I’ve crossed the halfway marker in total word count this week for Starveyors, my Work In Progress(WIP). Sitting at around 44,000 words and counting. Progress through this middle part of the novel had been slow. Not because the story is lacking, but mostly because external forces are making it harder to allocate the time to write. Also, I believe the warmer weather is making my brain slow to a crawl. I’m finding it very hard to concentrate on writing.
Writing a novel is a complex mental task. It requires you to think about your characters, your plot and your world building. In the middle of a novel you are juggling subplots like spinning plates all while worrying about your main character’s development and a whole host of other pressing matters. Oh, and trying your best to keep your butt in the chair and your fingers typing. My mind of late has not been up to that complex task.
My trusty white MacBook is on its death bed. It’s about six years old. I’ve written four and a half novels and a dozen short stories on it. The track pad button is unreliable and the case is slowly disintegrating. A plethora of stickers on the outside are all that’s keeping it together. I really need to invest in a new laptop.
But sales have been down these past few months so my writing income is not going to cover a hardware upgrade. I have enough funds to pay for an editor and a copy editor and hopefully my cover artist, but not enough for all that and a new laptop. The good news is that I can finally afford to fund a novel that I self-publish from money earned self-publishing. Someday, I hope to make enough to pay for a new laptop for that writing. Someday. In the meantime, I’ll suck it up and buy a new laptop and keep on writing.
For the curious, it looks like I’ll be going with a 13″ Macbook Air. Hopefully I’ll get another six years out of that one.