Today is the second day of our new kitchen fitting. It is also the first day for me getting back to writing my novel after a proof read from the RNA (Romantic Novelists)  reader. I’ve had a few weeks to digest the comments and then a few weeks to follow up.

The idea of the kitchen is great. My husband, Angus, and I have looked at all the designs and pictured the kitchen spanking new, finished and looking glorious. However… the reality at the moment is a little different. At present our kitchen looks very much like a warehouse, cold, empty and draughty. There is also a pile of discarded pieces of our old kitchen e.g. sink, taps, cupboards etc lying out in front of our house making it look very much like a tip. The reality in the construction is not like the finished design.

A novel is much the same. You can imagine it finished, even select a cover for it in your mind (as I have done) and imagine the glorious reviews (hmm… well) but that’s not the same as the reality now. Now there are more blank pages than completed ones, the story-line might still seem a little rough or undecided and there is also the pile of discarded pages, ideas etc lying everywhere not giving the idea of a finished work.

Aren’t the two pictures very alike? However, the kitchen fitters have given us a finishing date of a week and a half – my novel might take just a little longer!-and then hopefully we will be able to see a finished, pristine kitchen similar to the computer image we gazed longingly at on the screen. My novel too will be finished in time. Unlike my articles, I haven’t a fixed deadline date but suffice it to say I would like to give myself the deadline of next August when the RNA proof reading date is up for all members of the New Writers Scheme. This year my reader read the first three chapters and the Synopsis, next year, God willing, she will be reading my entire novel, hopefully looking glorious too!