Maintaining focus

 I read Frankie's post the other day and I can sympathise. Or is it empathise? I never do get that right!

Anyway, I know where she's coming from (from where she is coming? Good grief this writing lark is fraught with grammatical hurdles).

I am currently writing the second book in a new historical series, the first of which is hitting shelves this September, An Honourable Thief in hardback and ebook from Canelo. That's the word from our sponsor.

I'm not blocked, as such. Well, not any more than I usually am being a committed pantster, which means I can often sit down at the keyboard and wonder where on earth I am taking the story today. 

No, the problem is lack of focus. There is just so much going on, between the fourth Rebecca Connolly thriller coming out here in the UK (the third is hitting US stores in the Fall. Get me, using all the lingo), associated marketing and promotion, festivals, events, vacuuming, dusting and walking the dog. 

Oh, and I've met a wonderful woman so I'm kinda floating a few inches off the ground. Not the best frame of mind to be writing a dark and broody historical thriller but it does keep my feet away from those bits of the rug I miss while vacuuming in my usual cavalier fashion. 

If my publisher and/or agent are reading this, don't worry - I'm on schedule! Mind you, I would say that, wouldn't I? (I am, though.)

Ideally, I would like to take off somewhere isolated for a week or two but I've got so much on that's not possible. 

But here's the moral of this particular story - it will be done, because this writing lark is what I do. If I was a plumber I'd be tapping pipes. If I was an electrician I'd be rewiring. And if I was a carpenter, and you were a lady. 

Yes, we like to think of ourselves as artists (I actually don't) but it is also a profession and we have to be professional about it. The work has to be done and it will be done to the best of our ability. 

My intention is to have a complete working draft within the next two or three weeks, as they say it doesn't have to be good, it just has to be written. Once that's done I can revise. Like Frankie I much prefer that process. Pulling a story, dialogue, characters out of thin air (pantster, remember?) is not easy but once I have that rough lump dropped onto the screen I can hone it, smooth it, add, cut, rewrite, paste, put material in, take material out, in, out, shake it all about.

And then, as if by magic, I have a book.

As Dorothy Parker once said, I don't like writing, I like having written.

I look forward to that moment. I will savour that moment. Because in the very next moment I will realise I have another deadline looming for the sixth Rebecca.

What was it they said about no rest and the wicked?