This is it, this is my week where things are back to normal. Except of course, yesterday I had my haircut and coloured which took all morning – which if I’m honest, is no hardship, I adore my hairdresser and got to look at her beautiful wedding photos. (more…)
You see, for those of you who know me, I had a bit of a career change a couple of years ago, and realised that all I wanted to do was write stories and make people laugh. I never realised what a journey that would be, writing a fictional novel has been like pouring my heart and soul into the computer. It’s caused me to get lost for hours in my own little world, and when I come up for breath my heart races, I’m a bit sweaty, my hair is spiked up and I’m slightly disorientated.
However, as exciting as it is I also never realised how hard it would be. The day I deleted about 5,000 words because they didn’t fit hurt a lot – actually, I didn’t delete them, I copied and pasted them into a document called THIS IS SHIT BUT I MIGHT NEED IT SOMEDAY.
Writing 80,000 words is easy. Writing, 80,000 words in a story that people want isn’t as easy. You map it out, you plan what’s going to happen, and then as your characters develop you suddenly change everything, the beginning of your book is no longer relevant but you have to go with it, it’s what makes the story enjoyable.
I’ve not quite reached the all important 80k on THE NOVEL yet, and it bugs me. I’m impatient. I like things NOW NOW NOW, I want to walk down the the high street and see my book in the window of a shop, and I WANT IT NOW GODDAMN IT. But that’s not how it works. Once you’ve finished, you’ve got to edit, then you decide whether to self publish or pitch blah blah blah. I went into this naively and tried to rush it, but realised it’s not worth it. If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this properly.
However, that realisation didn’t stop the impatience, didn’t stop the weekly strops as I try and fit book around paid work, the children, the housework. So, quite by accident I made a Plan B, and that’s where I am now. I decided to write a little e-book. Not a novel, a novella. Something amusing, something to make people laugh, that people can empathise with. Something I can put out there for not only you guys to enjoy, but for me to have hit a milestone, and this is where Survival of the Ginnest came from.
Thirty-something Dottie Harris lived the self indulgent lifestyle of every childless couple. Then, when she hit thirty her clock ticked and she and her husband decided it was time to start a family.
In this modern day diary, Dottie discovers that once she announces her pregnancy life soon changes.
No more drinking games with the boys, no more energy for the gym and those lazy afternoons infront of the TV are soon to become a thing of the past.
Struggling through the issues of pregnancy and motherhood, Dottie turns to social networking, once there to help organise her social life, she quickly becomes reliant on it, using it as a way to reach out to others and beginning to come to terms with the funny side of mother hood, along with realising that she’s not the only person to consider anything after 7am a lie in.
Follow her journey as her children grow older, and she gets less enthusiastic.
You can view an extract of it on my other website, and if you like it, perhaps you’ll buy it. Every £1 for a copy downloaded goes into my Gin fund, the rest goes into shoes.