How many ways can a house-move go wrong?
You might be finding me just a tad pessimistic, but we have had
more than our fair share of problems in recent months. Even the estate agent
who is trying to sell us the house of our choice has been economical with the
truth as well as telling us glaring inaccuracies about both house and vendor. I’m
rapidly losing faith in human nature and it has me wondering if we are destined never to move. But move we must and so we plough on and I try to keep a
semblance of order around me, this blog being part of that order.
Usually, a few days before my blog is due I begin to wonder
what to write. Occasionally, there is an idea drifting around my head. Far more
often, I don’t have the slightest notion what to write. My family has often
asked me why I keep going and for a while I didn’t have an answer. I wrote the
blog because I said I would, simple as that. It was only today that I realised
why this blog is important and why I would urge any writer to consider one.
I have a manuscript with my agent at the moment. Almost as soon
as I sent if off, a new idea came to me. I’ve started my new story and, amid
all the house problems, I promised myself to write a chapter each day and see
where it takes me. I kept that up for three whole days.
Usually I’m good at self-imposed deadlines, but with so much
going on I’ve fallen by the wayside. I tell myself that if the story is good
enough it will stay in my head for a year or two. In a few months I might be in
my new house and then I might be able to concentrate on writing. In the
meantime, I have to survive.
But how am I surviving? If I’m not writing down my ideas,
clearly I’m not surviving well, and it occurred to me that not so many minutes
ago I had absolutely no idea what to write for this blog. Now I have nearly
four hundred words and that, my friends, is, for me, the point of writing a
monthly blog.
Every four weeks I must
sit down and write. It can be any topic (as long as it is related to writing or
books), but it must be written and it
must be written well enough to post
and it must be on time.
It’s the discipline. Sitting here, finding the time to write
my blog makes me realise that there are many jobs on my to-do list that won’t affect
the price of eggs if I don’t get them done until tomorrow.
This is such a relief.
As soon as I finish writing this month’s offering, I will go
back and read chapters one to three. Then I shall write chapter four. It might
not be well written, but that doesn’t matter at this stage. At least not to me.
It’s the ideas that matter. I must write them down. I can embellish and edit
for months to come until I have something worthwhile. It’s the way I work.
And so, if you’ll excuse me I must get a move on. I’ve got a
chapter to write.
