Of Ticking Time November 13, 2007
Posted by Jen in : Journal, Novel , trackbackWell, having been signed up for a further five weeks in the no-longer-hellish hospital, I’m limping along with the novel. I am sooo determined to get the thing finished by the end of the year – if I don’t, I can see it slipping by the wayside and that’s not what I want at all.
I actually got up at 5.30 this morning to scrawl out some words. To be honest, it was the lure of the dog and his bladder-bursting running-up-and-down-the-stairs antics that dragged me out of bed, rather than any writerly compulsion but still. 600 words before brek’s not bad. I sort of like delirious dawn typing, huddled up in blankets while Venus blinks in at me.
Being a mathematical genius, I have calculated that, in order to get the last 30,000 or so words written by the end of the year, I will have to get up early quite a lot. Bugger.
I will though. I really will. Sometimes, just sometimes, you have to go that extra mile if you want something badly enough.
Watch this space. Yawn…
Comments»
You’ll find a way honey.
I love that cartoon. Love it!
I hate morning. Maybe you should stay up half the night, drinking scotch and smoking and throwing things at the walls.
Oh gosh, Jen, don’t stop: get up early and keep at it…
JJx
Ugh, Caroline, if only that cartoon weren’t so true eh?
Karen - Your way sounds far more fun than the decaff coffee I’m currently clutching. Scotch it is then.
JJ - I am, I am, see?
X
Just think how great you will feel once it’s written and those early mornings are behind you !!
Keep going…..you can do it!!
C x
‘600 words before brek’s not bad‘.
I think it’s flipping brilliant. Bravo and keep going!
x
I’m most impressed. Be it known that although I’ve been pootling along with the contract negotiations for my book, I’ve *whispers* not written any more of it since the sample chapter. And is only a non-fic too! Tee-hee!
Brilliant work Jen! Very impressed, 600 words before breakfast!
Carol - oddly, it all seems a depressingly long way off yet…
Lane - Ta! It is, of course, probably a sign of madness.
Hedgwizard - Not written any more? Shock horror! Not that about “only” non-fic. A book’s a book, innit? Get writing before I steal your raspberries.
Helen - two days in a row so far but I can feel myself flagging. Doing ANYTHING before 6 in the morning should be illegal.
Well you’ve gone up a whole 3% since last time I looked. I am in awe of 59,000 words and not just any old words either. I’m even more in awe of getting up at six.
Breezy - Bless you for noticing. Getting up before six isn’t too bad - at least my senses are too dulled to realise how completely bloomin freezing it is. Must learn how to use the central heating timer!
There can be something nice about being up early, though, before the world is really awake, particularly if you can spend an hour or so somewhere warm, with pyjamas on. I shall be doing some of this myself - PhD needs must - so I’ll be thinking of you…!
Jen!!! I am so impressed. I have heard this time of day is great for writing but sadly I just cannot bear to get out of bed when the kids are still asleep…I think the baby years of broken nights are still recent enough that nothing but nothing can drag me out of bed unless it’s a child demanding breakfast…
Good for you, though. Keep it up!
I think it’s a writerly right of passage to get up at dawn, stumble towards the computer and sit, blinking into the darkness, waiting for the sun to come up. If nothing else, it proves you’re really serious about what you’re doing. So well done you! Keep it up!
Yay Jen!
600 words before brekker is absolutely blimmin’ wonderful. The morning is the best time to write, it’s scientifically proven. Night time is the best time for eating, making music and sh*****g, of course!
So, keep it up, and you’ll have that pesky novel nailed in no time.
Mya x
Go, Jen, go! You can do it!
Awesome! Oh, God, sorry. I am turning into a middle aged teenager. I will be doing the clicky hand thing as perfected by your sons - and mine - soon.
Truly, though, writting at 5.30am is true dedication and you will have that fab novel finished by the end of the year.
See your dog wants you to do it too!
KW - it kind of feels as if you own the world when you start the day before everyone else. Good luck with the PhD - warm slippers will help.
Lucy - there’s quite a big difference between choosing to get up early and being forced to. Luckily, my baby days are so long ago now that I’ve wiped the broken sleep from my mind.
Jude - Serious, that’s it! Not mad at all…
Mya - you have hit the nail on its scientific noggin. Thank you!
Zinnia - ZOOM! The things we do in the name of writing eh?
Fiona - not the clicky hand thing, pur-lease. Middle aged teenager, I like the sound of that and may be forced to steal it.