I’ve quit my day-job and moved to Bali for 3 months. Cool, huh? It’s not a holiday though. I’m finally taking my writing dreams seriously. I want to come back having written a novel. This time is the best gift I could ever give myself, and I’m terrified and exhilarated in equal measure.

 

I want to have completed this by the end of June.

 

I did think about making this novel-writing a big Urban Writers challenge. It’s a programme I’ve wanted to run for ages, to help people get their novels actually completed. But this time I think I need to do it first and to give myself this time because I know from the Get Writing! Bootcamp that these things are a lot of work and I’ve spend the last 3 years using the writing retreat business as an excuse to avoid the scary writing. And the novel has to be more important at this stage. But I’ll do something next time.

 

It’s important not to do these things alone. So I’m using the following tools:

 

  • A book called Nail Your Novel by Roz Morris. I’m one of those people who likes to be told what to do so I don’t spend ages dithering over every decision then wondering if I’m doing it wrong. So being given a structure, not for the book itself, but a roadmap to the writing process is tremendously helpful. My job is to just follow the tasks in order, regardless of self-doubt.

 

  • The Urban Writers’ Playground. This started when someone suggested that I could do writing retreats online, but it’s so much more. It’s a support community and it matters to me. I’m going to use the online writing retreats, Friday Club and weekly goal-setting to keep me motivated.

 

 

Perfection is not the aim. A gloriously craptastic rough draft is. In fact, I’d be happy with most of a draft and knowing where it’s going. But it’s time to do it.

 

Like I said. I’m not doing a guided programme this time but if you want to join me in my challenge, I’ll be in the Playground 🙂