Twist and shout

As you all know, I've been dawdling along, trying to finish my novel for a while now. It seemed to be chugging along OK - the wordometer was creeping up nicely - all except for one small detail... I didn't have a clue where it was all going.

Honestly, I was at serious risk of rambling round in self-indulgent waffle forever! But I've never been one for planning so I wasn't overly concerned about my lack of ending. I assumed my sense of direction would pitch up at a crossroads sooner or later.

And - hurray! - it did. The inspiration came when I was reading Lorelei Mathias's novel, Lost for Words. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Words-Little-Black-Dress/dp/0755332741/ref=pd_sbs_b_img_5 This sweet romance (which tells the story of a girl who knows she's in love – but she doesn't know who with) got me thinking. What if the situation in my novel wasn't all it seemed...

So, following a lot of back tracking and three point turns to see if it could be done, I decided to spring a shock on Mazie (and the reader) and throw the map out the window. It's time to jump-start Mazie's decision making process, goddamn it, before I get motion sickness with her toing and froing. Well, that's the idea, but I've never been particularly good with directions (I can't even drive) so God knows where I'll end up. You'll have to wait and see!

But in the meantime, don't worry - I'm not en-route to plagiarism-ville. My shock tactic is completely different to Lorelei's. But if I can pull it off half as elegantly as she did, I'll be chuffed to bits.

Can't wait to get on with writing now. The only problem is, I'm so excited about this new idea, I'm on the verge of shouting about it to everyone I know, ruining the big surprise. Opps.

Ten thousand tiny steps

Whoo hoo! Have been tapping away at the computer and on my last count, I'd clocked up 70 000 words. So legally, I only need 10,000 more of the little buggers before they all line up and officially count as a novel.

How exciting. Suddenly The End is nigh! Its been a long time coming but these final few chapters seem more achievable with every full stop. Anyway, must get my head down and keep pushing on to that final paragraph!