Well, I did get past Chapter 5 eventually, but it was a struggle right to the end!  I finally sent the book off a week or so later than my original deadline which wasn’t too bad when it felt as if I had been writing it for ever.  I’m still not sure why that particular story never clicked, in spite of moments thinking that it was just about to, and frankly I was desperate to get rid of it in the end.

It’s been great to have a couple of weeks away from it, including  a trip down to London for the Jubilee holiday, but since I came back I have been braced for my editor’s comments.  I was convinced I would end up having to rewrite the entire book, or possibly to be told to give up writing altogether (a recurrent fantasy, based on the absence of choice and responsibility like most fantasies), but in the event, of course, things weren’t nearly that bad.  In fact, there were lots of things she really liked about the book, much to my surpr ...

Anyway, after we had sorted that out, she asked me what the problem was, and after I had wittered on about various other distractions in my life, I started to talk about the plot and why I didn’t think it was working, which was the first time I’d really articulated what was wrong with it.  It was incredibly helpful to talk it through with someone who understands how plots work and how far you can go with ch ...

Really must pull myself together now, though.  I haven’t so much as opened Chapter Five for nearly a week, and I am at last beginning to feel tense about  the approaching deadline.   So updating this diary is my last job before I get back to work.  I have had to tear up my timetable and am now trying a different approach, which is to not let myself even check my email until I have written ten pages, let alone reply to any messages.  Not sure how long this particular discipline will last, but it feels as if drastic measures are called f ...

For those of you who suspected that putting all that time in at the bar was just an excuse, let me tell you that it paid off!  After an evening spent listening to me whimpering about how I was blocked on the plot front, a friend made a suggestion which proved to be just the breakthrough I needed.  It was such a relief to be able to send my editor a synopsis that for a while I overlooked the fact that I still had to actually write the book, and it was a bit of a shock to sit down and confront a blank screen again.  I have spent the last couple of weeks doing a very rough draft - little more than notes and scraps of dialogue – and decided this time not to try and divide it up into chapters at this stage.  Instead I aimed to fill 50 pages, the theory being that I would then just have to bulk each page out into four.  So far, I have done 35, and have given myself until the end of this weekend to finish.  I  might settle for 40+ pag ...

Still, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  I am planning to finish today, which will leave me four days to re-read and re-write if necessary.  I’m trying not to think about Assig ...

I’ve had ‘update writing diary’ on my list of things to do for what seems like weeks now, so have made myself sit down and do it today. It’s only going to be quick, though, as I’m terrified of losing momentum on the book. So far, I’m a day ahead of schedule and all is going well – but am still only on Chapter Two, so plenty of potential for writer’s block ahead! There’s nothing like an imminent deadline for things falling into place. Books are a bit like horses, and play up until you get to grips and let them know that you mean business, at which point they settle down and you suddenly remember just why it is you like writing/riding (and in case you’re wondering how I know so much about riding, I’ve been on a horse all of, ooh, seven times).

I was in Glasgow last weekend to give a talk about writing romance, and then a workshop on how to plot a romantic novel. In theory plotting is very straightforward, and I suspect I sounded a lot m ...

Well, it’s the same old story … I start off in fine fettle, having carefully drawn up my three-days-per-chapter timetable.  The first three chapters crack along, the fourth sticks a bit and by the middle of Chapter Five, I grind to a halt, paralysed at the thought of filling another five and half chapters.  So the rough draft gets rougher and rougher.  At this stage, I’m just writing dialogue and the occasional stage direction (although I’ve never attempted a screen play, I guess it would be something like this) so while the first three chapters fill 15 pages each, and it’s easy to see how they’ll expand to the final 17 or 18, Chapter Four is only 10 pages and Chapter Five only 7.

My timetable, too, has been radically revised, which is just as well, as it left me only 10 days to rewrite the entire book.  Now, I’ve allowed myself a day each for the last four chapters,  and I’ll think m ...