A writers mind is a crazy disposition!

As a writer I find that I work better with a dead line whether it be self imposed or from my publisher.  I'm very good at sticking to my guns and plodding on until its all done and finished but I have to admit the most favourate part of the process is not the drafting out but the editing...Oh my God I love the editing for me this is where my story takes shape and becomes the book that I want to send to my publisher.

Usually for me I am a planner and I know right at the beginning where my story is going and how it will end, but something strange has been happening to me with my last two books. I have started writing and all of a sudden the characters have completely taken over and its not me that's doing the writing its them telling my fingers what to type and they are inside my head even through the night I am compelled to get up and write because they are pushing ahead with there story and I don't want to miss out by not getting it down on paper. Does that sound weird? Honestly I'm not crazy...well only a little!

You have to be a little crazy to be an author, the hours are rubbish, the extreme isolation is beyond anything I have ever experienced before and there absolutely is no time off,  I am constantly thinking about my latest manuscript whether it be when I am cooking, perhaps cleaning and even in the very rare occasion that I do iron . I can be having a conversation with friends or family and all of a sudden something comes to me and I drift off into the world I am creating on paper until I unceremoniously get poked in the arm to be reminded I'm supposed to be part of the conversation that is going on.

The winter is for me a great time to write and if we get snow like we have had I find it so much easier to stay cooped up in my writing hole or aperture because it is more like a small passage way, a gap under the stairs where every time my twenty year old son goes running up to his room its like a heard of elephants are stampeding in my head.

So the nights are getting lighter and the days longer it has been a very long winter and I am looking forward to spring. The newly born lambs, the sprouting bluebells, the splash of golden yellow from the daffodils of yes  at last spring is on the horizon.

Disaster Morning!

As an author I am constantly aware of the trepidation I feel when I am writing, the work I do is precious to me and it takes a lot of  acting like a  recluse for days on end, burning meals that my family eat and don't say a word in case I jump down there throats and generally becoming some kind of neurotic person that no one recognizes for me to complete a book. So you would think that I would be diligent in saving my work which I am...I thought!

Save,save,save is always on my mind.

How ever very often I am so engrossed in what I am doing I frequently don't save as I should. I have the hard drive, usb pen, drop box and folders on my desk top so there is no excuse other than I am one of these writers who get totally engrossed in what they do and my mind is in what I am writing and nothing else penetrates that thick scull of mine.

Press save after a morning of great writing and managing to get nearly four thousand words done and I sigh with pleasure knowing that I have achieved a great start to my next book. When all of a sudden all those words that were in front of me are gone and I have a blank screen ..argggg I press buttons that I have no idea what they do and I can't believe my eyes they literally disappeared in front of my eyes.

I shout my son to get here quick and he looks at it and shakes his head and says, "Did you only save it on the usb pen?" and I nod my head affirmatively and he shakes his head with despair and my heart sinks to my feet. I didn't save it on my hard drive that he bought, I didn't save it in my drop box that my daughter showed me how to use and I didn't save it in the new folder on my drop box.

Lesson to myself never be so complacent with something that is precious to you, not just with work but in life in general because oh boy when it bites your ass t takes a might chunk from it.