I haven’t posted anything for some time… sorry, but LIFE seems to have somehow gotten in the way. Having just finished a ten day bout of flu, I have just been prescribed a course of antibiotics because I have sinusitis. GREAT! Before that, it was desperately needed work on the house, a family funeral, as well as all the normal things: looking after one sick child; taking her to school, infrequently; getting the other child to school; swimming lessons; choir, as well as trying to keep the house tidy and keep up with my social media duties.

On top of all that, the publisher of my books ceased to trade, owing money to not only me, but to thousands of other authors. The time spent trying to sort out the books, get them republished etc, has been a nightmare, taking up a massive amount of time for me and my wife, who has been nothing short of fantastic in dealing with everything. All in all, hectic doesn’t begin to describe things.
There has been one positive note. Currently I’m just reading through the first draft of my third book, ‘Bentwhistle The Dragon in A Twisted Prophecy’. Although I’m still some way off publishing it (the editing always seems to take ages), just to have the first draft feels like such an achievement, given everything that’s gone on in our lives over the last year. We’ve spent so much time in hospital and looking after my sick daughter, it’s taken all my spare time to get as far as I have, and although it means more work still, I can’t wait until it’s ready to be released.
In some ways, this third book is already very different from the first two. Of course, I still have dreams about the story, (how it progresses, little pieces to add in, tiny details that seem important, etc.) but the way in which I’ve written it is very different. My first book, ‘Bentwhistle The Dragon in A Threat From The Past’ was written totally in the order that it appears. For whatever reason, I could only write it chapter by chapter, in the exact same order that it is published. At times I would get writer’s block, and be stuck until I could move past it. But before I’d even started to write that first book, I always knew the ending, in the most exact detail. At no point, however, did I think of writing that ending, even when I’d got stuck and couldn’t push through the to the next part of the book. I don’t know what other writers do but, for me, this was how the book had to be written.

For the second book, ‘Bentwhistle The Dragon in A Chilling Revelation’, things were a little different. Again, I knew the storyline in quite a lot of detail, but when I got stuck, which I did on occasion, I found it very easy to just skip ahead and write another chapter, saving it until I reached the point that it was required. This seemed to work well for me and I would say I wasted very little time, if any at all, fitting in all the separate chapters and then allowing myself to focus on whatever it was that was phasing me.
Finishing the second book, and moving onto the third, ‘Bentwhistle The Dragon in A Twisted Prophecy’, I felt a new approach was needed, purely because there was so much going on in the series, all of which I needed to fit in. So before I’d even written a word, I sat down and spent some time planning out exactly what would happen. I’ve never done that before, because I’ve always known the story in my head, well… the really important parts, with the smaller details coming out of my writing and filling in the gaps as I moved along. But having planned out each and every chapter, I started to write it in a different way. I didn’t start at the start, if that makes sense. I picked the chapters that I’d already seen in my mind, and started writing them, storing them all up to be put together later. And this was the way it progressed, lots and lots of individual chapters, all having to be put together at the end. Is it a more successful process than the other ways? I have no idea. It seemed as taxing as the others, but maybe a little quicker. I suppose I’ll have some idea after I’ve read through the first draft. I’d love to know how other writers put their books together. Perhaps there’s a more efficient way, or perhaps each to their own. I do wonder if they have a writing break after they’ve finished a book. Although I know what happens in the follow up, it seems I could do with rest from writing for a while. I’ve always aimed for a thousand words a day, most of the time achieving more, and on some days, considerably more, but those days are rare and far between. I also know that I should still be trying to write a thousand words a day on the fourth book, but with the editing, LIFE, and everything else getting in the way, I’m finding the writing really tough. Perhaps a break for a few weeks will revitalise me, in the end, doing me loads of good. Who knows? Any advice welcome.