I said I wouldn’t but it looks like I am. Part of me is cross with myself. Part of me is relishing the challenge. It’s going so well that I just have to give it a try. For the hell of it. But I am NOT going to make a habit of it. I am going to try and finish the first draft of R&M#7 in a calendar month. (There that should jinx it. Cue writer’s block)

Only last week I said I wouldn’t put myself under that sort of pressure. Well, actually it doesn’t feel like pressure. What the intervening week has felt like is just writing and enjoying it. The word count continues to grow (it’s currently at sixty-two thousand words and in all the R&M Files I haven’t written one over a hundred thousand words. This one doesn’t look like being any different. But I don’t know because being a ‘pantster’ [how I despise that term] I have no idea when, how, or where it’s going to finish.) And I’m not chained to the desk every waking hour. I have a good work/life balance. If I manage to do it I’ll probably blog, for fun and posterity, on my typical daily timetable. I first saved something of this project on the 29th of October. That makes me think that’s when I started it. (You can see why I write detective novels.) So including tomorrow I have eleven days left.

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I’ve had a couple more comments on Particular Stupidities where readers have highlighted their lack of enthusiasm regarding Grimes’ speech for part of the book. I’m not going to argue with anyone about it – their feelings for it are their feelings for it. Fair enough. And there’s a lesson in it all for me the writer who doesn’t want to alienate his readers. Recently I came across this on the Internet, which I found interesting and relevant to the topic. Interesting enough to share it here. The process of reading holds some interest for me.

Grimes’ speech in the book doesn’t fit this model exactly. The first and the last letter of each word are correct but I did add some extra letters to many words for his impediment.

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The next book I write will be Acer Sansom #4. There. Said it. Happy to be committed to it. I’ve been thinking often about Acer and what could happen for him next. I keep having ideas. Last Sunday I sat down with a cup of coffee on the balcony (it’s still warm enough for that here) and jotted some things down. On paper it looks like I’m planning, which is most unlike me the writer. Anyway, I’ve got enough for the first few chapters and I’m quite excited about it.

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One thing I’d be interested to hear from anyone about is any writer’s website they’ve come across and been impressed with and maybe why. I said last week that I’m looking at doing something about my online presence. I’ve been looking at other author’s websites for ideas to include in my own and I’ve been surprised by how few of them I’ve been wowed by – even the ones that come up on the Google search as ‘the best author websites ever!!’.

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(In case you didn’t recognise him, that’s Fyodor Dostoyevsky up top. I learned from a reader’s comment last week that he wrote a book in a month. It’s called The Gambler. There’s an interesting story behind it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gambler_(novel)

PB: 10k – 42.24