Things have been pretty quiet on the blog in the last month but that’s not because I’ve not been working hard, but because I’ve been focusing on the rewrite.
Whereas previous months have a wide number of projects on the go, I’ve cleared my slate to just focus on Black As Knight. Looking back at my plans for my Year of Hard Work that was always the plan – to be able to scale up and down as needs must.
So for July, other work went to the background as I focused on the novel.
There’s been a lot going on in my head in July. I do think spending so long inside your own head means that writers do need to pay close attention to their own mental health and so I’ve been watching myself like a hawk.
 
Things still don’t seem real, so it’s been weird having those moments when I’d just daydream and think how things could be, and then realise that I’m now beyond that stage. As I’ve told people around me, I’ve had to upgrade my dreams and aspirations.
 
There’s been some background stress as I adjust to this and realise that those new dreams are there for the taking… it’s all down to me. As a result I’ve noticed that my tolerance of the day job has become less. Now I’m fully expecting to be there for years to come, but the fact that I now feel I have my foot on the first step of making writing a proper career, means that any little day to day annoyance feels magnified. I checked with writer friends and apparently this is common.
 
Thankfully, the stress manifested itself in a very drunken night rather than some diva moment at work. Still not one of my proudest moments (I’ve not been that drunk in many, many years) and there were a lot of humble apologies to friends but it seemed to get it out my system.
 
However, despite this, I’m happy to say that the actual writing has gone very smoothly. Very, very smoothly. The rewritten book seems so much stronger. What I like is that I’m not trying to cut corners to get it done. I’ve been pushing myself and the resultant book feels so much better.
 
I’m about half way through and had written about 75,000 words in the last month (some multiple drafts of the same chapter). I have a heavy bit of rewriting to do but then the final third should be comparatively untouched. Still using this as an excuse to punch some scenes up, even if what happens and is said doesn’t change at all. Then once that’s done it’s on to beta readers to see what faults they find, before sending it back to the agent.
 
In the background, I’ve also got thoughts on the next book. I have a rough idea of what it’s going to be but I’ve started to mentally flesh out some of the potential scenes.
 
I also managed to get my articles for GPSTracklog and Fantasy-Faction done but other than that I’ve not had the time to do any other writing.
 
YTD total: 390,000