Chapter 5 - And So the story begins

Once the Prologue was drafted it was time to get on to the main bulk of the story.   

The first chapter flowed quite organically, even though there were sections which were extremely hard to write.  I read once that if you want a reader to cry while reading, the writer must be tearful in the writing.  I quite agree with this I feel if you want your readers to feel emotion you have to feel it as you write.  

This sometimes is quite hard to achieve, you can often spend hours working and only really write 50 words, or you may write several pages then have to delete them.  It’s also hard sometimes to fit working on my book in to my day.  I want to write everyday, however, I have a day job, I have a dog to walk, a home to take care of and basically a life that I have to live as well. Sometimes juggling my day works really well other times it’s not so easy. 

I generally have a plan to set aside two hours a day to write, there’s no set time for this which I think also impacts on the way I write, as weird as it sounds I find it easier to be more emotional in the evening or night time, rather than during the day.  So I tend to write the more emotive scenes at night.  If I have time set aside during the day I may write round the emotive parts of the novel in order to focus of really drawing out emotion when I am able to fully commit to the feelings I want to illicit in my reader. 

Walking in the woods, while trying not get lost 

I think also as a writer I’m never really not writing, I think about my stories all of the time, I have my notebook by my side to jot down any ideas and if you ever see me walking my dog you may find me talking to myself which is actually me plotting out the story, yes I look silly doing it but it works for me, it’s like having a good massage to work out the kinks.  I do however, think at some point I should invest in a Dictaphone to record my ramblings as I can come up with a great line only for something to happen and it goes right out of my head!

I’ve also been running what I have written by my friend and cheerleader who loves the idea to ensure I’m keeping on the right track.  It helps me to have someone to discuss the story with, if I’m finding myself distracted or going of course and finding myself lost in the trees, he briefest of conversations can set me right back on track. 

My main issue, with writing this book is my deadline.  When I started my friend came up with the idea I should aim to finish and publish for 11 November 2014, I knew as I was only just starting in May 2014 this was unrealistic.  I’m now a year in to this project and I’m not sure if November 2015 is a realistic deadline.  As an independent author I work to my own time line, I don’t have a publisher pushing me to complete or hand over pages which in a way might drive me harder to work faster, but I also don’t want to rush this book. 

This book is something special to me, I want it to me more than just a story, I really want it to in it’s own way help charities like the British Legion and I hope that it could inspire and help in fundraising for wounded soldiers and their families, so for now that will have to be drive enough.