How's The Writing Going, Joey: Revisited - The Creative Process

HOW'S THE WRITING GOING, JOEY: REVISITED

Back in March 2013, so over four years ago, I started realising that my blog needed more content than just the occasional sales post. I made a lot of mistake as a newbie indie author and while I like to think that the majority of them I don't make anymore, it's always good to check in and see how things have changed and how far you've come. Back then it started as a question and a stream of consciousness that then turned into The Creative Process posts, which then spawned the After Process, and from there even more little headings that I now add to when the subject, and mood takes.

At the beginning of 2017 I decided that I needed to get better with blogging, and now six months in I've pretty much stuck to the schedule with a few bits added here and there. I have my writing advice posts on Monday, my Writing Vlog videos on Thursday, and my guest blog/interview/review on Friday. And it works well for me. It allows me to dip in and out of the blog and make sure that it stays active while having my instagram posts cross over and all of that. I've talked a lot about my work day but I realised that in the four years since I started doing this, I haven't really talked that much beyond updating my "Current Works In Progress" page, about what I'm actually writing.

I finished two books last month, the second in the Lights Out trilogy and the first in my new series, Cramping Chronicles. I started them both back in December 2016 and so to have finished them just over six months later felt like a huge accomplishment. Something I put down to a number of things.

1. I am no longer a uni student so the majority of my time can be spent writing. I graduated in 2014 with a B.A (Hons) and have no plans to go back to university.
2. In the past just under three years since I graduated, I have been better at focusing on writing during the day, and evening.
3. Since November 2015, I have been doing either #NaNoWriMo or my own version #JoWriMoGo every month and that has helped to keep my writing on track.
4. I have been keeping track of how much I write and of what since 2014 and because of that I have a better idea of what works and what doesn't.
5. I got a good set up in bed so that I can both write and edit and read and do all of that even on bad days.

So it's all really worked together to bring about more writing. Since I spending more days every month writing, then I'm able to get through more chapters and by extension more books. On top of that I've started to release two books a year, which means that I spend more time juggling editing and formatting as well as promotion and all those fun things that go into being an indie author. But on the writing side of things, they're going pretty well. On the 1st I started the third (and hopefully, final) book of the Lights Out trilogy - Lights Off. Today it's on my schedule to start writing the first chapter of Cramping Chronicles: The Second Pang, which I'm looking forward to jump into. I've been having the ideas running around my head for the past couple of months and it'll be so good to start releasing some of the creative tension.

I haven't really talked much about what the Lights Out trilogy or the Cramping Chronicles series are about. So, here's a breakdown of what the stories are:

LIGHTS OUT TRILOGY
This story starts with 18 year old, Lock. She works for her cityship on the base doing security for the 'Lights Out' events. It's a dystopian, where following a massive world war, the United English States have survived by implementing rationing and forcing a 'sixty year law'. Ageing has gotten to the point that once you hit twenty-five, you don't really age. Everyone is treated equally and you are allowed sixty years no matter what. Once you celebrate your sixtieth birthday, you are called to an event where they humanely send you off to your final sleep. Every person has an ID and retina chip and while there are other cityships, contact between them is forbidden. Lock is a great believer in the system, her partner Lana, also 18, is not. Yet they both work for the security and monitor the events. It's only when Lock realises that some people's ages aren't matching up that she realises things are not what they seem.

CRAMPING CHRONICLES SERIES
This series follows Jessie, she's 15, and recently became disabled. She also developed a gift that allows her to feel other people's physical, and mental pain. She's an empath basically though it doesn't happen for everyone she meets, but does sometimes come along with a flash of a psychic vision. The series basically follows her around as she comes to terms with her gift, and with starting a new school at the beginning of her GCSE years. In the first book Jessie makes new friends and also spots Meera who seems to be a big trigger for her gift. She wants to help her, but Meera isn't all that happy about either making friends or sharing her troubles.

So that's what I'm working on right now and that's where my creative energy is going. I'm super excited to start two new books and get those stories told. Both of these should start to come out in a couple of years and while that is terrifying to me, it's also so very thrilling! The rush of writing is something every writer knows and the thrill of finishing and starting anew with characters and plot-lines!

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