It sounds easy. Get an idea, write a book. That’s all there is too it. You imagine it, you can sit down and write it from start to finish because you have the idea. And that’s all you need. But truth is, that’s a deception. You think it’s that easy, but when you get down to it there are all the little kinks that are slithering out of the woodwork. First of all, you have to create characters and they more often than not are the first problem. They develop their own story line and no matter how you might try and push them in one direction … they refuse to.
That’s the first problem. Then the second one hits home. The plot you’ve written out and mapped out no longer fits … and you need to find time to sit down and write it. Only you don’t have time and somehow in the hectic schedule is life, you have to make time. At least, you do if you want your book to be written and not flung into the dusty recesses of your mind. It’s problematic enough when you’re writing with just yourself. When you’re writing with someone else? You have to take into account their time, what they can and cannot do and that’s not always easy. Fact is, writing sometimes sucks because you can’t just sit down and write from A to B and have it done and dusted.
Sometimes you have to take the long route. And that can be as frustrating as all else.
This is something that can be really hard for us at times. Our working hours collide, and then there are family and other life commitments that need to be done. We’d love to be able to sit down for an hour and know in that hour we could get something done. But it’s not that simple. Something’s always going on and that’s when you have the choice. You can either get frustrated, throw the towel in and decide that it’s giving you more stress than it’s worth. Or you can go the other route. You can decide that it’s worth it, that if you just have a little bit of patience there will be a time when we can sit down together and it’ll work. And those times? The times when the two of us can sit and write together, we’re able to progress with leaps and bounds that we at times forget we’re capable of.
Time management is key. Without it we’re up the creek without a paddle and there is no way to dry land. If we don’t organise and plan our time (or at least attempt to, usually our organisation goes out the window the moment we try and plan it!) then we’re left with a mess of … what the hell do we do in the five minutes we have?! Panic? Or debate a little longer on what would be more beneficial until actually, the end result is we don’t have any of that precious time left. We’re not great at it, but hey we’re trying!
And even when we think we have our time management sorted out, when we have that time and we think we’re getting somewhere, we’ll go back to the first problem. Our Characters and the minds of their own that we’ve created. It’s a never ending circle, even if we know that in the end it will be more than worth it. It’s keeping that end goal in sight and knowing that one day we’ll be finished writing the story that we started on years ago and has now blossomed into a work of blood, sweat and toil.
It’s hard work, writing. Anyone who says it’s easy hasn’t tried it. You don’t just sit down, write from start to finish. It requires dedication and yes, at times it requires sacrifices. If you want to do it then there are times you have to sacrifice things to make sure that you get where you want to be. If you’re not willing to make those sacrifices? Then you may as well go back the way you came. Without making those sacrifices, without making sure you make time for writing it’s not going to come together. It’s not some ancient alchemy where you can mix ingredients and sit back and watch what happens.
We’re not alchemists, but what we do have is hard work and dedication. And the knowledge that one day we’ll reach that final destination and our writing will simply be the end and the years of toil and sweat and hard work will all have paid off. Until then? We carry on, organising, managing ourselves and making those sacrifices where it’s needed. It’s not easy, but we’ll get there.
~ Clara
Charlotte and Clara 