Colleagues keep tempting me to have one of those little bars that show the progress of the wip. They tell me there’s nothing like seeing it up there, the very public nature of it, the competition, to stimulate progress. It might work. But what if the progress is nil? While everyone else’s percentage of book written grows day by day, how bad will I feel during those weeks (more of them than I care to admit) when nothing much happens at all? Or when, like today, I thought I was on page 113, only to discover I’d somehow got in a muddle with page numbering (cutting and pasting from one chapter to another) and was, in actual fact, on page 106?
And I don’t write huge chunks every day like some people I could mention. A thousand words is a very good day. I’ll think about it some more, but as a demonstration of progress, I’m posting pictures of my hero and heroine. He was easy to find. Ben Faulkner is an academic and when I saw this guy in a magazine (he’s not a model, but I’ve no idea who he is), he just fit the bill perfectly.
Ellie was much more difficult. She’s a bit of a free-spirit and while this dark-eyed lovely is close, she’s a bit slender for my heroine, who is a delicious armful. More Nigella… The rabbit, the guinea pig and the cat, I’ll have to leave to your imagination. In the meantime, here’s another picture of Nigel, who has taken to the life of “celebrity” cat with the laid-back nonchalance of the true feline.
8 comments:
Whoever he is, he's gorgeous :-)
I like my slider because it feels good to see it move closer to completion, but I can understand that not everybody would want one. If I had as many books behind me as you have, I doubt I'd need a slider to remind me that I can do it, which is pretty much what it's there for.
I don't haveone because I think it would paralyse me.
I keep track with plain old pen and paper notations on my filofax. Far easier.
Loved the cat photo
I'm under pressure to have one of those little bars, too, Liz - and am firmly resisting. I think it would be bad for my eternal soul ... because I'd lie. Some days are just too dreadful to share!
Resist the pressure. I have a spreadsheet which does a similar thing, but it's for my eyes only! I'm not even admitting what I'm working on right now. (I'm at the point of 'Shall I scrap this book?' - will have to go and stare at pics of Rufus Sewell and will my hero to come back from the Farne Islands, where he's currently skulking and refusing to do what he's supposed to be doing in the book.)
Sharon, I guess it's down to temperament -- and actually I hate to tell you this, but the more books you write, the harder it gets!
Michelle, Natasha, Kate -- we're clearly soul mates! I make a note of pages done on my desk diary. If it's bad, I leave it a week...
Oh dear. I'm not sure I wanted to know that. Oh well, chin up. I'm still on the first so I shan't worry about that just yet :)
You know, Liz, you're right they *do* get harder to write - and I'm only on book 8.
And since I hit the chocolate biscuits each time I get stuck ... Why does no-one ever mention writers' bottom when you're starting out???
Natasha, I vividly recall that moment when I decided to move up a skirt size "for comfort" -- on about book 3. However, with the help of WW online, I've shifted 9 lbs of "bottom" in the last four weeks and today fastened a much loved skirt on which button and buttonhole have been strangers for years.
Leave the choccie biscuits for the kids and keep your figure!
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