It never ends…

Hey everyone,

I’ve had a long morning and it’s not over yet. Life just keeps going and going. I checked in with all my stats this morning, updated Twitter, and Facebook too – check it out for my next project.

It doesn’t seem to matter how much you do with this whole promotion thing because it never ends. I finish one thing and it leads to another and I’m never entirely sure if I’m doing it right. Of course that can be said of many things in life and we all soldier on. I’m lucky in the sense that I haven’t commenced this journey for the money. I feel for those who publish and expect stardom and riches over night – it’s unlikely many of us would come anywhere near recognition like that. I write because I love it, and I’ve written throughout my life since before it was cool, since before Kindle and eBooks, before Fifty Shades and Harry Potter, those lucky ladies are the anomalies. No one should venture on writing a novel of any sort if they don’t have love for it. If they don’t feel that innate compulsion to create, to weave the story, to care for their characters, and to take pleasure in the journey of the process.

It can be a slog, sometimes the pictures in your head aren’t what end up on the page. Characters often decide their own fate weaving their story around you, and if you can be open to that it’s an incredible experience. Don’t get me wrong all of this sounds lovely but as any writer will tell you there can be nothing more daunting than the blank, white page.

You have to make mistakes. You have to be willing to write upwards of a million words of drivel before you find your swing. I’m not teaching a seminar I know, but because writing has always been a part of my life my family know I do it, friends, and colleagues become amazed when you tell them your “hobby”. Some people think it’s easy, they open a Word document, or pick up a pen and expect to get to a hundred thousand words without breaking a sweat – but it’s nothing like that.

While it’s not easy it is rewarding. Seeing your story, your characters take shape, living every moment of the prose with them, giving them their innermost thoughts and sharing in the depths of their psyche. So while it’s hard work I would certainly advise anyone who wanted to give it a go to try it. But don’t be put off if you struggle. Some days I can write ten or twenty thousand words from moon-set to moonrise, other days I become lodged in one A4 sheet. Try it but it should be instinctive, one word leads to the next (without worrying about style too much on your first try) until you’ve got a paragraph and remember every word is an achievement.

It’s said that everyone has a novel in them. I don’t necessarily agree with that. But I do wish, I hope and pray, that everyone has something in their life which comforts and seduces them the way writing does for me. You don’t have to be gifted, and it doesn’t happen overnight, but whatever it is, whatever that one thing that tempts and consoles you do it. Do it for yourself, for that drive within you that makes you crave the experience. We’re all unique, and we all have a part of ourselves hidden from the world, so whatever your passion embrace it and I hope you feel the same sense of contentment writing give me.

End of ramble 😛 go out into the world and enjoy.

Scarlett