Writing the Novel

I’m into week three of my intensive writing course and I’m just loving it.

For the first time ever, I’m so focused on my young adult novel. I’m living it and breathing it. Each night when I go to bed, I start creating the next scene or rethink the scene I’ve just written. And because I’m “in the zone”, the story is taking shape and developing in a way that I never thought it would.

The difference between being able to get stuck in now and not before I think is threefold: firstly, we were encouraged right from the start to set weekly goals which included strategies to achieving these goals; secondly, I was pushed to submit at least one piece of work a week to benefit from the feedback and the tutor’s expertise; and thirdly, getting positive feedback on my work and being able to discuss styles and techniques, as well as plots and subplots.

This week, I started on a couple of scenes where I needed to do some research. One of my characters has an acquired brain injury and wanders from home. She is only twenty years old and her father works full time as a police officer. He can’t get enough care in the home to ensure her safety. So I needed to find a GPS personal locator that would set off an alarm or something to alert the father to the fact that his daughter had wandered from home.

I rang the Alzheimer’s Association of WA to see if they knew of any such devices. I did this after searching on the internet for GPS systems and finding one that would have been perfect if it wasn’t for the wearer having to activate the device. I got a really helpful person at the Association who had the answer I needed. Now I can write that scene with confidence, knowing that what I am describing is not ficticious.

It’s really exciting when things come together like this. The more I get into my novel, the more engrossed I am becoming. Even wehn this course finishes in about two months, I know I will keep up the weekly goals and get this book completed.

I always talk to high school kids about the importance of setting goals. But it really relies on self-discipline. Even I have to keep reminding myself how important it is to set goals.

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