In between bouts of feverish hoovering and waiting around for plumbers to turn up I have recently managed to sink into my new novel. I use that phrase purposefully, as it seems like some stories take time to evolve in my head and its been a slow process with this one. But now I feel I'm beginning to get going, sinking into the world I'm creating and seeing characters and events fully. The interruptions for research are diminishing by the day with the help of my expert email contact, Tom, and my own improving knowledge.
Now I'm beginning to set myself little targets, like writing 5,000 words this coming week and another 5,000 the next week so that by Christmas I'm on about 20,000 words. At this rate I might have a first draft ready by the end of February.
This is when I'm happiest, when the story is beginning to flow out in a (largely) effortless way. The bit I'm still slowly learning is the self-editing, which is the hardest skill of all.
