Honesty

I don't see any point in a blog, if the blogger isn't honest. If I don't want to tell you what I've been doing, or what's been happening, it's hard to think up an honest blog post.

At this moment I am sitting in bed, fixing the problem in my book that needs fixing. But obviously I can't tell you what it is - otherwise, when you read the book, you might be looking for the problem. If, for example - and this is not the case - my friend told me that the main male character is two dimensional, you'd be paying really close attention to him to see if I'd made him into a fully formed character.

I recently met a farmer's wife at a party, and she was asking about my writing schedule, and I was telling her that I sometimes sit in bed all morning, writing on my laptop, and that if someone calls at noon, say, and I answer the door in my pyjamas, I feel as if I ought to tell them - "I've been up since half past six - working, and I am still working."

She looked shocked at this and said "You don't look like someone who spends all day in bed."

And I felt that she really hadn't got the idea that writing is work - and that where you do it doesn't matter. Yesterday at tea time my head ached with the concentration of the afternoon's work on my book (not in bed.) I'm not complaining - I love writing - I'm just saying that sitting in bed writing on a laptop is WORK.