So it’s starting to get tricky now.  I’m just over two weeks in and so far I have managed to write the 1,667 words a day to keep on track but it’s not all been plain sailing.

Firstly I had technical problems. I’m not good with computers. I do my best but I really don’t have much comprehension. About a week ago I accidentally deleted the whole thing! All of it! Gone! Now I’m not entirely hopeless and I know that nothing is ever entirely lost at the outset so I stopped fiddling until my Husband in Shining Armour could come and rescue me. The irony of the fact that I was trying to back the book up at the time was not lost on me.

Then I had more technical issues when, in an attempt at clever restructuring, I managed to muddle all the chapters up. That wasn’t too difficult to fix but it took up valuable writing time. A further consequence of that particular hiccup has also been uncovered. I discovered that in trying to sort it out, I had inadvertently copied an entire chapter so my word count was out by over a day’s writing. I haven’t actually lost any words but it did feel a bit like I had, knowing that I had to write 2,000 more to be back where I thought I was.

However, this coming week is when I think things are going to start to get tough. For a start I am reaching the climax of my story which, though incredibly exciting to write, requires full concentration. No filler words here. Every sentence is crucial and I need to remember what seeds I’ve planted as I’ve been going along so that my characters can harvest them all now. For this I need uninterrupted space for my thoughts to align.

But, in the way of these things life has a habit of getting in the way. I built myself a buffer on my course work before I began but this week I really need to do some serious study or I’ll get behind. I also have lots of commitments coming up that mean that I can’t just slope off to my computer and hammer out the words. Finally and of most importance, the children are all in a huge show next weekend and the one after and so all usual routines are thrown up in the air whilst we deal with technical and dress rehearsals. It will take all of my available energy to work out who needs to be where and when and what they’ll eat. There’s not much spare space for self indulgent plot twists.

I’m sure it will all work out – these things usually do – and I knew when I started this mad enterprise that it wasn’t going to be a piece of cake. The main thing is that I’m having so much fun with my story and my characters and really, that’s what it’s all about.

And in my quieter moments I’m even starting to think about a title. I think I may need some help with that one. Watch this space.