Writing a book part 36 - progress of a sort

I've made more progress in the last two weeks than I have in the last two months. Now that I'm back in the habit of writing for 30-40 minutes every weekday morning, my pace seems much improved.

I know that isn't a huge amount of time, but because it is at the same time every day (from about 6:15 to 7:00 am) it follows a routine which evidently helps my productivity.

Another reason I've made good progress is because I've been enjoying writing the most recent chapter - a flashback to when the main character (Penny) visits Jerez as a sixteen year old, and has an encounter with some local kids. It's a coming-of-age moment, which is a genre I really like, and it has been satisfying to create something which deals in those sorts of feelings and experiences.

Writing that chapter came easily - it seemed to flow naturally as I wrote, whereas other sections have felt more forced to write. This is probably because I'm less certain about the plot and/or characterisation in these sections, but I hope it doesn't make the writing too awkward. As I've said before, writing the book over such a long period, including significant overhauls to the original idea, might leave the finished novel rather inconsistent. I hope not, of course, but it sometimes seems that way.

The only way to find out, though, is to keep on writing and get it finished. Whether it's good or bad, a finished product can be refined and improved, whereas an unfinished product is doomed to failure.