5 Facts About My Current Working Projects

5 FACTS ABOUT MY CURRENT WORKING PROJECTS

While when I planned this piece I had about 5 projects on the go, it has turned out to be wholly different than I could have imagined. This is my fourth (I think) month back since almost dying last October. That made it so that I didn't work on anything for eight months, and while I like to think I am back to author life completely, my body, and brain, always like to remind me that there are vast differences to the way I worked then, to the way I work now, and that's okay, no matter what my brain tries to convince me, it's okay work at a different pace, and that is not either failure, or an inherently bad thing that must be stopped by any measures possible. 

Like I said, my work looks different now. I have two projects I'm working on. Both are revisions, both are on the last stop before the editing train begins, with one hopefully heading that way in November, and the other in April 2027. For all the things I hate about that huge chunk of time I wasn't able to work, the distance it gave me for both projects is not one of them. I had story fixes that even at the time I knew would have to be seriously worked on in dev edits, and other bits and pieces that at the time, I did not know if it were possible for me to manage to smooth things out before dev edits. Both of these issues are mostly now non-issues, I fixed the plot bits, I found solutions, and ways to naturally weave things through. That was a very big plus, because an author brain at rest, is not totally shut down.

But anyway, onto the facts and the projects. I'm gonna start us off with Visible, which is the third in the Invisible quartet, a YA dystopian dealing with chronic illness, disabled resilience, and the haunting reality that disability is somehow always inherently bad. Two POVs, all living in a futuristic England where the country is split into 9 self-governing segments. One day bombs fall on Zya's segment (South-West), and Jonah's segment (North-West). The bombs contained a virus that infected and disabled all survivors, leaving the segments on their knees, and striving to survive. Obviously with this being the third book, there are some things I can't share due to spoilers, but I shall do my best!

FACT #1: ZYA WILL FIGHT TO GET ANSWERS
Zya, has been disabled since a very young age, and with them all being outside of the segments, the only place any of them have ever known, she will take that leadership given to her and do whatever she can to protect everyone. Even those who might be seeming to hold back on some of the very real truths about the way the world is, and also what lies ahead for them. Zya will fight for answers, and to save as many as she can.

FACT #2: JONAH WILL NO LONGER BE PASSIVE
While Jonah became disabled because of the virus, and while he has been the more severely affected, he is not going to lie down and expect someone else to save him, or anyone else he cares about. He will adjust, he will do better, and he is no longer going to be the weakest link, even with the body blows coming his way time after time, he will fight so that everyone he cares about might survive.

FACT #3: THEIR JOURNEY IS FAR FROM OVER
The group of them, those who came with Zya, and those with Jonah, are in for the fight of their lives. One side want to use them, the other sees them as beyond saving, and the whole group is having to come to terms with the fact that no one is coming to save them, and they are going to have to fight to live, and hope that they all come through the other side of it all.

The second project is Cramping Chronicles: The Fifth Agony, which is the fifth and final book in the Cramping Chronicles series, which is a YA urban fantasy dealing with empaths, triggers, chronic illness, and a threat to the world as we know it. Again, I can't give spoilers because that would not be good, but it's gonna be good!

FACT #4: JESSIE IS THE ONE THAT NEEDS SAVING
Jessie, the main character has gone through a whole lot, learning about her empath ability, working out how to control it, and dealing with all of her triggers, and this time, she's the one that needs to be saved, and no one knows if it's even possible. The focus has to be on making sure that threat is stopped, but the horrible things is, it might be at the expense of saving Jessie, and no one wants that.

FACT #5: ROE WILL DO EVERYTHING SHE CAN, EVEN AT THE RISK OF HER SAFETY
Roe might not have been the one closest to Jessie, with Meera being Jessie's girlfriend, and Gray being her childhood bestie, but Roe is the one who seems to have some way to reach across the breach between her and Jessie, and she will do that, and anything else that might help, even if it puts her life at risk.

So there you go, my five facts of my two current projects. I don't know if I will ever be back to the level of working I was before, but right now I'm okay with just being here, and able, to continue being an author. 

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Life Of Joey & Bi-Monthly Goals - September 2026 [CC]

Looking back over what I achieved last month, as well as reviewing goals, and setting some new ones! #Authortube

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MY STANDALONES: http://www.joeypaulonline.com/p/standalones.html
THE DYING THOUGHTS SERIES: http://www.joeypaulonline.com/p/dying-thoughts-series.html
THE LIGHTS OUT TRILOGY: http://www.joeypaulonline.com/p/lights-out-trilogy.html
THE CRAMPING CHRONICLES SERIES: http://www.joeypaulonline.com/p/cramping-chronicles-series.html
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How Planning Works For Me

HOW PLANNING WORKS FOR ME

Most people who've followed me for a time know that I am exceptionally organised and I'm big on planning. It made me chuckle the other day when a friend thought that because of that love of planning, I must be a big planner when it comes to drafting, and I was like, oh, no, I plan absolutely everything but not that, never there. My plan there is more vibes and brain squirrels!

But that aside, I am, and have been a planner of my author life for a while. A big win for me was finding planners that actually worked for me. I didn't want much, but I did want them undated, and also ones with a monthly spread and also a weekly one. For the past five or so years, that was how I planned. Sadly, after the sepsis and the loss of the majority of use of my right hand and arm (my dominant side) I can't use my paper planner. Eerily, it has the plan for what would have been November pencilled in. But I did find an app that works for me, so I can still, somewhat, do the thing.

Planning has been a massive thing for me, mostly since I got a bit more serious with the author life after I graduated with my degree. To begin with it was the sticky notes app on computer, from there it went to the paper planner, and now here we are. I will also add that as a teen, I did similar kinds of things when revising for my exams, so I think it's safe to say that's just how my brain works best!

I still, even coming back to work after eight months of recovery, find that planning is better for me. It allows me to know what I'm gonna be doing on any day of the week, and it also allows me to just keep that anxiety calm. I always feel like if I don't get started doing things by a certain time that I am not going to have time for the thing I need to do. Sometimes it would get to the point where I just didn't do the thing, but now I've been tracking my time for a while, I also have some clue about how long things will take so that happens less now.

It's more than just wanting to be organised, it's also a way for me to keep track of what happened when. I have several chronic illnesses that get worse if I push through on days when I should rest. Or when I pile too much work on a specific day. For the majority of the time before sepsis I would do one thing a day, occasionally two. After, I'm back to one only because my body is not a happy camper if I sit up too long. I don't know when or if I will go back to the occasional two, but it'll be something to keep a close eye on through planner and an app I use to track pain levels and such.

The bottom line is that planning does, very much so, work for me. It also helps me on so many levels. I know that for some people it's not an option, and that's okay not everyone's brains work the same and we gotta do what works for us. Planning has been a saviour for me, and I'm glad that I still have that even if only in an app rather than in different colour pens!  

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Balancing Multiple Projects: Tips [CC]

Giving you some tips that help me balance multiple projects, and what works for me! #Authortube

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Leaning Into Your Strengths - The Creative Process

LEANING INTO YOUR STRENGTHS

One of the things that have always helped me stay grounded when it comes to emergencies in the publishing stages or the like, is that I know what works for me. I know how my brain works in a crisis: I panic, I freak, and then I try and work out a solution along with bullet point list that will show me just what has to be done, and when it has to be done by. This can be something that pulls me out of the fire and allows me to, somewhat calmly, work towards fixing the issue and keeping the remainder of my ducks in a row.

At the end of the day, we can't always see these issues coming. They can blind-side us. They can pop up and freak us out, and make us think we're cursed. I feel like during the panic and freak stage of fixing the crisis, I will always try and cut through the panic rushing around my head, and be like, hey we got this, we've been here before, and it will be okay. I can't claim that it always works or gets through, but it has at times, which has to be a win. 

Whether you're in the drafting stage and found out that whole first half of your book has this massive glaring plot hole that you only just spotted, or when you're in revisions and realise you have three months from the deadline to get the book to the editor, and need to rewrite the whole book from scratch because it's very very wrong. There are more instances, but I feel like you get what I'm going for. There will be times when these things happen, and you're gonna need to have that freak and panic moment, before you settle in at your desk, get serious, and do what needs to be done.

The issue is that a lot of writers don't realise how important that initial stage is. I feel like it might be because that kind of panic and such is usually associated with women? Or that we're told we're adults and should always act like it? I dunno, but I see nothing wrong with venting all of that out and then taking your time, limited or not, to get the work done.

One of my strengths has been knowing that while I will, usually, find the answer I need on my own, I also know that asking for help isn't failing. It's letting me reach out, talk things through and just be allowed to feel what I feel. If you're out there trying to fix this or that, and you do have people you can reach out to, there is nothing wrong with that, like at all, and that applies to all genders.

Writing doesn't need to be something that's isolating. It can be, and I am very aware of that, but it doesn't have to be. We can have our friends, our community, and we are very much allowed to ask for help. Like you might be the person who doesn't ever need to freak and vent, but that doesn't mean you might not, at some point, need that community to help you through this or that. We all need people in our corners, and that's okay, the strength of that should be something you can, and do lean into at any point.

Saying that I do know that it can be hard, and daunting, to both find that community for you, and also be vulnerable with them. It's not easy. I feel like too often the assumption is made that it's awarded to you the moment you pick up a pen or publish a book. It's not, and that means being a grown up, and fighting that vulnerability to put yourself out there.

You got this, and I wish you all the luck! 

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Balancing Multiple Projects: How To? [CC]

Letting you know how to start balancing multiple projects, and how it works for me! #Authortube

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Doing Things Your Way - The Creative Process

DOING THINGS YOUR WAY

I have been writing seriously since I was 19. I didn't grow up wanting to be a writer or author. My dreams were set on medicine and being a doctor. That, obviously, did not work out, and while I've always enjoyed writing and telling stories, I felt the pull back to it when faced with that fact that I would never be able to work a conventional job again. I don't say this to get pity or sympathy. I've always been pretty open about my chronic illnesses and disabilities, but I give you this opening because I find, way too often, that people assume disabled/chronically ill equalling that we have nothing to offer anyone, and that is so far from the truth it's almost funny.

One big thing about disabled people is that we adapt, usually quicker than a non-disabled person. I have been writing for 25 years, and publishing for 21 years. I may not have done either of those in the more conventional routes, but it's okay to do things your way. It's okay to take your time, it's okay to query, it's okay not to. There is no one set way to be an author, and it is completely fine, and valid, to do it differently than someone else.

Before I got myself adapted to the new keyboards and such after the sepsis, I thought about other ways of both writing and publishing. I've tried doing dictation before, and I know for a lot of people it's amazing, but for me, it did not work. I found it hard to speak the story aloud, and even more so found that having to go through and edit and add punctuation just drove me up the wall. I did, have a few people commenting about using AI. My answer there and it's the same now is no, never, not happening, and ew! I know plenty of disabled people, writers or otherwise, who feel the same way.

I knew, and know, that at my core I am and always will be a writer and author. I was terrified what would happen to my mental health if I couldn't do this any more, but I found a way. It might not be the way things were before, it might get back to that (though I seriously doubt it!), but if it doesn't, that's okay too. You have to find your way of doing things, and no one, absolutely no one, should tell you that you have to do this a certain way.

At the end of the day it feels like there are millions of ways to plot, to draft, to revise, to edit, to publish. Some will work for some writers, others will not, and that is okay. We all create differently. Our brains work differently. Doing things your particular way, that's not you doing it wrong, it's you finding what works for you, and your process. The only time I'd suggest a change would be if it was making it harder, or making you ill, or even just not working any more. 

We've all gotta find ways that work for us specifically. If it takes you a whole lot of trial and error, that's fine. If it ends up being a way that is held together with glue because you've taken this snippet from one way and this one from another, still fine. You gotta do this your way. Good luck, because the world needs your stories.  

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My Current WIP: August 2026 [CC]

Giving you the details of what I'm working on right now! #Authortube

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How I Edit Revisited - The After Process

HOW I EDIT REVISITED

When I first put this piece on my list, it was something I'd come to when I was in the midst of edits. I could have put it off until such time, but I feel like even with me maybe having to adapt and change the way I do edits alongside other projects, I doubt that my editing approach itself will massively change. I might end up needing longer to complete things, but I have spent a lot of time honing down what I want to do when approaching edits, and I'd like to, if possible, continue to do that!

For those who know, skip this paragraph. My issue right now is that follow sepsis in Oct 2025, where I literally almost died, I lost feeling and the majority of use of my right hand and arm (which had, up until then, been my dominant side). I ended up taking eight months off to recover, and also had to buy whole new keyboards and such for work because my old ones would not work with the way my hand is now. That's why editing and such might still change after this, because I obviously did not have any editing to do and won't until December at the earliest. Now back to the rest!

Editing has always been something that stresses me out! My anxiety goes through the roof, my stomach is all flopping over every time I get an email, more so if I know it's from my editor. I do wanna make it clear NONE of the editors I've used ever have caused this reaction, anxiety gonna anxiety basically. In the last three or four years (I forget to be honest) my way of editing has changed because the editor I use has changed, and his approach to editing, to be specific, developmental editing, is quite different to what I've had before. Namely he does both edit letters, and when necessary, chapter notes within them, for each quarter of the book.

The first time I worked with him, I had no clue whatsoever how I was going to make the changes and also not freak out that I was doing it wrong. He'd always been clear that if I had questions or needed clarification, or for him to check over a corrected portion and offer advice, then I was very much free, and encouraged to reach out to him. I did use this a few times, but I think it was on the second book we worked on.

My approach, I decided, was to basically take it like revisions, and sensitivity reader corrections. Go through it several times, and make sure that I've got a line on what I need to be doing. I know, and make sure I keep telling myself this, that the next stage, line edits, my editor there will happily point out plot issues if she comes across them, so there is a second line of defence if I do a seriously terrible job!

This is how I break it all down:

NOVEMBER: Send off manuscript, and as each edit letter comes through, read it carefully, even more than once, to get those ideas brewing, and also allow you to think about what might or might not work. DO NOT make changes. For me starting to make those changes when I get that first edit letter will make it harder for me in the second quarter if the issues needing solving have been made massively worse by the changes I made. I just want to have the whole picture so I can accurately doing things.

DECEMBER: Start making changes. Do it in 2 chapter chunks, it taking however long it takes, and making sure I reference the appropriate letter while doing so. I also make sure to read over both chapters again after I've made those changes just to make sure I'm happy with it. This is what I call my first pass.

JANUARY: Usually done with first pass, so now it's time to do the second and third. I will go through in five chapter chunks, again referencing the relevant edit letter, make changes where needed and just make doubly sure this is what I want. I do this twice, and then at the end, I call myself done for dev edits!

I know that everyone has their own way of doing editing, but this is what works for me, and I've found that it allows me time to sit, to turn over ideas, and to get things done my way. However you approach editing, I hope it goes well for you! 

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Life Of Joey - August 2026 [CC]

Letting you know what I got up to during my second month back to work! #Authortube

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