Musings of an Inappropriate Woman

Book writing club

Had brekkie with elmokeep and a bunch of other brilliant friends last Saturday, which left me energised and inspired.

Elmo, you see, is also working on a book (inadvisedly, if Penelope Trunk is to be believed*), and was telling me about the weekly wordcount goals one of her mentors had set with her.  The conversation motivated me to get out of the over-researching slump I’ve been in recently and up my own writing rate: in my case, by picking an unintimidating but effective daily word rate. And almost a week later, I feel just as I did on Saturday – energised and inspired.

(*Brief aside:  I accept Trunk’s point about authority working differently in the internet age, but I also think it’s difficult to construct a sustained, cohesive argument via a blog, a medium that, by its very nature is both iterative and framentary. As I’ve written before, it’s better to play each medium to its – and your – strengths.)

It got me thinking it might be useful to bring together some of the serious, book-writing writers I know (in person and online) into something like a support group. For me, the main barrier at the moment is knowing that, at this stage, probably the most important piece of writing I’ve ever committed to isn’t going to look much like I want it to at all. Which is pretty scary for someone who is used to researching until the last possible minute and then quickly pumping out 700, 1000 or 3000 words that are publishable and (hopefully) insightful.

I think that was my point about the ‘serious’ writers: everyone I know who writes for a living knows that there are times when what you’ve got sitting in front of you looks like a pile of dreg (and it’s the mark of a good writer, I think, to be able to recognise when their work is dreg). Which means that, for some reason, I find it easier to share said dreg unformed work with other writers – and my editors – than with non-writing friends.