Rainy Days – My Current Writing Projects

Hello everyone!! I know it’s been a while, but things have been a little manic since my last post. So, as I sit here with a free five minutes going spare, I thought why not discuss something fun? Now, if you live like I do, within the southern half of England then recently you’ve probably experienced hot days, cold days, unbearably muggy days and of course, rainy days. It never ceases to amaze me that we’ll have all this conflicting weather in such close proximity, but that of course is your typical British day. I often find that on those days filled with rain I’m at my most productive, and with productivity as the key theme for my post today I’d like to discuss what I’m currently working on.

AOKTKC
Why have I placed six random letters above? I’m sure some of you are thinking that very question right now but let me enlighten you. The letters AOKTKC are what I’m currently calling my main writing project at the moment, it doesn’t have a completed name yet, AOKTKC is just the working title. I have so much I want to tell you all already, the plot, main characters and setting are things with which I’m super passionate about and want to share. But alas I’ve become rather secretive over AOKTKC, it’s been a companion for the last 13 months and I’m not quite ready to send it out into the world. There are perhaps a few tiny shreds of detail I can give away however, it’s a children’s story centred around the countryside. Throughout AOKTKC you’ll find many different creatures with contrasting views and morals, as highlighted in my previous post Your Writing Voice much is set around a lake within this countryside. Over the next 4-6 months I hope to share more with you all, but for now it’s definitely a work in progress kept under lock and key. I’m not a very fast writer and tend to spend a lot of time in planning, so as a result have set no hard deadline for finishing this first draft. Some of you ambitious individuals out there might wonder what publishing route I’ll be taking once finished, traditional or self-published. I’ll be honest with you while we’re on the subject, I really don’t know which way to go yet, I’ve thought about both but found thinking that far ahead only a distraction. I promise when the time comes I’ll write a post discussing the pro’s and con’s for both, and also why I’ve chosen the route I have.

A Typical Writing Week
As I touched on earlier, I’m not a particularly fast writer, there are many reasons for this but rather than explain them all I thought it’d be easier to discuss my typical writing week. I like to or at least try to spend anywhere between 4-10 hours writing per week, this can include working on a chapter in AOKTKC or creating and writing a blog post for A.P Writing. Depending on how much you write this may sound like not much at all, about right or quite a lot of time to be spending on writing. Working long days doesn’t always help and I won’t lie, there are times I come in completely shattered with nothing on my mind but eating dinner and crawling into bed. It’s important in these times that I still continue on, most typical writing sessions for me last between 1-2 hours three to four times a week after work. I’ll then spend more time on certain projects while on my days off as I’ve got more time to play with. When I get tired, I tell myself that if I constantly give in and don’t work on things how will I ever reach my end goals? It’s about remaining positive and not letting things get the better of you, believe me I’m hitting a busy period of my life right now. I’m about to become a dad, me and my partner are also moving into a more suitable house and work is nothing but stress, but I still carry on because I believe I can achieve my goals, giving into daily struggles is simply not an option. During the week I’ll try mixing up what I’m working on, purely to stop things becoming monotonous. A good 1-2 hour’s writing could produce anywhere between 300-600 words for me and I’m happy with that, I don’t set thousand-word limits because I find those kinds of daily wordcounts unattainable. They may work for some writers and if they do then carry on, I wish I could write that fast but don’t be in any rush, take the time to make your work special.

So What Else?

Lastly, I’d just like to touch on a few other things in the pipeline. When time allows and I’ve finished AOKTKC I plan to write a series of short stories and make them into a book. I’ve got the first initial sparks buzzing around my brain and with those come many ideas that’ve now been noted and stored, ready for a time when they’ll be written. A.P Writing of course remains a priority, I have to admit however that running a blog is much more difficult than I thought it would be, but I’m learning.

Thanks as always for taking the time to read my post everyone, feel free to leave a comment. I look forward to hearing from you.

Adam