And then there were three...

Kate Fletcher 3 – Bad Seed – was published on February 25th which just happens to be my birthday. It was a strange day because I had two completely different things to celebrate in completely different ways. For my birthday my partner and I went to Newcastle for a day out. We visited a museum, had a lovely vegan lunch, wandered along the river – it was one of those unusually warm February days – and then had a coffee before catching the train home.

However, I was also a little preoccupied as I knew that three book bloggers would be posting about Bad Seed, along with a group of advance readers, and I was nervous about the reviews. Cue constant checking of Facebook and Amazon – not exactly conducive to complete relaxation.

By the evening the book had received quite a few glowing reviews and it was riding high in the Amazon charts. Prosecco opened, it was time to switch off – job done.

But now I have a problem. I’ve been working on Kate Fletcher 4 since November and I just can’t seem to get on with it. The plot is clear in my mind and I have copious notes. I’ve written nearly 20,000 words. My characters are now familiar to me and I know what they’re going to do and learn in this book. I lie in bed and listen to them having conversations with each other in my head – but I can’t seem to get the ******* thing written!

I make a lot of excuses. I’ve been busy with my ‘other’ work – since the end of January I’ve been doing an office job – I’ve been trying to get out on my bike, I’ve been trying to do more reading. But I know that I’m kidding myself. The truth is that I have no idea why I can’t get this book written. I like what I’ve done so far and I believe in it as a story. I like the direction that I’m heading with Kate and I like being back in Thorpe after spending so such time in Doncaster (in my imagination, not literally) when I was writing Bad Seed. So what’s the problem?

I finish my office job at the end of this month and I’ve decided to take the rest of the academic year off (apart from the exam marking in June) to try to get into some sort of writing routine. Hopefully I’ll find a way to give myself a hefty kick up the bum and have a first draft done by the end of the summer. If not…who knows? Maybe I’ll abandon Kate for a while and write something different? Maybe I’ll just have a break from writing for a couple of months? I’m really not sure at the moment and it’s a very strange feeling.