A few weeks ago I interviewed Kathryn Fitzmaurice about her book The year the Swallows Came Early for a blog book tour. We have since spoken several times via email, and we are getting to know one another. I suggested that we do a series of postings about her life as a writer. In turn she suggested that we exchange posts. We would call them A Day in the Life of a Writer and we would post them on the same day on the 15th of every month. Here is Kathryn's first post.


A Day in the Life of a Writer - Post One:

I have come to the conclusion that writing the second book is harder than writing the first book. At least for me. It doesn’t flow as easily, the words don’t come as fast. It’s difficult to try to find the true voice of a new main character. I think this is a stage/phase many writers go through. I think it’s okay to be in this stage/phase for a while. Someone ought to make one of those charts that identifies the stages of writing, like the ones they have for those who lose a loved-one. Stage one: denial, etc. For writers, it might be, stage one: fear, and so on.

I’ve just submitted a first draft of my WIP to my agent. I’m in the I-can’t-believe-I-wrote-that-how-will-I-ever-fix-it stage. The manuscript is sitting on my desk. I walk around it and pick up a page or two every so often. I read it over, set it down. I’m not ready to tackle it just yet. I know it needs a lot of work, and it’s easier to just take the dog for a walk instead.


You can see the post I wrote on Kathryn's blog.