I feel like I’ve been very lax lately.  Just writing this blog post feels like a lot of work.  I worked hard until Easter and then found myself treading water until I went Storm Chasing in May.  Of course, this meant that May has effectively been my month off – I can count the number of words I’ve written over the last month in the low thousands.
Truth is, a break from the word count was healthy, and just because I wasn’t writing a lot of new words didn’t mean I wasn’t working.  There’s been a lot of the business side to writing going on in the background.  One of the things I hope my processes allow is for me to adapt quickly if something comes along.  This is going to be put to the test in the coming month as a previously unexpected piece of urgent work has come up (I’m calling it Project Ultron because I found out about it as I was leaving the cinema after seeing the latest Avengers movie) and it means I need to shift things around.  It’s a spanner in the works, but a really good spanner and I’m excited to see how well my processes can adapt to these sorts of things.  As an added bonus, it should mean a lot of work count!

Thieving King Edits
Everything is ready for editing to begin on this book.  I wanted to wait until after I got back before diving into it.  However, there’s the possibility that Project Ultron will dominate my time so I’m holding off, waiting to know what sort of time commitment I’m looking at.  There’s also added benefits of doing this other piece of work first which save me time on Thieving King in the long run.  I don’t see this delaying the book.
Four Realms #3
The outline is pretty much there.  It needed a few tweaks so I decided to step away from it whilst I was in the US with a view to looking at it afresh come 1st June.  If Thieving King Edits get pushed back, I’ll push the writing of this back as well but I’ll firm up the outline in the next couple of days.
Shorts
I find shorts such hard work but as a result I enjoy the challenge.  I stepped away from the latest first draft I’d written and have returned from chasing with a view that there are elements I don’t like and it needs a rewrite to tighten it a little.  This might be something I work on whilst I’m waiting for news on Project Ultron.
Plotting Exercise
I often joke to friends that my standard of whether an idea is worthy of writing a book is if I can come up with a 20 book series.  I blame Jim Butcher!  On one level it’s just a bit of fun, but on another it’s knowing whether the idea has a lot of depth or not.
This month, I put my money where my mouth was.  On a down-day from chasing I took a book I’ve been working on and sketched out 19 more books.  OK, so that sketching is limited to a rough idea of an antagonist and a 1 sentence plot, but still I proved to myself that an idea has got legs and I wasn’t lying when I said 19 more books.  Only thing that’s missing is putting a series-long story arc but I reckon juggling some of those books around will allow one to form.
Articles
Being away chasing means I’m a little behind on articles but I intend to rattle off a few in the next couple of days.  Great way to get me back into the swing of writing again because I feel like the writing equivalent of someone going for a run after a month off.  Gah!  Those writing muscles are stiff.
Blog
I did a couple of articles but most of the last month have been Instagram updates with titles written on my phone without my glasses whilst trying to watch a tornado out the window.  I apologise for all the typos!
 
The Month Ahead
After a bit of a cool down and a break, the Year of Hard Work goes back into high gear.  I probably need a few days to get back up to speed but I’m expecting to write a lot this month.  I’m feeling refreshed and refocused so after a few days of writing feeling like treacle I’m seriously expecting another good sprint.
There’s a lot of stuff bubbling away and a mountain of work to get done but I’m feeling focused enough that I see it all getting done.  It’s going to be a busy summer!