I know, I know.

It’s been FOREVER since I posted anything new.

I am sorry.

It’s been a busy winter. The days are just flying by faster than I can really keep track of. Also, I’ve had a roommate for the past month or so, which has caused some shifts in my routine (for the better). And I’ve been working at some personal goals (like eating a healthier diet and exercising more).

But, I have a progress report!!

I have completed over 30 000 words of my first draft.

That’s about a third.

Look at me, over here, writing a book and all!

I’ve got a long way to go. I’ve set myself an extremely ambitious target. I really don’t know if I can do this: complete my first draft AND be into the first round of edits by the end of April. (Spoiler alert: I’m going on holidays for 3 weeks in April, so, while my routine will be disrupted and I will have people to see, etc, I will also not have my pesky little day job to distract me. I have high hopes!)

There has been another change as well:

I feel like an author.

That happened…mmm…Thursday.

I was (finally) taking a moment to reflect on the past year. It’s been a bit more than that since I decided I want to write. While I don’t feel pleased with my actual writing progress (30K words in a year really isn’t that great, people), I did what I usually do: I immersed myself in preparation and training. I’ve taken training sessions on: project management (that was for my day job but I found the concepts really transfer to writing. What is a novel if not a project to manage? Also, a Gantt chart would really help me keep track of complex plots and timelines!), productivity, the world of publishing, marketing for authors, platform building, business skills, etc. I’ve read books for authors, I’ve read a LOT of fiction, I’ve bought even more books than I read (and they’re coming on vacation with me if I don’t read them before I go. That IS a threat!)

My conclusion is that I am now feeling much better prepared to get a book out into the world. I have some notion of what’s entailed. Moreover, I’ve started to realise the themes that are dear to my heart, and I believe my message to the world is coming more clearly into focus (still not totally there, but it seems closer). I can do this – despite being scared out of my wits. (I do, after all, want to produce a good book – one that’s interesting, that speaks to a few people, that’s tight – no weird plot threads left dangling and absolutely no lazy plot devices!! Ideally, there would be no misspellings, and I would even be able to eliminate homonyms! Those things REALLY bug me as a reader!)

I want to publish in 2017.

Anyway, the thing that made me realise I feel like an author is it occurred to me that this current project I’m immersed in didn’t germinate in the way I expected. I’ve always wanted to write books, I think. I’ve got a whole bunch of book ideas – and they keep coming! (But that’s another day’s problem). I even have that one book – the book I’ve been aching to write for 20+ years. (Mentally, I call it my Masterwork – I still want to write it, but it’s so important to me. I don’t want to muck it up, so I’m working at honing my skills before I tackle that. I figure it’s probably going to get started after I’ve published four to five books). So I figure that many authors have that long-term project in their hearts – and that becomes their first book.

Then there’s me. I sat down to write a series of short stories – almost like an etude (if we were talking music). I wanted to practise developing worlds and writing characters well. I also wanted to tackle a project I could actually complete. (I am the reigning Queen of Unfinished and Planned Future Projects – did I mention I foresee at least 5 books as of today?). I expected short stories would be something I could complete (and if I left things unfinished, that’s kind of how short stories are – they’re more episodes than anything else). It is the reality that I took an extremely vague, amorphous concept and turned into a complex plot worthy of a novel (in my opinion) that makes me an author.

I’m in a really good place in my life, and I’m very excited about getting this project out into the world as quickly as I can – making sure that I’m turning out something I’m pleased with (if not actually proud of!)