This is a short one as I am working flat out on all fronts at the moment.

On All That Glitters I have paused composition to make sure Act 1 is OK with all the major pieces in the right places before I move on. I’m trying to avoid the significant structural changes in the second draft that have caused me quite a lot of lost time on previous projects by making sure I have a solid foundation. Given the structure of this book is, at its core, a crime story I also need to make sure the mystery elements are building in the right way. I think I’ll be back on composition by this time next week.

Speaking of old projects…

The Scarred God revisions are going well. I think. Presently, I’m working on tidying up the structure of the book with much recasting of back story and some reordering of scenes in the first and last acts. As an attempt to keep myself from wasting time on something that may not work at all, I’m taking the unusual step of showing the first 15k of the new draft to readers as soon as I’ve finished mucking about with them. This is a compare and contrast exercise to ensure the manuscript can be lifted into a reasonable state. We’ll see.

Whatever else, working this flat out, accelerator to the floor, is producing some useful insight into just where my limits are: turns out that, provided I don’t freak out, I can get much more done in a day than I would have thought a year ago. I’ve also learned that I find it much easier, and bizarrely enjoyable, to focus if I have to work at speed as I am much less likely to leave less agreeable tasks (like line editing) to one big long chunk at the end.

Oh. I don’t care what anyone says. This isn’t meant to be macho. Writing every day really does help.

Current mood: optimistic.

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