WIP: Tying myself in knots… the intricacies of writing a long, complex story in a time of lockdown no less

 (*WARNING SPOILERS*)

WIP news: I’m writing the third (last) little LC book. Or at least that’s what I’m supposed to be writing. Someone asked me once when I said “supposed to be” if that was what my publisher was demanding, darned publishers. I’m one half of Sixth Element Publishing so I decide. Mostly, but that’s another story. This is what I love about indie publishing. We get to write what we want, what we love. But again, that’s another story. If you want to hear about that, it’ll take rum. A lot of rum.

Back to the WIP: if you’re up to date with the TG books, this is the one that follows Redemption and is the third story LC tells to Spacey in the middle of Darkest Fears (TG#5) when they’re fleeing the Bhenykhn and drifting in space. It jumps two years from Redemption to the tab for the amulet when LC is sixteen. And here is the tricky bit that I’m dancing with at the moment. I have a load of stuff that deals with the fallout from Redemption and that story also needs to be told… by Hil, strangely enough.

And… unlike the last two books of the main series (#4 and #5 which both left me reeling and needing a break), the end of #6 has left me twitching to get right on with it all, and I have NG chatting away inside my head. I love being with NG. I love being with all three of them, and that’s the dilemma. I have Hil, LC and NG all demanding my attention. As well as two munchkins who are currently homeschooling (to be honest, we’re loving it… we’re not following the rules, not sticking to the school’s provided schedules and worksheets, not spending six hours a day in lessons, but we’re having lots of fun just being together, with lots of learning way off the usual (packaging up books and printing stamps to post them out to writers = business studies, it does), and we’re still managing some Maths and English in there too because, y’know, I don’t want to be told off when they do get to go back to school). And I have Harvey Duckman beckoning, which is such a lot of fun. I’m going to get another TG story into one soon, I promise.

Soooo… WIP? I should be able to knuckle down and write all of it. I’m having to go back through all my notebooks and all eight books that are out there, fact checking, continuity and timeline checking… And I have my notebook with me always, in the sunshine-soaked queues at Tesco and the Co-Op and Boots the Pharmacy, (as well as the munchkins, I’m looking after three key workers who are socially isolating and two over 80s, who are all doing brilliantly). It’s a strange time and I know a lot of creatives who are struggling with all this extra time at home and the pressure to be creative and produce.

I think I need to write what I need to write, and just see what happens, because that’s how my Thieves’ Guild stuff started, twenty-eight years ago.

So, whatever you’re doing right now, wherever you are, do what you need to do to be okay. That’s all any of us can do right now.

Take care and stay safe! Hope to see you at a comic con somewhere as soon as we all can.

CGH

ps. Hil is winning right now… He was always the one that got me through the hardest times.

pps. If you’re writing scifi, fantasy, steampunk or horror and feeling isolated, we’re here. Let me know if you want a chat or a zoom (email or find me on Twitter or Facebook). We’re all in this together. Take care!

ppps. This is not the only blog post I’ve written since the last one… let’s see if this one makes it out there without being deleted.

pppps. …although I did write one for Mark Hayes that did see the light of day! (and he used my China photo!)