Exactly two weeks ago I got an email from my American publisher asking for books 2 to 4 of my steampunk series. Book 2 was ready, book 3 needed revision and I’d only written 62k of book 4, and I hadn’t written a word of it since January.
Books 1 and 2 were both in the region of 96k, book 3 stretched to 106k. So there was lots to do.
I love writing, I find writing good for my mental health, so I’ve been writing book 4 with renewed vigour. Today, I’ve finished it, which is to say that I’ve finished the first draft, any writer will tell you that that still means that there’s loads of work to do. The first 2 days were taken up with checking book 3 before sending it, that means that in 12 days I have written 45k words to finish book 4.
Next step is printing out to start the editing process. The book is 500 pages. Which I got – eventually. My printer did not want to play ball.
I colour code my writing as a reminder of whose POV I’m working from. After 176 pages, the colour cartridge ran out. I don’t have a spare and nipping to Tesco for non-essentials is a bit off right now. So, I turned the whole script to black text and printed the rest. Until the black cartridge ran out. Thankfully I did have a spare black. Then the paper started getting jammed.
Urgh!
I’m glad it’s happening now, because if that had happened two weeks ago, I would have cried or possibly thrown the printer (sometimes my depression leads to rages as well as raging self-loathing).
Still, I have my latest novel, tomorrow I’ll start polishing it. Wish me luck.
The Write Route 