So, this post is for the Sunday Circle, an initiative of Peter M Ball (see here) and I’ve decided to not be lazy and post my stuff here before I head to write club today. So …

What am I working on this week?

I’m finishing up the first draft of my next women’s commercial fiction novel (yes, actually finishing the draft). I’m at 77k now, and aiming for 80k. That should be less than two days’ work. Should. I’m aiming for 80k because my usual MO on commercial novels is to write to the word count (90k in this case), then end up adding 10% in the edit (Stephen King and I are in polar opposite universes, it seems). Then I panic because I’m over budget on words, and spend a copyedit stripping little bits here and there to take out 3 or 4k. No more. Last time I wrote under and it worked perfectly when I added missing subplots etc in the edit. So, that’s one thing.

On the spec fic side, I’m about to start my PhD in a little over a week, and so I’m busily doing background reading from the multitude of genres I’m drawing on, and just ruminating in the background in the part of my brain reserved for spec fic.

What’s inspiring me this week?

H G Wells, and also Douglas Adams. I re-read The Time Machine this week, and also a short story by Adams in The Time Traveler’s Almanac (eds. Vandermeer). It’s been years since I last read Adams and I noticed how wonderful his turns of phrase are, in between the comedic bits. Never noticed that before.

What part of my project am I avoiding?

Finishing the commercial novel. I could have probably had it done by now as I was a long way ahead of my planned word-count, but I’m tired. Writing a novel in under 2 months is doable, but fatigue sets in, especially as I realise in the end the things I need to fix, and I dither about whether to write the end with the fixes I envision (not usually a good idea) or just to get to the damn end and fix it later. I’m aiming to get to the damn end by tomorrow.