Dead Frog Lane: A cwaaaark of seagulls

I woke up in Blackpool.

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MONDAY

I thought about upping my word target this week¹ - and maybe I will - but I have a busy week ahead and also I have a bunch of other things I need to make some progress on, so I’m going to try to keep going slow. And I’m very aware of the book bubbling away in my brain pretty much all the time…

I had been planning to make my MC early forties, but I’m wondering if I should just make her 50. Like me.² Usually my characters are late twenties-ish. I can’t remember how old the MC of The Bad Mothers’ Book Club is (I could look, but I’m not keen on re-reading my own stuff³) but I think maybe late thirties? But why not have a 50-year-old MC?

I know there aren’t many. Particularly not in romance or romcoms. And people have asked me why not. And it would be easier to write because I could use all my own references. My main problem is that I don’t feel like I’m believable as someone in their fifties. They should not have been to seventeen Harry Styles concerts. They should have more than *checks* £285 in the bank. Someone in their fifties should be a grown-up.

But also author friends have complained recently about books they’ve read with characters in their fifties who act much older, don’t know how to use a phone, go to bingo, etc. So maybe it would be an idea to have a more realistic fifty-year-old MC? I don’t know. What do you think?

Total wordcount: 1130

Added to the playlist: When He Sees Me⁴ by Sara Bareilles

TUESDAY

Woke up early as per bloody usual, but wrote some book in my head. (And actually had the foresight to make a couple of notes on my phone, thank god, because I did actually go back to sleep for a while and would absolutely have forgotten that scene if I hadn’t.)

The thing about writing in your (my) head is that you feel like the book’s getting written, but then you try to actually write it and

But we keep trying.

I mentioned last week that I was thinking of Sam (Samantha) for my MC’s name. I got an email the other day from someone with the surname Sunday and immediately thought Samantha Sunday! I love it. What do you think?