Competitions, gardening and feeling pooped!!

Well, this post comes to you after a busy weekend in my garden! I have been a bit under the weather (I have ME/CFS and depression) and my poor garden has been the one that took the brunt of my lack of energy in the last 2 years. Even though every bit of me now aches, and I am feeling utterly shattered, the work I have managed to do in the last three months, and especially this weekend has left me finally feeling proud of it once more! I still have a long way to go, but little bit, by little bit it is getting there. It made me realise, that writing is much the same as gardening has become for me now. I used to be a 'do a load when I have the time' girl. but now, because of my health problems I have to do little bits and often. For both my garden, and my writing I think that this has really helped me to create better books, and a more pleasant place to relax once I have done my writing for the day! I certainly get things finished so much quicker now!! An Aristocratic Awakening took me 6 years to finish, whereas A Date With Destiny only took about 6 months. I am hoping that my current book, for a competition submission, will be completed in just six weeks!! The key to this has been making sure that I focus on just one task at a time. I pop my phone on airplane mode, and I just write. I don't edit as I go along any more, I just keep going until I have the story complete. Then I edit - adding, cutting, moving and amending! Even this has gotten easier and I am much more focussed about it. I really hope that you will begin to see the fruits of my new approach, but obvioulsy it could be some time before I get to announce the release of my current book as it goes through the competition process. However, I will be working on a few shorts, like Coming Home so hopefully I will keep your addiction to Rosie Mac Romances fuelled!