Writing this week has been like pulling teeth, wisdom teeth in fact. It’s been slow, painful, and downright tiring. It took me a while on and off to write the final 8500 words for Her Fallen Angel. I had wanted to have it done by Tuesday but that rolled into Wednesday, and I finally finished it Wednesday lunchtime. I was severely relieved!
It’s not the story that was the problem. I was just so tired this week and didn’t have the energy to write. I blame the clock change to British Summer Time. I lost that hour and then it was like waking up at 5am for work even though it was 6… it was all dark and grim… and wet and cold… I kept sneaking time in to read snippets of Forbidden Blood and Heart of Darkness instead. In other words, I procrastinated. Rather badly.
But still, the first draft of Her Fallen Angel is now complete at 28,500 words and I’m pleased with it. I had to fiddle with the final chapter to get it satisfactory, but I got there in the end.
I need to plot out Her Warrior Angel now, which I’ll start writing in a couple of months because my schedule is rather hectic at the moment.
Why?
Because I’m desperately trying to clear my backlog of books for editing and proofing. At the moment, Forbidden Blood is resting. A friend of mine (male) is reading it as he likes to find all my mistakes for me, and generally give me feedback. I think he just likes seeing it before others and while it’s still evolving into a final draft. Perhaps it makes him feel involved and like an insider. Who knows. It’s helpful anyway so I’m not complaining.
I’ve also decided to edit down Love Immortal. A test run yesterday showed that I could chop around 18,000 words off it, bringing it down to a more reasonable 140,000 words. It’ll take me around 3 weeks but I think it will be worth it in the long run as it should improve the books chances of being published, and ultimately I think this story deserves it and I’ve put a lot of time and effort into it, so I want to see it out there on shelves.
I would also like to get the second draft of Ascension done before I go away on holiday at the end of May. That way, I can take it with me, along with Forbidden Blood, as paperbacks to read on the plane when I tire of movies. There’s no rest for the wicked. I edited Love Immortal in paperback when I was on holiday in Japan last year. Ah, the writer’s life. You squeeze it in wherever you can!
Of course, when I get back, I’ll have polishes to do and the second draft of Heart of Darkness and Her Fallen Angel… and it never ends.
I’m off to watch some telly, drink some tea, and eat some chocolate before shoehorning in some editing time on Love Immortal.
All this effort… one day an agent better request more of my book!
