Not only did I start 2009 a lot later than others, I just can’t seem to get back into my fiction writing. I think being away from my computer over the holidays was something I quite enjoyed, so now that I’m back home I get my paid writing done – the “must” part of my writing life – and then get as far away from the keyboard as possible – often, I must admit, into the swimming pool.

Editing my Japan-based novel

Since an important goal of mine this year is to start getting my novel out to prospective agents and/or publishers, it’s going to need a very good edit. I’ve started this, worked on it in dribs and drabs (and even pulled it out twice this week for half an hour at a time) but I really need to devote some serious time to getting it done. Doing it over a long period of time is proving impossible. I quite often read things and am not sure if they’re consistent with something earlier in the story, or if a character has already been mentioned before, and so on, and because it’s been so long in between each editing attempt it takes me ages to look back and find out, or, more commonly, I’ve just been writing margin notes that I need to check it out later. It’s driving me crazy.

Essential Prose’s 15 Day Creation Challenge

And so, just a few hours after worrying about this, a great post came up from Zoe Westhoff: she proposed a 15 Day Creation Challenge to encourage people just like me to actually finish something they start. Zoe sounds like she’s not unlike me in having trouble getting down to the creative side of her writing work, even though, like me, it’s the part she really loves. Silly, isn’t it?

Anyway, I’ve decided to “enrol myself” in this 15-day challenge. My goal is, as per Zoe’s rules, to spend an hour per day working on editing this novel, so that by 2 February I should have a new version of my novel. Editing at least seems easier right now than actually writing something new so I hope that this will give me the creative kick up the bottom required to make some progress on my 2009 fiction writing goals. Stay tuned for a progress update.