The holidays are almost over! It’s time for the world to get back to normal!
Let’s be honest, the six weeks’ holiday is a long stretch for us grown-ups. The entire routine and rhythm of normal life goes out of the window. In my experience this is even more so for writers. I work from a small office at home, so for the last few weeks I’ve had OTHER PEOPLE in the house while I’m working. Don’t get me wrong, they’re nice OTHER PEOPLE, I helped to make them. But they’re in my work space! It’s harder to focus on what I’m supposed to be doing. And the rest of publishing seems to be off as well, so nothing is happening. And there are no school visits to arrange, no university sessions to prepare. Everything is… different.
The best thing a writer can do is to go with the flow, hope they can get some words written down and, maybe, have an actual holiday. I didn’t have one last year so this time round we planned ahead and booked a two week break beside Italy’s beautiful Lake Garda. This was just what I needed, something to look forward to. The imminent flight also gave me a clear deadline to try to get my latest work-in-progress finished. This is the book currently known as Project Nova that I mentioned way back in January. I started it in June with the aim of finishing the first draft by time the holiday came around. In the way that deadlines do, the date came and went. I hadn’t finished but I wasn’t too far off. I decided not to take it with me to Italy, determined to relax for two whole weeks without writing a single word. I almost succeeded; I jotted down three or four ideas that found me by the side of the pool.
Now I’m home again I’m back into writing and I’ve only got one chapter left to go. Hopefully I’ll get the first draft finished tomorrow. So the summer holidays haven’t been wasted. I’ve had an amazing holiday and almost finished the first draft of novel number five. It seems I can work with OTHER PEOPLE in the house after all.
