The first draft of the first Maisie Frobisher book (now provisionally titled All At Sea) has marched to its conclusion! Literally, as I’ve been dictating it on walks.
I had planned to finish the book today, but as it turned out the book had other ideas, and demanded to be finished on Friday. It drove me out after breakfast to do Chapter 19 (with my dictation mittens on as it was a chilly morning), allowed me to have a snack and a cuppa while editing, then marched me off round the village again for Chapter 20. Back out again after lunch for a short Chapter 21 to wrap things up. 10.5 miles, 5800 words, and done!
Would I dictate a book again? Absolutely. It turns out that I talk MUCH faster than I type (approx 2000 words an hour), and the things that I was worried about beforehand – would my phone scramble what I’d said, or lose it, would I be able to understand what I meant when I read it back, would I get stuck or run out of ideas halfway through the walk, would the chapters be wildly varying lengths – didn’t happen. Granted, I needed to edit the text, which I did after every chapter except the penultimate one, but it was still quicker than sitting and typing, AND I got to polish it up a bit at the same time, AND I got exercise.
As I wrote in my last blog, I’m planning to do Maisie book 2 as my NaNoWriMo project. Having finished book 1 a bit early, that gives me a chance to do some research reading and work on an outline. Can you guess where book 2 will be set, based on the books I borrowed from Liverpool Central Library yesterday?
So hopefully I should be ready to go on November 1 with my trusty dictation mittens!
Final stats:
- Chapters: 21
- Words: 43398
- Miles travelled (me): 74.9
- Miles travelled (Maisie): approx 7000 (nautical)
- Viscounts eaten: 4 (v g)
- Mittens knitted: 2
- Probability of knitting a matching hat: currently 50%, rising as winter approaches.
Liz Hedgecock 
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