Diary of Writing a Novel.

Week One. And a bit.

March 1st
So they say just write. So today I did, but it was still tough. I extended my repertoire of procrastination to include essential bits of research like how much we got paid for stand up back in the eighties. Like I couldn’t have put ??? and come back to it later? Nope, I had to email a friend and ask. And of course you can’t just email out of the blue, there needs to be some context and some politeness like hello, how are you, how are the kids, you know human stuff. Then after you have shared the news of the last ten years since you gigged together, then you can find out that yes you did get paid $50 for a ten and $300 for a feature. What is the bet they don’t get paid much more these days…Hang on, I need to find that out …

March 2nd
Okay, so I got some writing done today. Maybe I am getting into the swing of it now. Don’t they say that it takes 30 days to create a habit?

March 3rd
I went to Adelaide Writers week today. The plan was to go and listen to some writers while my partner and his children did the kids stuff, but of course, they are different ages, so they wanted to do different things so he went and sat in an inflatable Quoll and I watched a zine being made.

March 4th
Sundays are a writing free day, so not writing doesn’t count, I took the people I live with, my partner and his two children, to see an installation in the Botanic Gardens. AdelEighties by Peter Baeker. It was fantastic and while the kids played Twister and ran around a Hills Hoist in silver jumpsuits and blue velvet jackets I talked art and inspiration and the fickleness of fame with an Austrian (incidentally Austria is where one of mum’s online orders went the other month before finally arriving).

March 5th
So today I went to Writers Week instead of writing this morning. Writing in the morning is best for creativity, and then you should edit in the afternoon, or so the advice says. I am instead listening to real writers with their fancy finished and published work. This activity does not count as procrastination as it is important to listen to others experiences of the process and to learn. But I am still feeling guilty about not writing. It has however been delightful. I got to listen to Sarah Winman, Patricia Lockwood and Ashleigh Young.
And now I am at the Mem Fox dedication after having a delightful conversation with her in the lunch line. It was very busy, and there were no free tables to sit at but a lovely lady was kind enough to let me sit at her table, and I ended up having a great conversation with her and her two children, who were in their 50’s and visiting from Melbourne.
Mem’s story was rejected nine times over five years. You may have heard of it, Possum Magic.

March 6th
This morning was school drop off followed by a podiatrist appointment and some grocery shopping so no writing so far. Especially as instead of sitting down at the computer straight away when I got home I made some lunch, watched the end of the Oscars. Shape Of Water won Best Picture, and the Jet Ski was won by the Costume Designer for Phantom Thread. I do like that they got Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway back to announce Best Picture after the Moonlight/La La Land fiasco last year. And now I am at the computer, and I feel that I now need to get started on using Scrivener. As soon as I look at the wedding photos that just got sent through and sort my banking out. Oh and now the computer is being an arse. I have two hours before I have to go out again to do school pick up.
Brilliant, I just discovered a free accounting app on one of the writing forums I belong to, I am setting that up right now so I can invoice people, once I write something.

March 7th
Last night I went to a fantastic workshop about writing memoirs and about family. It wasn’t my first choice, but that had sold out by the time I had found the money to book it. However, it was fantastic. Well structured and informative, the presenter knew how to teach. I wrote a very emotional bit about my childhood that had absolutely no jokes in it which was fun. I think there may be a memoir there I didn’t know about lurking inside me.
So have I sat down this morning energised and ready to write? Yes, I have. And yet somehow here we are two hours later and not one word written. Online shopping, check. Bills paid, check. Facebook checked, check. Want to write something now? Nope. Not really.
I think I am going to go and put what I have written into Scrivener at least. And then if I have time head into Writer’s week. Tomorrow is the last day.
So the last hour has been spent throwing around ideas for Christian to put together a film clip for his song parody. It is excellent.
I have just started watching some YouTube videos about how to use Scrivener. Apparently, I am not the only one who has put off using it, put off reading all the instructions and generally found it all a bit overwhelming.
After successfully getting the hang of the basics of Scrivener I imported what I have written so far and then wrote another 1000 words on top of that. Not bad.

March 8th

I got up early. Did some socialising on the media and then I went for it. 1000 words in an hour. Okay, not great words and they will need a lot of work later, but I feel like I am starting to get somewhere. Starting to create a habit of writing. I am completely daunted by the fact that I have 94,530 words to go, but I am excited by the progress I have made so far.