February 6th – One hundred and thirteen thousand, eight hundred and sixty five words done.

Wow! It actually looks even more impressive written down that way. I managed a mere, (laughs at his own perceived arrogance and blushes before running away to hide in the corner) 2,864 words today prior to the trip to the torture chamber. A.k.a. the Physiotherapy centre.

Well, they’ve decided it is not now a trapped nerve in the rotator cuff and have centred attention onto my neck, which is where I started out three months ago. Apparently I have arthritis there, so I guess I’m getting old, well my body is, while my mind wants to write down as many stories as it can – before the body fails it!

Stopping my mind from thinking about other stories as I’m working on one takes a monumental effort.

The critique group went well yesterday, and seeing as I wasn’t presenting this time round I found it relaxing – as I usually do when I’m not the focus of attention. As often happens, there was one piece using an omniscient narrator and opinions were divided. I never like that contrivance, and one of the other members loves it, but doesn’t use it in her own work. It’s a good job we like or at least respect each other’s opinions otherwise sparks would fly.

A couple of people ask me why I’m so focussed on the numbers of what I'm trying to achieve, especially here in the public facing blog. I’m not, not really - for me numbers are a means of keeping track, nothing more, and making sure I’m on target. There will be days, and even weeks later in the year when I have no chance of writing, let alone hitting the target, so a buffer now is a great idea. It isn’t obsessive – it’s target setting and tracking, nothing more than that.

Still written out longhand it does look kind of impressive? What?