Getting On With Things

Blog posts don’t write themselves, and nor do novels. I am somewhat embarrassed at my lack of progress with both this blog, and my Cosy Murder Mystery ‘At Talloola’ series. The blog is going to manage fine, because, obviously, I am currently writing a new post for it. The Murder Mystery series though, and my main character, Meredith Webster, are sitting around, twiddling their thumbs.

I got excited by my series again last week, when I saw, and both chatted about, and wrote about in my last blog post, a brand new character for my series. I’d seen her whilst lunching with a friend, and the ideas came bubbling up in my mind. The odd stray idea pops up still, regarding that character, but no words for the novel are happening, either the first in the series, nor one particularly about that character, if that’s the way I end up going with her.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but if I haven’t, here goes: Live gets in the way. That’s an undeniable fact of life. There are things we have to do, that are totally unrelated to writing, any form of it. Eating, tending to household duties, looking after the dog. Unless I were writing a blog post on a different blog, or writing a different kind of novel, these things are completely off target, for my blogging/novel writing self.

And there are important other things, my personal health and well-being, for instance. I have a Chronic Illness that has no cure, Multiple Sclerosis (MS). There are treatments, and I’m doing will with the DMT (disease modifying therapy) I am currently taking – the medication Gilenya. This medicine, and my mostly healthy lifestyle and positive life attitude mean I am able to live an almost normal life.

MS might be making me a little more forgetful and disorganised than other people without that disease, or it may simply be my nature to be so, but I certainly feel a little scattered at the moment, and so am behind in a few things, including this blog, and the novel. But when I say I’m a bit behind, it doesn’t mean a lot – my schedules on these things are self-imposed.

I don’t have to write a blog post every day, or other day. I don’t have to write a Cosy Murder Mystery series. I simply decided that’s what I want to be and do, and if I don’t do them, my life will still continue on, regardless. I could go back to being a poet, and member of a writing group, without the pressures of being a regular blogger and novelist.

But if I did that, I will feel a bit like a failure … Ah well, I’m getting back into the blogging thing, with this particular blog post, and perhaps a little later on today, I’ll get some more of my novel written. After all, the idea of being the writer of a Cosy Murder Mystery series is a very attractive idea to me, and I am a bit in love with the idea of spending the rest of my life writing Cosy Murder Mystery books, in the ‘At Talloola’ series.

Do you have an idea of who you want to be seen as, for the rest of your life? I’m middle-aged now, at 57, and while my lifespan might be slightly reduced because of the MS, barring accidents or unknown potential illness, I still have at least thirty years of life left … So that’s what I want to spend that time doing, blogging, and writing Cosy Murder Mysteries. And talking about doing those two things, and doing all of the needed things to further a career in doing the things.

Writing books is only the initial part of being a writer, actually getting books published, and marketed and sold, can take a lot of time too. And living a life worth blogging about, and getting ideas for writing, these take time too. Hmm, I really should get on with that novel writing, goodbye for now, I’ll be back soon, why not let us know how feel about what I’ve written?!