5 things that stop me being a world renown author.

 

One of the few perks of my job (teacher) is I get a long break in the summer. At this point I get torrent of abuse about how easy my job is how overpaid and underworked I am. I’m not but this post isn’t about my job. With all this free time I hoped to get a lot of writing done however life is never that easy.

1. Blogs

I have spent a lot of time reading other peoples blogs. To be honest at first I started following them in the hope they would follow mine. The problem I have some of them are very good. One or two are funny, lots have excellent advice. This all eats into time I could spend writing my book. I can spend up to three hours a day reading and posting on other blogs.

There is also my own blog. I have come to love writing my blog, its good writing practise and the hope is the more I write the better writer I will become, and well that’s the theory anyway. I have set my phone to beep whenever I get a like or reply to a comment, As soon as I hear it I have to stop and check it, even mid-sentence.

1. Family

I know I shouldn’t complain about them but… We live in a two bedroomed flat. The oldest step son (15) is usually in his bedroom. The Youngest the living room making endless you tube videos of him playing games with his friends on line. That leave our bedroom for me and my wife to inhabit. We have a very nice bedroom were my desks lives. I like working in here. I don’t even mind my wife using her sowing machine while I write, I’ve learn to block out the noise. The problem is the boys don’t see our bedroom as our private space and happily come in chat when they are bored. Which again is great apart from when I’m trying to write! I never let anyone read the first draft of my work, usually because it’s riddled with mistakes. So when they come I have to stop writing reduce the page and listen. I know what you are thinking, you miserable man they grow up so fast you should make time for your kids. You are all right but I’m only human and it’s hard to maintain my cool when being told for the fifth time in an hour that they, are bored, hungry etc. when you have already played football in the park (which I hate), prepared food or given lots of sensible suggestions as what they could do my patience starts to get very thin. Interesting enough since I started writing this not one person has interrupted me!

1. The dog

My dog is great, walking him helps me organise my thoughts as well as get much needed exercise. He can be good company as well. One of his favourite places to lie is under my desk. It can be comforting have him rest his head on my feet. The problem is when, without warning he decides to lick my feet. My failings as a writer means I can’t adequately describe the feeling of having your bare feet liked by my dog in mid-sentence, gross doesn’t cover it! This is odd while writing this my very unsociable cat has just gone under my desk, she has never done that before!

1. Computer games

Ok now being honest I can try and blame others for not writing as much as I wanted but to be honest my biggest problem is me. I’m obsessed with computer games. As I’m writing this every 10 minutes I’m check on one of my new games Adventure Capitalist. When I’ve finished writing this I’ll probably load up one of the Total War series and play for the rest of the afternoon. If I could spent the time writing I do on computer games I would probably be on my 5^th book by now.

 

Enough moaning tomorrow I will;

1. Get up and make coffee, then start writing
2. Not check my blog until I have finished
3. Turn my phone of
4. Not go anywhere near the internet or just check in on my games before starting.
5. Lock my kids in their bedroom with the dog and cat – ok that’s probably going too far

I will write for three hours straight – I’ll let you know how I get on.

Oh I almost forgot the 5^th thing that stops me – lack of talent!