I’ve finally started writing something that isn’t related to uni. I haven’t carried on with my second novel, which is still at the half way point. Instead I was inspired to revisit something I started nearly 4 years ago.

When my dad first got a laptop, in May 2009, he asked if I wanted to go on it. So I did, but there wasn’t much to do. We had no internet, no games that were worth playing and I had no homework to do. I decided to open up Microsoft office and start writing. I wrote quickly and had about 750 words in an hour. I saved it and went to bed.

About half an hour later my dad woke me up. My brother was at our mum’s house so he wasn’t disturbed. He asked me if I wrote what what was on the laptop. I said that I had. He was genuinely shocked and asked me if he could show it to other people. One of my uncles, my mum and some of my dad’s friends all read the small extract and seemed to like it. It was the first time I’d ever felt inspired to carry on writing.

At this point I had written 12000 words called The Demon Lord. Which is still no where near finished. I do intend to look over that at some point soon. I carried on with this new story and got to the 10000 word point before slowly grinding to a halt. I knew the ending and yet didn’t know how to get there.

Skip to yesterday. I was in a bad mood. I didn’t want to shout at anyone so I wrote a poem and posted it on hello poetry. (Stupid, I know) That didn’t work. I lay in bed for a while at night which is when this abandoned story came to my mind. I suddenly knew the middle. I haven’t thought about this piece since I started uni but there, at 2 in the morning, I knew how to carry it on. I mulled the idea in my head for most of today before sitting down and opening the file. August 2010 was the last time it was touched.

I’ve decided to write 1000 words a day and have it finished in 10 days. It’s a short story, but I think it’s going to be a good one. It’s amazing that one day of freedom helps me solve a 4 year old problem. I wrote those 1000 words pretty slowly over 2 listens to a Paramore album. I look forward to the next 1000 tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,

Ashley