DEEP PURPOSEFUL PLAN

At the beginning of 2007, once the contract for the book had been finalised and it was Action Stations, Hubby announced I needed to make my study more user-friendly. The study I had was fine but disorganised and that could not be the case for the New Successful Writer, he decreed. Over the course of the next couple of months, some subtle changes were made. Hubby took the old desk and chair and bought me nice smart new ones. We visited the local Second Hand Office Furniture store and bought two filing cabinets. My day job is with an office supplies company so we bought new suspension files, new pen holders, new letter trays etcetera etcetera etcetera. By March I had a good, New Successful Writer's study complete with a new laptop and a CD player so that the New Successful Writer can listen to appropriate New Age Music, Simon & Garfunkle, Cat Stevens and All Angels cds as she writes. No female writer could ask for a more supportive and confident husband.

Why then did I last night go up to the study and fill my arms with notebooks, pencils, erasers, sharpeners and other paraphernalia and head downstairs to write in the living room? I mean Hello! Half way down, with enough gunk to climb Everest piled up in my arms, I came to my senses and thought What am I doing? All that time, money, effort and planning spent on the New Successful Writer's study and I was struggling to get to the living room?

I promptly did an about turn and head back to the study. I rearranged the desk to make some space, opened the window to let in some air, sipped on my Diet Ginger Beer and put on my writer's head. An hour and a half later, I had some pretty thorough notes to work from for the third and final book in the series, having emailed the second one over to Sarah The Publisher by the end of last week. Now I just need to actually write the third one. My deadline is 16th September which is just over three weeks away. I know I can do it. I have no choice. It is what being a writer is all about. I think.

Woke up this morning brimming with new ideas for the new story. Met night-worker Hubby for coffee at Costa's at East Croydon. We treat ourselves to this once (and occasionally twice) a week because, believe it or not, we actually get to spend more time together. Look at it this way - if we don't meet for coffee, Hubby gets in by 6am which is when I am falling out of bed. He is getting undressed as I am getting dressed then we sit down to cerial and toast at about 6.30, Hubby goes up the wooden hill to Dreamland at about 7am and I have actually seen him for all of half an hour. If we do meet for coffee we are walking into Costa's at 6.05 and we then stay there till around 7 - almost an hour! So you see there is a method to our Morning Madness! Plus we both like Costa's coffee.

After he'd head off home and I was making my way to the office, I suddenly asked myself the real Crunch Question. What happens when the third and final book is complete? Then came the even bigger question. What happens with the rest of my Life? I need a plan, I told myself. I need to set myself a goal. So here it is - the goal. To be able to give up work and write full time within one year of today.

And now I think I need a strong black coffee.......again.