The Diary of a Debut | 4th and 5th January 2011

"This is what makes writing both fun and terrifying."

Hopes and Doubts — The Diary of a Debut

My first book, Before I Go to Sleep, first came out in April 2011. Until this morning, I’d completely forgotten that in the January of that year I’d decided to start keeping a journal to chronicle things as they happened.

My entries were sporadic, and some intensely personal. But, on rediscovering them this morning, I was transported back to that time, a time of hope and fear and uncertainty and excitement.

I thought my reader-supporters might enjoy them, so I’m going to share them here, bit by bit.

Tuesday 4th January, 2011

Spent the morning at home. We had new locks fitted, so I spent the time surfing the internet and feeling guilty that I haven’t written any of Nine Lives¹ since just before Christmas. Ironically, the day I wrote a blog post ‘Why I write best at 6.30am’ was also the last day I managed to get up before 8am.

This afternoon I’ve been spending most of my time on the trailer and website. None of the domains I have that point to my site were working, and Ben has sent me a rough edit of the trailer, so I’ve been forwarding that on to various people, collating their responses, answering their questions, passing things back to Ben etc. etc.

I’m now starting to appreciate just how many and varied are the writing-related distractions that can get in the way of actually getting any work done.

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Wednesday 5th January, 2011

A frustrating, annoying day. I managed to get up at 6.30 (well, near enough)  and I was at the dining table which serves as my desk by about 7. Managed to hit my 1000 word target on Nine Lives, which felt good. It’s interesting (to me at least) - after over a week off I really wasn’t looking forward to it, but as soon as I got back into the scene I’m writing it began to feel good again. Luckily I’d left the scene, not mid-line, exactly, but mid-idea, so it was easier to slide back into it. It’s a long scene (Jayne and Veronique at the latter’s flat, discussing dating), one that’s taking ages. I hope it’s a keeper. It’ll either be pivotal to the book or scrapped, and I honestly don’t know which is more likely. This is what makes writing both fun and terrifying.