Not that there’s a huge amount to update! In fact, really the only thing to talk about is the new book I put up for preorder last week (official releasey post tomorrow, with chapter 1 for you to read :)). Writing has been very sporadic this year as I work my way through some mindset stuff – working really concertedly for example on being less terrified of other people’s opinions of me 😛
I thought I was kinda good with writing, but as soon as I realised how much I was letting fear dictate my actions, it’s like I’ve had a massive regression? So yeah. The last few months have been pretty unproductive as I try to work through all that.
But!
I did finish Bones Of The Sea last term and get that out on time (waaaaayyyy back in June). It’s a quirky, moody little book that I’m actually very, very proud of. I discovery wrote it, which means I had no plan or outline or really even any idea of where I was going. I knew, though, that I’d be done/had done a Kickstarter for it, which meant a Fan Kit Mini, which meant cool trinkety items to go INTO the Fan Kit Mini… So I literally browsed for cool items that fit the mood of the book, and used that as a way to generate plot points when I got stuck 😀
It was actually really fun, and as I said, I’m actually really, really proud of the outcome. I really love the resulting book; it’s moody and atmospheric and optimistic but a little bit creepy, and there are magic bones that curse you to death but also maybe help you, and a skeleton fox guide, and orca skeletons swimming around in the ocean, and phosphorescence (of ocean creatures and of mushrooms) and potions and promises and mother-daughter love and, of course, a happy ending, and – did I mention? – I really, really like it <3 Yay! This is a happy thing. What a tragedy to write and finish something only to discover you hated it.
The only other thing I’ve worked on so far this year is a very, very, VERY random short novel that appeared because I took a writing class during the July school holidays – took as in ‘ran’. I was in charge of teaching about 10 very lovely 8- to 15-year-olds about writing for four days, and a day or so in I invented this random idea of the Ice Cream Princess Tiara because I needed a demo idea for some concepts I was trying to teach.
The students go quite passionate about my silly idea – which started out with the idea that someone desperately needed to win a skating race because: Ice Cream?? – and a bunch of them asked to be name-dropped, and I started writing it in the evenings after the course and during our lunch breaks and all of a sudden I had a new book? And it had been EASY and FUN to write, because in my head it was compartmentalised as ‘fun’ and ‘not serious’, and therefore I didn’t need to angst about it – also my audience was the kids from the class, who were always going to love the story because they were there for its inception AND half their names were in it.
…There are a bunch of mindset lessons to be gleaned from all that, I realise.
And then last week, I finished the big re-outline of Moon Shot, which I really, really, REALLY am supposed to have done by the end of November and now am back to having a zero word count (essentially), though I am super happy with the outline now and I have a really good sense of the shape and colour and texture of the story. So. Brain. If we could just stop with all this nonsense about fear of judgement and so forth and just WRITE, that would be super. Because I’d really like to be done with this book.
And, on a similar note, with ALL the books that have been malingering on my hard drive and in the back of my brain for basically a decade now. I really, REALLY want to conquer all this mindset garbage so that I can WRITE, because I know that when I’m not making excuses as for why I can’t show up and write, I can actually write pretty fast (my long-kept stats inform me that I average 36 words per minute, which is not a great typing speed but is an amazing writing speed, averaging out at about 2200 words per hour. A lot of pros consider 500 words per hour solid, so URGH, can I just GET OUT OF MY OWN *WAY* and *WRITE*, PLEASE, so I can get all these books DONE?!?!?!!!!? D’:).
So yeah. Anyway. That’s where I’m at with writing right now 🙂 Expect more regular updates now that I’m up and blogging again.
<3 A