Have you ever stepped on the brakes so hard that the tyres smoked? Or started a fire using the friction method? If you have then you’ll understand why I’ve named this post ‘Smoking Fingers.’

Last Thursday my stubby little digits worked so hard and for so long that it felt as if they might spark into combustion at any given moment. In fact, I went for it with so much gusto that I haven’t fully recovered yet.

My goal on that Thursday morning was to basically make myself sit down and write for a whole day. Something I haven’t been able to do for quite some time. I think the last full writing day I had was probably last July and since then I’ve been a mere shell of a man who manages the odd 1000 to 1500 words here and then when he can.

Ok, ok, maybe not quite as bad as all that but not far off.

But, hey! I finally did it. I actually achieved what I set out to achieve. I started at nine and finished at five and somewhere in between I wrote 6800 words. No, I couldn’t believe it either.

Of course, I stopped every now and then for lunch, rooibos tea, glasses of water, toilet breaks and the desperate need to stand up and stretch my poor aching muscles from time to time. But that notwithstanding I still feel something akin to pride for what I was able to do.

Well, maybe not pride because that always comes before a fall, and nobody wants one of those, but perhaps a warm glow of self-satisfaction. The kind of feeling you get when you have to pee outside on a cold day. Or maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, the thing is, the old fingers don’t work so good these days, with fibromyalgia blighting the living daylights out of them, and reaching any kind of typing goal is something of a rarity, even on a good day. I must admit that my hands were in a bad way the day after and I didn’t type one single word on the Friday.

The next novel, or WIP (Work In Progress) as we authors like to call it, is reaching completion of the first draft and it’s a tremendously exciting time again here at Blessham Hall. It’s only a mere few weeks I reckon before I’ll be wrestling with the dreaded KDP formatting again. So with that stimulating thought planted firmly at the back of my foggy mind I’m hoping to recreate the success of last Thursday this week, only I’m hoping to do it twice. Tuesday and Thursday to be exact, with a day off in between. If I can hit somewhere near the 7000 word mark on those two days then yes, maybe I will finally have that first draft finished.

This current WIP (Work In Progress, remember) has been a real challenge. Probably my shortest novel to date and yet definitely the most difficult to write. That’s partly due to the subject of the book, where I find myself in strange, bizarre and unusual surroundings, but also to the exceptionally poor physical state of Yours Truly this last six months.

I guess what I’m really trying to say is that any more days like the glorious one I had last week are extremely welcome.

Fingers at the ready.

Type on!