It's the Final Countdown (de-de-der-derrrr...de-de-de-de-derrr)

Posted by Katy Regan at 08:26 on 8 Mar 2010

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With a week until my deadline for the second novel, things are getting pretty intense around here. Bless Egg, he really is good to me sometimes. In order that I could write all weekend, he took Fergus off to London so I was left alone in my house with absolutely no excuses. Save for a slight blip where I almost set fire to the house by attempting to light my very expensive Apple Blossom and Wild Berry Candle (ABSOLUTELY necessary purchase if I am going to concentrate whilst writing, you understand) I had a good run at it.

The candle thing was actually quite scary. I had no matches or a lighter in the house, so I lit a piece of paper on the gas ring. After ten minutes or so sitting at my desk, thinking er... 'this candle smells more Charred Wood Campfire than Apple Blossom and Wild Berry to me' I realised I was also coughing quite a lot and the screen was starting to look blurry. Mmm..that'd be the bilious clouds of smoke rising from the kitchen and seeping under the door that leads to the dining room where I was working.  It was only when I went into the kitchen, which I couldn't really see by this point, that I realised the bit of paper I'd tossed into the sink was still burning and smoking. Then, the smoke alarm went off. (God, I hope my mum doesn't read this. She is amazed I am still alive at 35 as it is, she will never let me have a candle again!)

Anyway, ho hum, that was that. Aside from nearly killing myself, I managed to get a marathon thirteen hours of writing done yesterday. You'd think that would be two million words, but it was more 2,000. Not that great but I do find that I only have a specific amount of what I call 'writing steam' in me, and after that has run out, (normally after around five good hours) I can sit there tapping away all I like but I may as well be copying out the dictionary or watching Simon Cowell Uncut with Piers Morgan on telly which is exactly what I did last night in fact.

I am most certainly a one-track mind girl at the moment, though, my mind filled with passages of writing, problems still to work out. On Saturday eve, in need of seeing another human being and in danger of just copying out the dictionary I had so utterly run out of steam, I went over to Matt Black's house. As he pointed out, however, I may as well not have bothered having a 'break' since I basically marched into his house, demanded a cup of tea and a piece of paper and went, "so, this problem I have with the plot - can you help me?"  He is actually very good at helping with plot problems, or in fact any sort of structural thing because being a programmer, I think his mind works in a very problem-solving, structured kind of a way. In a way that is different to mine. Egg, on the other hand, is good at talking to about the emotions of the characters, and different ways of expressing ideas. So you see, I do have I my little editorial team that I can call on in times of need! At the end of the day, only you can write the darn book of course, but it really does help to have people to knock ideas around with and I'm very lucky. Anyway must stop writing this and a) have a shower (personal hygiene does sort of go by the wayside when I'm deep into the writing. b) get to the library c) start on the mammoth task of writing a chapter and a half today. That's about 5,000 words. OK, Go!

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