The joys of spring ...

The garden is calling, but I'm in no position to answer ... for the moment.

I'm boldly going (once again) into the dangerous world of the author. For me there's never been a problem with writer's block ... there are usually too many ideas and words for my lack of self-discipline to cope.

This weekend I determined that 1,000 words a day might be a doable target. Given that a good lower limit for a work of fiction is about 85,000 words, I'll be there in three months!

Stephen King's On Writing has been a real inspiration. It offers hints from his own working life. Do read it, if you are planning a book yourself. His method is to take a compelling situation (a 'what if?') as his starting point. There is usually no agonising over constructing a plot - instead he goes hell-for-leather at the finish line, churning out words per day and allowing his characters to do their own thing.

But then comes the tricky bit. The first draft is only the beginning - usually he totals up three before he is happy enough to present it to his publisher. And the second and third versions are the ones that really demand the grunt work (and the months of hard slog).

Maybe I need to revise my optimistic three-month schedule?

Our garden in March ... hints of green are tempting.