So Camp NaNoWriMo is over for another year. I achieved my modest target of 25,000 words on April 25 (how apt!), finishing Something Blue the next day with just over 28,000 words. Here’s the graph:
I was aiming for between 25 and 30K, so I’ll take that. Once I got started, the writing was fairly easy, apart from my usual ‘I’m running out of plot!’ moments. I have to say, though, that I have never cried so much over a book.
That, however, may change.
I’ve also finalised the cover for my next book, Murder At The Playgroup (you can see it here), and I’m getting on with all the bits and pieces that go into making a book launch. Earlyish May is the aim, and now it is May – yikes!
But that isn’t the scary thing either.
What I’m talking about is the loose and baggy monster which, while not actually under my bed, is lurking in my files, peering out every so often and muttering ‘You’ll have to edit me sometime, you know.’
It’s the 90,000 word draft I wrote this January and February, In Sherlock’s Shadow. The book is a follow-up to A House Of Mirrors, and when I got past 80,000 words I was starting to wonder if it would ever end. That’s probably because I’ve never written anything so long before, but still. I was wrung out.
And now I have to edit it! The horror, the horror!
I’m hoping this is just pre-edit nerves. Logically, I know stuff can be fixed. It’s a less complicated book than Mirrors, for one thing. But I suspect my pacing is off, that I’ve spent a bit too long on one strand and not enough time on some quite major stuff. I’m anticipating rewrites, and possibly scrapping whole chapters. I think I might have to bribe myself with Jaffa Cakes, Frazzles, and Viscounts…
The danger is that I can think of all sorts of other things I could be doing. Starting a mailing list, writing a story for this year’s Cheshire Prize, finishing the Halloween Sherlock novelette I’ve started, getting on with the next Pippa Parker book… All very worthwhile. But still procrastinating.
*sigh*
So once Murder is launched, I shall confront the monster in its lair (my writing folder), imprison it in the Kindle, and READ it.
Aaaargh!
In the meantime, I’ve put the first 6 chapters of A House Of Mirrors on Instafreebie. If you’d like to try it, the link is here: https://www.instafreebie.com/free/XUzdT.
The featured image is Monster by judyboo, and is shared under Creative Commons license 2.0.
Liz Hedgecock 