WHIPPING THE WIP INTO SHAPE ..... Linda Mitchelmore

It's been a funny old year for me, so far, writing wise. For the first six months I've lived off my Blue Peter moments - you know, the ones I wrote earlier. I've seen two novellas go to large print with Ulverscroft and come out in paperback. And HarperCollins have just published my first novel with them, SUMMER AT 23 THE STRAND.

There have also been half a dozen or so short stories published in various magazines, some of which I wrote and submitted well over a year ago.

Stuff happened here which meant my mind wasn't as creative as it usually is so while that was going on I didn't beat myself up about it. But I had this itch I just had to scratch and I kept my writing hand in putting - hopefully - witty and pithy posts on Facebook and a blogpost now and then. But as I said, it's been a funny old year and now I have a new book to write and a very short deadline in which to do it. The problem is I've had six months of mental slobbing about, as it were. I wasn't sure if I could actually do it and dithered before committing. And then I heard my dear old dad's voice in my head saying, 'You can do it kid,' whenever I voiced fears that things were, perhaps, too much for me. So I put on my self-discipline hat - it's the only way because no one else is going to do it for me. I get up an hour earlier, shower and dress, have breakfast and I'm at my desk by 8.30 a.m. I'm refusing all invites to meet for coffee or lunch until the 80,000 words I need are in the can, as it were. I write until midday, or thereabouts, go for a short walk of twenty minutes or so and then get lunch. The afternoons are for catching up with the necessary - housework, washing, buying and sending birthday cards and presents. Oh, and getting in the wine for wind-down time. There was an interesting thread on Facebook recently about whether or not one should drink wine while editing. The consensus of opinion is that no, one shouldn't, but that it's perfectly all right to drink wine while working on one's wip. So that's all right, then, and I now have supplies in.

Part of my new regime was not to write at weekends as I always have my grandchildren here. But wips have a mind of their own, and snatches of dialogue and little 'scenes' keep coming to me and I have to nip to my desk and make notes. My grandchildren are building complex Lego models with their grandad at the moment. Time then to get a few more paragraphs in the can. Back to the typeface!