Next book

Well, after the frenetic activity surrounding my last book, I sat this morning for almost an hour, staring at the dreaded blank page, wondering what to write. I started playing a game of 'what if?', throwing concepts around like crazy. A couple of things stuck, and I started to write. Before I knew it, I had knocked out a thousand or so words and was scribbling down possible plotlines like crazy! I've still no clear idea where the story is going yet, only that it is going, and seems to be developing itself without me thinking about it too much. It's a much more ambitious book, I think, quite a lot longer than the last - that was written in a white-hot frenzy, the first draft completed inside a month, with about six weeks for rewrites and tidying up. I'm expecting this one to take around six months to write the first draft - partly because I hope to be starting work soon and I will have less time to write, and partly because I can see the story developing in a more complex narrative structure than my first novel.
On the plus side, I've finally got around to teaching myself how to touch type; Although I slowed down to start with, I've persevered with it and am now a much faster and more accurate typist than I was before. I can't recommend learning to type properly strongly enough, it's the single biggest improvement I've made in my writing!
I've also found a couple of wonderful pieces of software that help me - focus writer is a basic text editor that allows me to concentrate purely on getting words down on paper, without being sidetracked into playing about with things like formatting or prettying up a manuscript - that can wait until later. I'm also using ywriter 5 to keep my notes all in one place - I haven't messed about with using it as a means of actually writing yet, but I will (when I get the time). Finally, the author of focuswriter also produces a gem that, quite simply, allows you to track the progress of your novel, setting a target wordcount and a daily wordcount, as well as a projected time span. It's a simple idea, beautifully executed, and you can adjust the settings on the fly.