5 Facts About My Current WIP: I Wish I Could Stop You

 

5 FACTS ABOUT MY CURRENT WIP: I WISH I COULD STOP YOU

Last week I talked about one of my current WIP and I did the five facts about it. (Piece found here) If you didn't know, I write two books at once and have found that it works really well for me, so of course giving you five facts about one means doing the same for the other.

I Wish I Could Stop You is the third, and final, book in the Penney Note series. It's a mixture of urban fantasy and paranormal/mystery, and a young adult as well. The premise for the series as a whole is basically that psychics are naturally born to some people, and there's a whole world and culture around that. Penney is seventeen, adopted by her two mums, and one of the lucky to be born psychic. I can't give too much away about this book without spoiling the first and second one. But I shall do my best to give you five facts!

#1 PENNEY IS CALLED TO A LEADERSHIP ROLE
With everything going on with the academy, with the threat they pose to Penney and her friends, it makes sense that she would be the one the others look up to. There's more than just the academy they have to be ready to protect themselves from, and Penney is well aware of the cost they'd pay if they don't pull things off. She's not prepared for them to fail.

#2 PENNEY IS IN A POLY RELATIONSHIP
Penney has been dating for the whole of the trilogy, but the relationship that's developed between the three of them has been a joy to write. Penney is very happy with her partners and it allows her to have some help for aforementioned leadership role.

#3 HER DISABILITY MAKES HER POSITION UNIQUE
One of the things to come out from the trilogy has been that Penney is in a unique position because she's not just psychic, but she's also disabled with EDS (Ehlers Danlos Syndrome). The disability itself has a knock on effect to what Penney is able to manage and for her, it's a big deal to both balance staying healthy and out of a flare, and also be the psychic that people need her to be. Her parents have been so supportive and also ready to look out for Penney whenever she needs that time off to rest.

#4 THE CLOCK IS TICKING
The problem with taking time off is that the clock is ticking to when the psychics in Penney's group have to pull off their plan or else fail and end up with the weight of the world on their shoulders. I can't go into too many details here because spoilers, but Penney and the others, are very much aware of what's been asked of them, and throughout the book, they will be put into a position that should never have been left on the shoulders of young teens.

#5 ROMANCE IS IN THE AIR
It's not just Penney who has a POV in this final book, there's a second character and for them, love is most definitely in the air. However, they've been struggling with the choices forced upon them and because of that are a little blind to everything else going on. While Penney and the others have picked up on it, the person in question is missing all the signs, but will they notice by the time it all ends? We shall see!

So there we go, those are five facts about my other WIP, and I have to say that I am loving where this series and book is going. I'm enjoying writing all the characters, and getting to know them all better. It was a joy to start NaNoWriMo with this project and I look forward to writing the end!

Got any questions? Lemme down in the comments below!

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5 Facts About My Current WIP: Project: Isolation

 

5 FACTS ABOUT MY CURRENT WIP: PROJECT: ISOLATION

I've only recently started writing this WIP, and I've already done one of these for the first book (piece found here) but since I am technically writing a brand new WIP it makes sense to give you five more facts to keep you going!

The Abby Delany series is a young adult urban fantasy that deals with both chronic illness and a pandemic. I was inspired to write this as mixture of the current pandemic and the journey to getting a diagnosis for the majority of people with chronic illness. It's never an straight line and can be a lot of back and forth, especially when you throw in other factors. Abby is a witch, who's learning that chronic illness effects her magic well, and leaves her unable to do even the simplest magic.

So what are five facts about the second book in the series? Let's get right to it!

#1 ABBY IS DEALING WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
With everything she's gone through the past month since the lockdown started, Abby is not in a good place physically or mentally. She's having to adapt to not having her friends and partner in easy reach. She's hitting a new low when she finds that her parents aren't as willing to help her as they had been before everything went wrong. She's having to adapt to not just a new location, but to the loss of everything she knew before, and that has a huge impact on her mental health.

#2 HELP MAY COME FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES
While before Abby was living at home, the place she'd grew up in and where everything was familiar. The healer she was seeing seemed to be on the right track, and it was just a case of waiting out the symptoms and the pandemic to allow her to finally start moving forwards in her journey to a diagnosis. Now she's somewhere she didn't even know existed, in a small village and unable to talk to her friends, her partner, her coven, and on top of that, her healer. So it's a big learning curve for her when help does present itself, just not from the source she thought it would come.

#3 ABBY IS STILL DETERMINED TO HELP
Part of what got her into this mess was the fact that she couldn't stop helping people who had other people to turn to. Now that the truth has come out in a big way, Abby is finding herself unable to turn away from people reaching out to her. She knows the dangers involved, but at heart, Abby wants to do the right thing, even if other people, her parents for example, don't agree.

#4 PEOPLE ARE STILL KEEPING SECRETS
A big problem during the first book was that some people wanted to continue to keep secrets, but they didn't seem to realise that doing so was going to leave them unprotected, or worse, leave someone else they care about without any help at hand. Abby has tried to trust that everyone around her is being open, is helping as much as they can, and telling her everything she needs to know, but the honest truth is, some people don't want to help no matter the risk.

#5 ABBY IS HIDING FOR HER LIFE
With the end of the first book behind her, Abby is starting afresh, but that danger that lingered before, hasn't completely gone away and now Abby has to decide whether she should stay in the shadows or risk getting caught to do the right thing. Overall, it comes down to a choice about who to trust and Abby may find herself trusting the wrong ones.

So there we go, that's five facts about one of my current WIP, and if you want to know more, stick around and I'll be doing more of these as the process of writing carries on. I am only just in the end of the first act and into the second, and loving every second of it. This was one of the projects that I started for NaNoWriMo and I imagine I'll be writing it long into the new year.

Have any questions about my WIP? Lemme know in the comments!

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Juggling Two Projects - The Creative Process

JUGGLING TWO PROJECTS

It's been a long time since I talked about writing two projects at once (piece found here), but I thought that I would broach the subject again because it's something I do a little differently now that I've been doing it for as long as I have. At the end of the day, I'm not a rare unicorn, a lot of writers will juggle projects, and they'll do it better than me, but I also now have, usually, two other projects on the periphery that I haven't talked about before.

So, the long and short of it is, that I used to be a one project writer. I couldn't think of how to write two and my focus was all over the place. It wasn't until I was writing Waiting On You, that I got a severe case of writer's block and found myself stuck. At that point in time, I had the idea for the fourth Dying Thoughts book, but I didn't want to dump the project I was working on to start it. Making a deal with myself, I would write up to the same amount of chapters with the new idea, and then reassess where this stood. At the end of that, I was hooked on writing both stories, and I've not really looked back since.

You all know all of that, so what are the two other projects that I have going on? Well, usually while writing the two first drafts, I'm also revising a project that's due to go into edits at some point soon. So on the days when I'm not writing, I'll be working on revisions and getting those chapters written and all the rest. Since I also have stuck to the schedule to release two books every year, I also usually have a book at some point in the editing trenches. So right now for example, I have my two first drafts, revisions for Lights Off, and line edits for Cramping Chronicles: The First Twinge. And while the edits for Twinge will end in September, I'll have a couple of months before the process starts again for Lights Off.

People are probably wondering why I'm telling you this, and what it has to do with juggling the two writing projects, and the answer is simple, the reason I'm able to juggle all of that, is because of how I plan my time. It's about being organised, being strict with myself, and knowing ahead of time what will be doing what when. So do I have any tips? Yes! Glad you asked!

#1 KNOW YOUR LIMIT
I say it like that because the reason I'm able to juggle all of this is because I am highly aware of my limits. I know what I can achieve and how long it'll take me. I'm acutely aware of just how much is too much for me to manage, and I make sure that when taking on a project, be it revisions or edits or a brand new book, that I know how I'm going to manage it with both my health, and my writing, and other commitments as well.

Following NaNo 2019, I stopped doing 24 chapters a month as standard. It was, to begin with, a way for me to slow down after such a heavy month. But now over six months later and I've only done one month that was also 24 chapters and that was planned in advance to give myself the best possible outcome. I stick to the 20 chapters because I know, unless something catastrophic happens, I can easily manage that and still take time to recharge and time off and all the rest. So this is a big big tip, you have to know your limits.

#2 PLAN YOUR TIME
This is also a big one for me, because if I didn't have my planner and didn't make sure I knew when I was supposed to be doing what, I think I'd get really overwhelmed pretty quickly. Part of having a lot of big goals and tasks, is breaking them down into smaller chunks and part of that is knowing what you need to do by when to be able to fit it all in. I know that planning comes, somewhat, naturally to me, and it doesn't for everyone, but this was a huge thing in helping me get to the point where I am now.

If you can't plan meticulously, then just make sure that every working day (because you should have breaks and days off) you plan to get just one thing done from one project. Whether that's a chapter, or a word goal, page goal, whatever, just have that one thing in mind, and then go from there. It's how I started out, setting myself one thing I knew I could do and then moving up to other things when I got better at knowing my limits, and planning my time.

#3 BE STRICT WITH YOURSELF
This one involves you being honest with yourself about what you can manage, and also being strict with how you spend your time. If you know that you'll spend all day on social media and waste the time and get nothing done, then get an app that stops you from doing that, or learn to have self-control during your writing/working time.  No one else is going to be there to tell you what to do, you have to be the one to do that, and if you can't be strict and stick to your schedule then it's only really setting yourself up to fail.

I will add a caveat here. Being strict with yourself does not mean working at the expense of your health, it means making sure that when you are able to work, you do so, and do what's on the schedule for the day. It doesn't mean beating yourself up, or pushing yourself too breaking point because you've had something else going on, flares, illness, stressful time, etc, whatever that is, you need to be able to take the time you need to rest if nothing else.

So those are my three big tips when it comes to juggling two, or more, projects. I will say that it's only really been the last year or so that I've been able to juggle all of this. Last year I tried to release three books, and I managed it, but everything that could go wrong, went wrong and so this year I'm trying to be kinder to myself, trying to make sure that I'm aware of what I need, whether that's breaking off early to nap, or working first thing in the morning to ease the stress, whatever it is, I listen to my body, and you should too.

So any questions or tips? Lemme know down in the comments!

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How Long Does It Take Me To Finish A Book? - The Creative Process

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE ME TO WRITE A BOOK?

This is something that a lot of people have asked me, you'll all know that I write two books at the same time, and you know that I'm a pretty fast drafter, depending on who you ask of course! But I wanted to go not just into the drafting of the book, because that's not really 'finished', it's just the first draft and from there you have revisions and edits and all of that, and that whole time you're writing in it, whether huge chunks or bits and pieces, you're still writing the book.

So rather than sit here and say, oh it takes me x amount of time to write a book, I thought I would tell you how the whole process takes me since it's about the same as a lot of the authors I know, whether they do the indie route or the traditional route.

DRAFTING
This takes me anywhere from four months to six, it really depends on the months, how I'm feeling, what I'm up to and all of that. I will say that if I didn't write two books at once it'd probably only take me two to three months to finish, but that's also because a lot of my projects are longer than maybe they will actually end up being. I am very much an overwriter!

RESTING PERIOD
When I finish a draft, I'm pretty much done with it for a while. I usually print it off, put it away and then move onto the next project, and will come back to the draft about a year or so before it's due to be published for revisions. So going by my current speed, this process is about a year to eighteen months, sometimes longer!

REVISIONS
This is the process that takes the longest, I will be taking that first draft and making it into a second and so on, and that can take months if not a whole year or more. Currently I am on my fifth draft of one project that's due to come out next year and I'm only just at the point, having been revising for a good six months or so, where I feel like this book is ready for betas, and from there it'll be a good few months and more drafts before I'm happy to send it off to my editor.

So for this one it's hard, because it really does depend on the shape the first draft is in. Now I edit as I go, but that doesn't mean that it irons out everything as neatly as I'd like. If I take the current project in revisions, then I'd say about a year to get it into shape ready for the editor!

EDITING STEP ONE
I always go through developmental edits and this usually takes about three months. We'll be going through chapter by chapter and sometimes I end up having to rewrite the whole thing, and other times it's just a few tweaks here and there. On top of that, while editing, I'm going through the coming chapters and making changes that need to be made because of corrections in the previous chapters, and this can take a whole lot of time. But generally this is about three solid months of work before moving onto the next stage.

EDITING STEP TWO
This is the line edits, and these usually take a month. By this point the book is pretty clean, and I'm just changing a few clunky sentences and such like that. Sometimes there can be issues that need to be rewritten, but it's pretty rare, so that adds on another month and onto the next stage.

EDITING STEP THREE
And the proof read only takes a month, sometimes less depending on how busy my proof reader is, like the last book, she'd just had a baby, so obviously that took priority. She'll point out small errors and the majority of the writing is done, it's putting commas here and there, and maybe a few bits and pieces that need correcting, but it's not major overhauls.

So let's add that all together. Six months to draft, eighteen to sit, a year to revise, five months to completely edit it to completion, where does that leave me? 3 years and five months, give or take a few months here and there. I still think that's pretty good, but it's why there are books I've talked about in the past that have only just started the revisions and such, but it all comes together to give my readers the best book it can possibly be, and you can't rush that!

How long do you think it takes you? Lemme know in the comments!

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5 Facts About I Wish I Could Find You

5 FACTS ABOUT MY CURRENT WIP: I WISH I COULD FIND YOU

Last week I gave you five facts about my other work in progress which you can find here. This week I wanted to talk more about the second Penney Note story, the five facts about the first one can be found here! As you may know, this is a paranormal/mystery/romance story that I planned with series potential, but it was really only as I kept writing that I realised it was more than likely a trilogy, so I'm really happy to have jumped right back in with Penney and her friends, trying to bring about the end of the big bad going on.

As a refresh before I jump into facts, Penney is seventeen, a psychic in a world of psychics, and desperately in love with her best friend, who she assumed didn't return the feelings. I have to be really careful with these facts so that I don't give away spoilers but I'll do my best!

#1 PENNEY IS NEW TO NEGOTIATING RELATIONSHIPS
Penney had dated before, but she'd always held a torch for Dane, and even with the events of the last book, she's still trying to find her feet as it were. She's looking for some way to do everything that's needed of her, but also get to be the best person she can be when it comes to matters of the heart. She didn't expect everything to fall into place quickly, but she's finding it a little harder than she thought it would be.

#2 A THREAT TO THE WORLD AS A WHOLE
The big difference between the first book and the second is that the scope is broader. While before Penney had been focused on one, what she thought, small detail, now she finds herself have to look at the bigger picture and weigh up what matters, what doesn't, and what can be changed. The whole psychic world is teetering on the edge of something massive and Penney seems to play a big part.

#3 THERE ARE LIES TO UNEARTH
Penney was sure of one thing, she could always trust her parents, they would always have her back, and now it seems that even they had secrets they kept from her. While she could understand some of the secrecy, the way it's presented to her has made it seemed more like a betrayal and a lie than anything she can simply move past. She's always known she was adopted, but the history behind that was never spoken of, and now she wants to know more.

#4 PENNEY IS BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS
Penney has EDS, she's chronically ill and she's already exhausted from everything that went into saving Dane, but now people need her to keep going, and she's not going to let them down. Except her body is saying enough, and she doesn't know how to both save her friends and family, and also get some decent rest. There will come a point when she has to crash, but she'll keep pushing until she has nothing left in her to give. The issue is, whether that happens before or after she manages to complete her task.

#5 SHE IS NOT ALONE
While she might think that she has to do this all on her own, there are others around her who will do whatever they can to help her. Penney thinks the burden rests on her shoulders, but she's wrong. She has friends, family, other people who know what she's trying to do, and will aid her in anyway they can. The question is, will she ask for help, or will she just push them away trying to save everyone herself?

So there we have it, five facts about I Wish I Could Find You, which is a joy to write. I'll admit that those first few chapters I struggled to find my feet, but now that I'm into the thick of the story, I'm actually getting somewhere with it all! Do you have any questions? Lemme know down in the comments!

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5 Facts About Project: Witch Hunt

5 FACTS ABOUT MY CURRENT WIP: PROJECT: WITCH HUNT

As I'm sure you're all aware, I recently finished two projects and started two new ones, and I wanted to continue on with my mini series where I give you five facts about them to tease you, and also because I'm desperate to talk about them! So watch out for the one coming next week as well, but for today I'm gonna give you five facts about Project: Witch Hunt.

Before I get started lemme just say that this is a story that has been brewing in my head for a long time now. I had the characters and the overarching plot, because I'm pretty sure this will be a series, but I didn't have all of it until things started to slip into place a few months back when I was close to finishing my last two projects. I'm super excited about following Abby and the journey she's on, as well as telling her story, so here we go with the facts.

#1 ABBY IS A WITCH
I didn't know this part of the story until I started to plan it out, but the world she lives in is split into witches and normal humans. They don't live in secret, they're out there and part of society, and Abby has grown up with normal human kids. She does her usual schooling, at fifteen, and then also has the added perk, because her parents work for the local witches council, of getting to sneak into council classes earlier than she would normally have been allowed. Her best friends are also council kids, and they met through the classes.

I'm adoring getting to explore this world that is similar to ours, but also isn't at the same time, stretching those world building muscles and getting to see it all laid out for me not just for this book, but beyond it into the series as a whole.

#2 THERE'S A PANDEMIC
I know that some people will feel like it's too soon, or wrong to be writing about teenagers in a pandemic when the world is going through the same, but I don't plan to release this book for many years, and I also wanted to stay true to the world we live in, even with the differences I mentioned above. Because of the story I'm telling, it helps to draw a little from real life, and also add in some fiction there as well. I'm trying to delicately balance both what's happening now, to also what teens will read about in years to come.

#3 ABBY'S CHRONICALLY ILL
The difference to other characters of mine here is that, Abby doesn't have a diagnosis. Neither human doctors nor the witch healers have been able to pin down exactly what's wrong with her, and because of that, she's facing a pandemic will little help and lots of pain that has no name. The diagnosis is one that may come in future books, but I don't see it happening in this book because the journey to diagnosis can take literal years, and when the world is shut down anyway, it makes it even harder to find answers.

#4 PEOPLE HUNT WITCHES
It's not something that Abby was really aware as still happening, but with the pandemic and school being closed, Abby's a lot more aware of life outside her four walls than she was before. Witches are being taken, and the whispers are that it's a witch hunter, something she never thought she'd see. Abby and her friends are desperate to help either find those taken, or prevent others from meeting the same fate.

#5 ABBY'S FALLING IN LOVE
As with a lot of my characters, Abby is bi, and she's very aware that she has feelings for one of her friends. But she doesn't know how to ask them if they feel the same way, they've had a hard life, and she doesn't want to add to their burden. One thing is clear though, as things get more serious and life throws its own curve balls, Abby is desperate to protect them, and everyone else she loves from harm.

So there we go, five facts about Project: Witch Hunt! I'm super excited writing this and getting to explore both Abby and the world I'm creating around her. I'm loving the characters and the bits and pieces slotting into place and it's a nice break from edits and revisions to lose myself in a different world. What do you think of these five facts? Lemme know in the comments!

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5 Facts About My Current MC

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Starting A Brand New Series - The Creative Process

STARTING A BRAND NEW SERIES

I was really happy about finishing off my last two projects at the end of April, and with a new month started and almost done, you know I've been writing two new projects, and one of them is a series and I am SO excited about it! I won't give you details yet, there'll be another post in the coming months that talks about it, I won't leave you guys hanging, but it sparked an idea and made me think that since I've written a bunch of series, I would talk about what it's like, for me, to start a new series, and any tips I might have for anyone else looking to start one.

#1 THE IDEA
This is where it all starts for me. I have to have an idea, which might seem obvious, but I'm breaking it down for you and don't want to skip any steps. So once I have the idea, I need to know if it's actually going to be a series. Usually I won't know unless it's something like Dying Thoughts or Cramping Chronicles, which were both purposefully written to be series books, but like with I Wish I Could Save You, I wanted it to be a series, but I didn't know that it would be until I got started writing and unfurled every piece of the idea. Then I knew it was going to be at least three books, with my new series, the first book being Project: Witch Hunt, I'm pretty sure it's gonna be a series, but I don't know for sure until I get deeper into the book itself.

#2 THE OVERARCHING PLOT (IF KNOWN)
Now not every series has to have an overarching plot, Dying Thoughts didn't, beyond getting Tara to the point where she was able to join the police. The first few books could be read as standalones, it was only later in the series that you needed to have read them all to be aware of everything going on. But if you do have an overarching plot, it's okay to not know it, I didn't for Cramping Chronicles, but I do for Project: Witch Hunt, should that go on for more than one book.

Now if you're a planner, you want to know this ahead of time, but I'm not, I'm more panster, but will be called a planster from time to time. I make sure that I finish the series before I start to get the first ready for publication, and that's how I make sure the overarching plot is included or at least alluded to in every book. This might not work for you and that's okay, but it's how I've done it with the Lights Out trilogy and Invisible series, as well as the others already mentioned.

#3 MAKE EACH BOOK HAVE A PLOT OF ITS OWN
Now this can be a little hard sometimes when it comes to individual books that are part of a much larger story, but it needs to happen. If you don't have a plot for a book, if it reads like Act two of a complete story, and only exists to move the series forward, where there's no climax or rising action or anything on its own, then you have a problem. It's one of the reasons I've struggled with books, because I don't want to have just one book read as exposition for another book. You have to make sure that every book has it's own plot and arc, as well as its own place in the series as a whole.

And finally, #4 WRITE TO YOUR HEART'S CONTENT
This is the easiest part for me. I adore drafting, I love getting to tell myself the story and meeting the characters and getting to know them all, getting to see everything spring out onto the page delights me! I find it very easy to draft and to do it pretty quickly. I also love tying together the threads, while leaving some dangling for the next book in the series. It's just an amazing time for me!

So do you have any tips for starting a series? Any questions? Lemme know in the comments!

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Breaking Down My Day :Writing

BREAKING DOWN MY DAY: WRITING

Back in the day, I would do photo day in my life posts for a private blog and community. I don't do it any more simply because Facebook and the like aren't really geared to those kind posts. I thought, therefore, that it'd be nice to break down my day when it comes to writing. Depending on what I think of, I might do more of these kinda post, breaking down how I go through the day and what I manage.

I can tell you're on the edge of your seat and/or wondering why I'd want to break down my day. So for those new to me, I'm Joey Paul, I'm an indie author with almost seventeen books published, and I'm pretty much a writer full time, though health constraints have put a cap on what I can do. So with that outta the way, let's move into the break down!

05:00 - 07:00
With the way my sleep pattern has been messed up, it's a toss-up as to whether I wake with my alarm or wake up before it. The reason I start here when it's linked to my writing is because if I wake up super early, I will write my chapter then, if I don't, I move my writing time.

08:00-12:00
This time is spent talking with a friend, going through social media, posting instagram, blog, and authortube content depending on the day. It's also when I'll pull up what I wrote last and go through it with the editing eyes on. I know that editing as you go is seen as a dangerous path to walk, but it's something that I can pretty happily do without it distracting me from my work.

I'm not someone who can keep writing when I know there are huge mistakes in the document. If I know I've had to take out this chapter or change this scene, then I will go back and fix it before I start writing for the day. It means I can focus on what's ahead of me, and not worry myself silly with the idea that I have huge problems awaiting me in the editing stage.

13:00-15:00
It usually takes me anywhere from an hour to three to finish a chapter, depending on the day of the week, what else I'm doing, and how easily the words are flowing onto the page. This used to be my peak writing time, but with the change in sleep schedule, I find I do better in the morning and then use this time to catch up on reading or doing other admin duties that I couldn't do before.

16:00 onwards
At this point, my writing day is usually over. I get achy and want to set up in bed with a good book, and if any writing does still need to be done, then I'll take it up there with me and set up on my tablet to finish off the chapter or whatnot. Overall, my day is usually done at this point.

So there we go, my writing day! I recently, at the start of the year, cut back to 20 chapters a month because of health issues. I wanted to be able to have more days off, and get more time to relax. I got that by cutting back and while I wonder from time to time about increasing it, since I've shown I can now do more than two chapters a day if need be, I know that I was very close to burn out and I don't want to put myself through that.

How does your writing day go? What does it look like? Lemme know in the comments below!

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Inspiration: How Does It Work? - The Creative Process

INSPIRATION: HOW DOES IT WORK?

I wrote a piece about inspiration, but it was a very long time ago, I think like 2013, (piece found here) and I felt like it was a good idea to revisit the subject. I know that it's something that I get asked a lot when I do questions from readers, though I usually direct them to my blog because as I said, I've talked about it before. But every writer works differently, so I thought it would be a good idea for me to explain how inspiration works for me, what steps I go through and how I get a finished draft at the end of the process.

STEP ONE: THE IDEA
Usually this will be something that hits me right at the wrong time. I'll be mid-draft of another book, and then get hit with something that I really want to write right now. If that's the case I'll thought dump into a document and leave it to brew for a while. If I'm super passionate about the idea, then it'll get moved up the list for what I write next. At the moment I have about six projects that are vying for my attention and I've not yet decided what two to work on next.

STEP TWO: THE PLANNING
As I've talked about before, I don't do much planning. I will write a chapter plan and on it has very few points that I'm planning to include. My chapter plan is more to keep track of words, the timeline, and the pages the chapters take up. I will also do character cards for the main characters and some secondary ones that I'm already aware of. This doesn't take me long, usually a few hours and from there I can move onto the next step!

STEP THREE: THE DRAFTING
This obviously takes the most time, several months actually, and during this time the inspiration waxes and wanes. I will usually write in blocks of four days, a chapter a day and work myself through both of my current projects. I don't write every day simply because I can't push myself to write all day every day. Sure it'd be nice to get more done, but I also have a life outside of writing. I have things to do for my author platform, and they all take time.

On top of that, I do love the drafting phase of a project (piece found here) and it's something that I very much enjoy, so I will take my time through the process, editing as I go to make sure the draft is as clean as it can be once I'm done.

STEP FOUR: LOSING INSPIRATION
I included this step simply because in a piece about inspiration, you need to include the fact that sometimes, that inspiration flitters away and there's really not much you can do about it. So what do I do when I lose inspiration for a project? I keep going, which sounds like a glib, but it's a hard lesson to learn whether you're a new writer or an older one, there will be some projects that you find you don't want to continue once that inspiration goes, but there will be others that spark joy and you want to continue even without that illustrious inspiration, and what you have to do is keep going, finding new and different ways to keep writing the story that you're wanting to write. I did a piece recently about writer's block which you can find here.

STEP FIVE: FINISHING THE DRAFT
The end of all these steps is that I finally reach the end of the draft. When I do that, I'll put it to one side before I start editing. I've talked about my editing process before, but it might be something that I revisit this year. I have an older piece here. I do celebrate writing the final words, usually a nice treat!

So how do you deal with inspiration? Do you find it influences what you write? Lemme know down in the comments below.

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5 Facts About My Current WIP: I Wish I Could Save You

5 FACTS ABOUT MY CURRENT WIP: I WISH I COULD SAVE YOU

Last week I did a piece about my other current project, which you can find here. This week I'm telling you five facts about I Wish I Could Save You, which has quickly become my next series to focus on. I adore writing about these characters and am super excited to branch the series out a little more, I even have a great idea for the second book that keeps going around in my head!

So first, lemme tell you a little bit about it. It's a young adult paranormal/romance. Penney is seventeen, at sixth form doing her first year of A-levels, a psychic, and living with her crush on her best friend, Dane. It's all something she can keep to herself until she has a vision that predicts Dane's death, and Penney is forbidden from interfering. Now onto the facts.

#1 PENNEY WAS ADOPTED
She has two mums. One she calls Mama, who works as a secondary school teacher at a different school than the one Penney attends. Her mum is a local GP, and they've been married for a while, and were living together when they adopted Penney when she was a small baby, no older than a year old. She's found that most people have no problem with her family being all female, but there have to be a few that have taken affront to it. Penney usually just ignores and avoids them.

#2 PENNEY IS BISEXUAL
So is Dane actually. They both came out at the same time to each other, and it was a source of joy for Penney to share any wobbly moments in her journey with her best friend. Both are fiercely protective of the other, and while Dane is more demonstrative (something Penney has to remind herself of a lot, that it's not necessarily attraction and just second nature to him), Penney is the more outgoing of the two.

#3 PENNEY IS CHRONICALLY ILL
Penney has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS). It was something that was easier to deal with since her mum is a GP and was able to make sure Penney was diagnosed correctly early in her life. Penney is one of the invisibly disabled and while she struggles from time to time, she has meds that keep her pain levels lowered.

#4 ONE IN HUNDRED PEOPLE ARE BORN PSYCHIC
The rules of this world are very similar to our own, the difference is that there are a lot of people who are psychic, Penney being one of them. The academy for psychics has lots of rules in place, and assigns mentors to those under age. Once you hit seventeen, you are required to report every vision only to your mentor. You're not allowed to interfere with the visions and once you hit eighteen, you have a big choice to make. Go to work in the academy or turned to life in the normal world. There have been stories of more powerful psychics being aggressively recruited, and Penney doesn't want any of that. Her decision has always been to go the normal route and become a teacher like her mama.

And finally, #5 PENNEY DOESN'T KNOW MANY OTHER TEEN PSYCHICS
It's not about rejecting her people, just that she's never met any that have been all that friendly. It's not until things start going wrong, that she ends up meeting other psychics and finding a whole set of people she'd never really thought much about. One of them is someone Penney finds herself admiring as she moves through her problems, and thinks that maybe they can become firm friends.

So there we have it, my five facts about I Wish I Could Save You. As I said above, this is going to be a series. I love Penney, and I love the ideas that come from writing in her world. I have lots of ideas for future books and I'm so excited about getting to write them!

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