Hello all, I haven't quite fallen off the face of the planet. Mostly I've been knee-deep in revising TWFF and I'm pleased to say that the end is in sight! It's changed so much since that inkling of an idea I had over a year ago now, but I know there will still be work to do even when this draft is completed.

I have a few days off in early August, just after the bank holiday weekend, so I'm thinking of going down the country and booking myself into a hotel for a crazy writing holiday to get to the end of the draft. I've never gone on a break solely for the sake of writing, so it should be interesting, not to mention exciting since I'll be close to the end of the draft. I'm really looking forward to it.

Other than that, life is not very exciting. You'd hardly think it's summer right now with the constant rain we've been getting for the past few weeks. On the other hand, considering the country I live in I shouldn't really be surprised.

Today is a good day, so far. While the weather is unseasonably high--it was 20 degrees celsius before 11am; I was actually warm while waiting for my tram to work at 8am--the writing is going well. I tackled part of a new scene from Chapter Three at lunch, and I think I may be on to a winner. I've been struggling with the characterisation of one of my supporting characters and rewrote the first scene between her and my MC about five times in the past year. Today, I think I stumbled on the exact way to highlight what should hopefully be the reader's first impression of her. I'm so happy I could dance!

In other news, I also downloaded a 30 day trial of Scrivener last night, and so far I'm quite impressed. It's a lot faster than Word and as of yet hasn't made my (rapidly approaching middle-age) Macbook groan and stall. I'll know for sure in the next week or so, but I think I'll be shelling out to be a license for it!

(Today is also the release day for Sarah Rees Brennan's YA debut The Demon's Lexicon! I had the luck of getting an ARC of this (one of the benefits of working in a bookstore and being able to pester reps!) and to meet Sarah herself, who is lovely. This is definitely one of my top reads of 2009: witty, dark and extremely moving, with characters that stayed with me for a long time after finishing it. If you can, definitely get your hands on this one.)

Eek, once again I sort of disappeared from here for several months! Unintentional, I assure you. Right now I am deep in the second draft of TWFF with a deadline for the end of June. This is a deadline I have to stick to as one of my readers is heading to Thailand for seven weeks at the end of next month, and she's hoping to either read the draft before she goes or to take it with her.

I recently returned from a trip to New York; my first cross-Atlantic trip, in fact. I may have ransacked the YA sections of many bookstores while I was there. I came back with twenty-six books, but, as I was underweight, I could have bought more. I'm starting to make my way through them, but taking my time of course.

So far we seem to be getting an actual summer, if only for a little while. I think it's time to start contemplating writing outside in the garden with a cool drink. It's still bright on my home from work after evening shifts, warm enough that I don't need a coat--perfect thinking time. While I'm not a fan of summer, preferring pleasant spring days, I love summer evenings and how they make me relaxed and contemplative.

I'm hoping to start querying TWFF possibly in late summer or early autumn, but we'll see. I think there's still a draft or two to go; there's no point in overthinking it until I get some reader feedback.

*grits teeth*

I finally realised this morning that I'm going to have to dump what I have of CR's second draft and change it from third person limited to first person.

Oh, this is going to hurt. But I'm confident it will make CR better. *touches wood and crosses fingers*

the joys of second draft

Every so often, about once or twice a month, I drag my laptop to the nearest Starbucks without internet. I settle in with a venti coffee, plug in my earbuds, and start to write. I usually manage to get a lot of work done, or at least make some decent headway.

Yesterday, I managed to work through a pacing problem in the first draft that had been annoying me since last October. I nearly pumped my arm in the air, drunk on that 'this is going to be so much better than my first draft' feeling.

So, yes, yesterday was definitely a good writing day. *g*