Day 30
30 mins journal + 30 mins editing + 15 mins planning
+ 1 hr planned writing
The last day! Graduation!
Today is a nice way to end it: getting support. There’s a link to Jacqui’s own services, which I’ve also put at the bottom of every page as a promo and thank you to her for putting this work out for free.
She also name checks other coaches she’s worked with in a paragraph on how they’ve helped her develop.
There is a reminder to not listen to detractors, when you also have supporters to listen to instead.
I agree with this, because even if the majority of the publishing world disparages something, there will most likely be a readership for it. If there are variations in taste, then logically a book *must* be disliked by some people in order to be liked by others.
Finally, there is an invitation to think about our current support structures and how we might extend or strengthen them.
Journal
Today’s journal is about the progress we have made on this programme, and what support structures we will put in place to ensure that we continue to write and be motivated.
Progress
I concluded that I had made a fair bit of progress towards professionalising my writing.
> I am clear that I need a defined theme, decided characters, and a good knowledge of the world before I start writing significant portions of a work. Otherwise I feel like I am wasting time and effort.
> I have discovered the use of free-writing and how not every session needs to have high-quality output. When I look back on a section it is easier to find the thread I want to follow in what already exists, and I am grateful for the base that the first “layer” of work provides. I am not afraid to be slap-dash and get something down, to encourage idea generation.
> I feel quite writing “fit”. At the moment, 1,000 words doesn’t phase me as a continuous output.
> I’ve learnt that I used to give up very easily, whenever I ran out of ideas or solutions within a session. Now I see this as totally normal and expected, and something I can fix with conscious deliberation, time away, or inspiration “re-fuelling”.
Support
Support is an important topic and I’m glad Jacqui is covering it. I do not take it seriously enough myself, even as I am starting to realise its significance. My current support is a kind partner, nice friends, and a monthly scriptwriting group. I do not have dedicated writing friends, and don’t know anyone else who writes novels. So I am currently impoverished and have probably made the isolation more pronounced than it needs to be.
This is something that crept upon me slowly and which took a while to identify as an issue. I would love to discover like-minds with whom to share challenges and achievements, and this is something I will be prioritising after this course. It’s probably a subconscious reason for having started this blog. After all, why publicise my efforts if I don’t want people to connect with them?
Exercise
- Journal entry
- Option 1: 1,000 words: carry on
or
- Option 2: 1,000 words (I added 30 mins editing + 15 minutes plan): Write about a moment when a character has to say ‘good-bye’ to something or someone; how does the character realise that there is a positive aspect to letting go?
My response
- The prompt for this scene was useful because I had to think of a “goodbye” fairly near the beginning of the novel. This had me conjuring up an ex-partner who shows up for a last hurrah, which was the type of layered character I needed at this juncture to get my main character emotional and ready to take a new leap. Goodbyes are also hellos, and endings are also beginnings.
all course content copyright Jacqui Lofthouse thewritingcoach.co.uk