One of the first lessons you learn when you write for a living (or write with the intention/hope of making a living from it) is that the most important thing to do is write each day. It doesn't matter if the brain is empty, it doesn't matter if the next day it is apparent that the previous days effort was a load of rubbish. The important thing is to get into the habit, and stay in the habit, of writing every day.

It's surprisingly difficult to do this. After all, I chose to do this (actually the people who live in my head and find it a bit restrictive push me to do this) so I should be highly motivated, right? Wrong! I don't know if it is writers in general, or just me - I like to believe the former - but I find it terribly difficult to start almost every day. Unless I am doing something else that I have to do, or it is 2am - at those times my brain bleeds words and my fingers hurt because I can't let them out. Many times I have been tempted to get out of bed and just write. I don't because on the occasions I did the ramblings that poured out of my head were total rubbish, and I was total rubbish for the entire day due to sleep deprivation. Now I lie in bed and plan chapters in my head in great detail, sure that I will remember them the next day. I never do. I swear each time that I will make notes on my phone, each time I am sure I will remember so I don't make notes and I don't remember.

The other times I mentioned are when I am at work, or running errands, or doing necessary but dull chores like washing or cleaning or cooking, or out to dinner, or any time really when I can't physically sit down and write. Then when I have the time, and I sit down in front of my (lime green) laptop, I find myself procrastinating. I really don't know why, because when I start I am completely absorbed in what I am doing, the world I am creating and the characters I am letting out of my head. And when I stop I feel satisfied and fulfilled. I don't know how to describe it, except that when I write and it's going well I feel like I am doing what I was born to do. It's a great feeling, one I am sure that everyone feels when they find their purpose in life.

Today I have started work on my next book, while I wait to upload the first. I have the first few chapters already, I started it quite a long time ago. However I have changed the characters and the storyline a few times and it languished for a while as I tried to figure out where I wanted to take it. That's a lie. I knew where I wanted to take it, I just didn't want to have to do the rewrite! But today I have started, and now the whole book is clamouring for me to write it. As I think I have said, it will be a series of 4 books, a separate book for each of the characters who will all be introduced in the first one. Today each of my characters has become real and visible to me in my minds eye. They are fully fleshed, their personalities and motives are clear to me - although I am sure that will change as I write, I have not yet had a character stay as I originally intended. I seem to write pretty wilful characters. But if you think about it long enough, that makes sense because they have to be strong characters to be living in my head pushing me to write about them. Or maybe that sounds crazy. If it does, just mentally delete that last comment, I did not say it!

Today though, before I started, was one of those days where I felt like my head was completely empty. Possibly that is because I am doing a rewrite of the first few chapters, and there are parts I want to keep so I have to de-construct and reconstruct, which for me is a lot harder than just writing. The hardest part of anything is the first step, something I remind myself about every day. Having done what I set out to do I rewarded myself with a cup of tea, and opened this blog to write a post. My mind was completely blank - well actually it was still in the new world I am creating - and I had not a clue about how to start. So I did what I do best, put my fingers on the keyboard and let them go. This blog is the result. I hope it has been entertaining :)

I will leave you with a photo of Penelope the Labrador. You know the book about Marley? Penelope is a bit like Marley; headstrong, a bit of a bulldozer, obsessed with water and squeaky toys. She also, like most Labradors, just loves life. Currently we are having several days of unseasonable rain. I live near an area called The Gooseponds, a body of water prone to flooding in weather conditions like this. As I have said in another blog, I take the dog for a walk almost every day or she goes nuts. So yesterday she was determined to go for a walk, even though it was raining and The Gooseponds was flooding. I kept telling her this, and she kept telling me it was time for a walk. So I put the lead on her and took her around the corner to The Gooseponds. It was raining, the wind was blowing a gale, the footpath in front of us was flooded. This is the conversation we had, and I swear she replied just like I write:

Me: You see Penelope, The Gooseponds is flooded. Ducks are swimming on the footpath.
Penelope: I don't see the problem.
Me: Righto then!

We went for a walk.