My New Novel is On Schedule

I've been neglecting social media. This year I didn't have a new novel published and decided I write too slowly. I need to be more productive without sacrificing quality so I decided to write Tuesday's Child without research, revision or edits. I wanted to finish the first draft by the end of November or December 10th at the latest. I have almost met my target. I wrote 70,000 words and then realised I should revise Tuesday's Child to make sure that I tied up all the loose ends. I have revised and edited 100 pages of the second draft and am making notes on the contents of each chapter. Next, I shall write the final 5,000 words or more. It's a new way of writing for me but, hopefully, I will be ready to submit the novel to MuseItUpPublishing by the end of March, if not before. Phew!

Writing and Gardening

A friend wrote in her newsletter that Stephen King said novelists should finish a new book in 3 months. Ouch, it's taken me much longer to write each of mine. Anyway, this morning I wrote Chapter 27 of my new novel, Monday's Child (the sequel to Sunday's Child) set in the Regency era, and began the next chapter. Approximately 7,000 words to write before I finish the book, revise and edit it before I submit it. Phew!

I spent the rest of the morning working in the greenhouse and the garden. I picked tomatoes, cucumbers, runner beans and radishes, planted out lettuces weeded and tidied up. It's a sunny day, the sky is blue and the bees were busy collecting nectar from the lavender and other flowers.

Now I'm tapping away on the laptop with my feet up. Later on I'll probably pop out in the garden to do a bit more.

M is for Menory

It is mortifying if a novelist describes a character's eyes as blue and later refers to them as grey. In order to avoid such mistakes I fill in a detailed character profile, which includes appearance, for main characters and a simpler one for minor characters, which also includes their appearance.

In my new historical novel Monday's Child there are many minor characters. Instead of depending on my memory, I have a card index in which I record the names of those who have a very minor role.

These aids to memory are very useful. I remember reading a historical novel which began with the main character, who was called - say - Lady Violet. Half way through the novel Lady Rose was introduced. What had happened? The author had changed her mind about calling the main protagonist Lady Violet and re-named her. Unfortunately, she forgot to change the name in the first half of the novel and - amazingly - neither the contents editor nor the line editor notice so the name  Lady Rose replaced Lady Violet when the novel was published. Of course, this is an extreme example, but novelist's beware, but I wonder what the readers made of it.