Writing has generally been a process of discovery. Recent discoveries mean that new elements have appeared in The Blind House (working title). Running with it will require going back to the plot and spending some time working the new things in. It will mean taking it all apart, adding the new arrivals, and putting it back together again.

This major change requires another 40 hours. So, that's why my Pacemaker counter is going to go from 14% complete in mid-May 2019 to whatever it will be when I add another 40 hours to the estimated completion time.

Achieving about 1% a day felt good. Adding 40 hours will slow things down a bit, but it should make a better, bigger, deeper novel.

​The Blind House might be even more fun to write than The Chair, which will hopefully translate into an enjoyable read for you guys.

So, I finally feel like I've achieved a balance with writing fiction and writing content. It's only been a week or so, but it's happening.

Using the pomodoro method (surprise surprise), I'm giving fiction 50% of my work time. I do 4 pomodoros of fiction, followed by a 25 minute break, then 4 pomodoros of content writing/editing, followed by a break.

Rinse.

Repeat.

I pick up each day from wherever I left off. Sometimes that means diving into a short story or this blog post, or sometimes I'll be telling people how to modify a 4x4, the best places to stay in Vegas, or what chiropractic really means.

I'm being disciplined about it, which is key in the experimental stage. I've got a content deadline to meet, so I'm having to write particularly fast when it's the "content turn," but that might be no bad thing.

After writing web content for about 2 years, I worried that it would somehow damage my creative writing. I'll have to leave it to you to decide whether that is true or not, but the signs are good right now.

As a content writer, you need to be able to write well, on cue, on topics you've never thought about before. Often, these are topics that you wouldn't spend much time thinking about otherwise.

As a fiction writer, I need to be able to write well, on cue, on topics I've never thought about before. Hmmm. Not so different after all.

Other benefits of writing and editing a load of web content every week.

• I'm more able to 'turn it on' when I need it, so much more disciplined about being inspired at 9.01am (or 5.01am in my case).
  
• I think my stamina has improved. If I can churn out several thousand words in a day on "uses for gravel," I can surely write several thousand words of short story or novel.
  
• I'm more motivated and eager to write fiction than ever before.
• I'm better at researching a topic without falling into a YouTube hole.
• I've got back in touch with my planning and outlining, so I spend less time staring at the screen and thrumming, and more time tap-tap-tapping. Having an outline is really helpful, and, as usual, I still go off on one, I just know how far into the forest I've gone, I have a frame of reference, and I still have a destination.

I've been calling writing 'work,' without my tongue in my cheek, for a few years. Now this work is getting scheduled rather than shoved around. Deadlines are getting stricter. And these blog posts are helping me stay on track, so thanks for reading.

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It would be nice to post about how I revolutionised my writing process and was able to achieve a perfect work/passion balance with no adverse side effects.

On the one hand, I'm tempted to portray the 'everything went well and NOW YOU CAN DO IT TOO' version of this story.

The truth, however, is that prioritising my fiction (currently non-paying) was scary and I didn't keep it up. Mounting pressure from deadlines for paying work and the compelling need to exchange money for goods and services got to me. I cracked.