I’ve Only Gone And Done It!

If you follow me on social media, you’ll have seen me posting my word counts lately. It’s something that makes me feel productive—and last week alone I managed to write over 5,000 words! I’ve never tracked my writing before, and I doubt I’ve ever written that much in just five days.

I’m part of a community of writers called Write Here Write Now (WHWN), run by Karen Sanders on Facebook. At the beginning of September, we were set a challenge: write a story inspired by the Love Locks bridge in Prague.

I finished mine on the very last day of the month. To be honest, it was a bit stressful. Having to write every single day to keep the momentum going wasn’t easy.

I’m very much a pantser—which means I “fly by the seat of my pants.” I sit at the keyboard, stare at the blank screen, and let my fingers do the work, watching the words form into something (hopefully) coherent. I call it magic, because I never really know what’s coming next.

The only thing I was certain of from the start was that I wanted the story set here on Anglesey. I used real places (with a little poetic licence), which made it all the more fun. The story kept evolving, though, which meant plenty of rewrites. In the end, it came in at around 8,000 words.

I hit the deadline, and I’ll admit—I was proper pleased with myself! Would I do it again? Hopefully not… but it was fun.

This is the image I’ve been using. The working title was Love Locks, but I wasn’t sure what to call it until inspiration struck. I already have a book titled One Christmas: An Anglesey Story. Now, I’ve added One Summer. Look out for my new collection next year!

This is One Christmas and you’ll be seeing it around social media a lot from November.

Want to add it to your Christmas to read list? Then you’ll find all the information here.