Writing with children

Opportunities to write have been few and far between around the holidays and with a newborn child. Last spring, when I was writing Tendrils to the Moon, I was averaging 1,000 words a day, with at least half of my weekly output coming on Friday and Saturday.

That hasn't been the case lately, which means I've had to be creative in finding time to write. I've been using AndrOpen Office on my Samsung Galaxy S5 to edit and write when I'm away from home and have a moment to spare. After experimenting with several apps, I've concluded this is the easiest mobile word processor to edit .doc files on my phone. (I prefer to work in .doc files because they're the most advanced format my old laptop is compatible with.)

The last few days I've been shoring up some scenes in the first two chapters, making characters consistent. The hardest part of the start of a novel is I rarely have a clear mental picture of the characters and their arcs. I've arrived at the first pinch point in chapter 4, and the actions that I required some of the characters to do had not been set up properly. The ratio of effort to net word count is low, but it's work that had to be done regardless.

I suppose more professional writers are able to let stuff like that wait until the editing phase, but it's a mental block for me if the character development is not at the level it needs to be.

I started a writing journal to keep myself motivated. I figure if I average 1,000 words per day, I'll meet my daunting goal of finishing my first draft by the end of January. Today I stopped at 19,261 words.

Here's some back-cover copy I wrote for Seeds of Calamity:

In terrestrial year 2216...

A meteor carrying an alien passenger strikes near a colonial settlement on Mars, killing thousands.

An asteroid mining crew that's fallen on hard times goes to work for a man they don't trust.

A detective thinks she's cracked a human smuggling case, but the real crime is bigger than she could have ever imagined.

The seeds of calamity have begun to sprout.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments section below. I'll respond to your comment as soon as I can.