Bad For Good underway

I started writing the follow up to When She Was Bad in July. The working title in the first few weeks was When She Was Good, but I soon changed it to Bad For Good, the title of an overblown Jim Steinman/Meatloaf song from the early eighties that’s a nice play on words and repeats the theme of Claire turning ‘bad’ from the first book.
The early attempts at re-entering the world of Claire and Barclay proved frustrating - I just couldn’t get Claire’s voice right in my head. The opening chapter in particular was poor - it felt forced and wasn’t as compelling or breathless as I wanted it. The more I worked on it the worse it got. It was a pretty infuriating time and it took weeks to write the opening couple of chapters as whole passages stumbled along with bad writing, cliches and pointless, rambling dialogue.
Then I stopped completely. An uncomfortable pain had developed in my right arm that turned out to be tennis elbow. Ouch. Very ouch. And my physio told me to lay off the typing for a month, which was hugely frustrating as I was finally finding some rhythm with the story. Barely fifty pages written, and most of those destined for the bin.
The enforced break though proved a blessing - not only did it allow me to work on characters and plot rather than submerge myself in the words (which were proving so difficult) but I also took a more philosophical approach to the first draft: it doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact it doesn’t even need to be good. It just needs to tell the story, however clumsily, and everything can be fixed in the subsequent draft.
By the time I was back on the laptop in September I was in a far better state of mind and, without the pressure of ‘getting it right first time’ the words actually started to come easier. My elbow still needs support but it’s fine for typing and the story’s now flowing nicely. I’m even smiling as I write most days, which is the best feeling in the world.
It’s early October and I’m around half way through the first draft - 26k words, 12 chapters finished, which will equate to around 120 pages in the paperback edition (the first draft I deliberately run shorter than subsequent ones).
I’m now pleased with what’s down to date. The early chapters I will rewrite but the work I’ve done over the last few weeks has felt good. All being well it now looks like I’ll get the first draft tidied away before December which is very pleasing.