Plesantly surprised

A two month gap between posts appears to be my thing, so I’ll just go with it. Ideally, I'd like to blog more, as I certainly have enough bookish things to say, I just don’t have the time. Really. Just like the gap between posts, I’ll keep up the trend and summarise my writing life over the last few months by using some rather nifty bullet points:

With Suzy, after recording
my episode of The Back Story.

• My book, Every Trich in the Book was released in the UK on 20th September and in the weeks leading up to publication, I was given a last minute (and completely unexpected) edit which nearly broke me, mentally and physically. Don't get me wrong, I am so glad I did it, and would do it all over again in a heartbeat, but it definitely took a lot from me, for reasons I won’t go into. I will end the point on a positive note though and say it’s pretty cool to be able to call myself a published author now.
• On Tuesday 4th September I recorded with the lovely Suzy from the podcast, The Back Story, talking all about my journey with Trichotillomania and my book, Every Trich in the Book. A few weeks later, the episode was released and can be found here (and is also available via all podcast streaming apps). I loved recording it and I’m really happy with the how it turned out. A very positive thing to come out of a not so positive experience. 
• After the edit was done, I *attempted to* take a few weeks off from anything but my day job as my anxiety was pretty bad and I was definitely suffering from exhaustion. Naturally, I failed doing the whole 'down time' thing and even managed to do the odd bit of promotion, but, as you’ll know if you’ve ever even passed by this little blog of mine, I ain’t a fan of it. I do acknowledge though that if I want to see real results from it, I need to do a chuckload more than I have... and that is why I've come to the realisation that it is just not for me, and so, I am leaving my writing career to fate by holding onto the belief that I will get there when I'm meant to and to simply just keep writing, which dies a death if you are also trying to market a book as well. I just don’t have enough time to write all the things I want to and also attempt to find a window for book marketing. It’s a decision I feel good about as promotion, and everything that goes with it, really does take the joy out of it for me, and writing is what I truly love and want to do <insert soppy, inspirational song here>
• I have been using Twitter *more* regularly - not for marketing or promotional purposes though, but for me, and I’m really enjoying it. You can follow me @authorcaraward.
• On Wednesday 3rd October (at least I think it was then...), I started reading through the draft of a novel that I've banged on and on about on this blog - the one I thought would need an entire rewrite... so you can then only imagine my total elation when I realised I don't need to. The story is there, the scenes are there, the characters are there and now, it's about editing the book and doing some minor rewrites to really bring it to life. Don't get me wrong - I have A LOT to do, and chapter 9, as it currently stands, is something I hope will only appear in my nightmares. Also, at the top of my notes made during this read through I wrote two words: INFO DUMP, which has run rampant over parts of the draft. Even though I know I have a lot of hard work ahead of me, I can't tell you how excited I am to really get stuck into it. I finished reading it earlier this week before organising and working out everything I need to do to make it the best it can be. This particular story has been in my life from the very beginning of my writing journey but now I truly believe the time has finally come to finish what I started all those years ago. 
• A little while ago I was walking outside, minding when own business, when something (or perhaps someone...) sparked an idea for a story which started to take shape in my mind, and from time to time, I'd find my thoughts slipping to the idea and what could happen. Finally, on Friday 28th September, the day before I turned 31, on impulse I wrote roughly 950 words of this particular idea. Because of my day job, a lot of social events and the big read through of my aforementioned draft, I wasn't able to return to this story till after work last Wednesday, when I tinkered with what I had already written, then added more to the story until I had somehow managed to bring the total word count up to 1,789 words. The following day, I wrote a further 1,196 words then yesterday before work, I wrote 912 words and last night, I wrote 1,097 words. This morning I woke up at 6am, after not able to sleep, and wrote about 500 words before dozing off again and a few hours later, writing 1,500 more words to take today's total up to 2,048. In doing so, I also ended up with a complete first draft. I knew from the get go that it would only be a short story, with the total word count coming in at 7,042 words. I'm not going to gush, just yet, but know that I am feeling quite excited (I know I say that word a lot, but it's the only one that adequately describes how I feel) to work on it again.  

Going forward, my plan (for the foreseeable future at least), is to edit the larger draft before work every day then mess about with the draft of this brand new short story in the evenings and at weekends... yes, I know it appears as if I've forgotten my whole vow to find balance and all that (oops...), and I know this is probably not healthy, but damn it, I want to write, so I'm going to do it. Writing truly makes me happy, and in life you've got to do what makes you happy, or what's the point?

I think I'll be back with an update much sooner than my last few posts, but who knows, that could be a lie and I'll see you in 2019...

Until next time
Cara x