to become accustomed to the ways of. Hopefully the new kid on the block nerves will ease as I go along my own journey - am desperately hoping the addiction to maltesers eases too, or else I am really in trouble!
