It's snowing again here in the North-East of England. Yesterday was officially the first day of spring, but where I live, on the edge of Durham City, the trees are still skeletons and the temperature hasn't risen much above zero. I've always liked writing on days like this when rain or snow is falling outside the window and the wind is howling; it seems like good weather to be inside working on a writing project, and the stormy weather seems to help me think about the story.

When I look up from my desk I can see the snow gusting around the yard behind the house, but this is what the view looks like inside...

So that's what my working day today has looked like, more or less. I've been writing all day since about 9, so will stop for now, but I might work on the draft a bit more during the weekend - I'm really enjoying the process of finishing off The Heart at War.

How about you? Do you have a particular kind of weather that seems to inspire good writing (or reading!). And what are the essential objects you need to have on your desk to get started? Feel free to add your comments below...

Spring is a good time for making plans, and while on the surface the North-East of England is still firmly locked in winter, I have been thinking ahead. After some consideration, I've decided to aim to finish my draft of The Heart at War by the middle of April. This still gives me about a month to make the final changes and revisions, read and reread the draft, and check that I'm happy with the quality of the writing. I'm going to do my best over the next few weeks to make sure I keep to my own deadline! For many writers, I think, there's a risk of getting lost in the process of editing and re-editing your work, so sometimes finishing a book becomes a case of having the courage to let go...

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about what comes after the Last Descendants trilogy. I've been making a living from writing since I was sixteen. Really, that's a very young age, and I've always had a firm rule for myself: I will only write as long as I have something to say. I felt that the stories that made up The Last Descendants needed to be told, to find their way onto the page somehow, and my pursuit of the craft of writing has been in their service. I have had a few ideas for other projects over the years, but none that have really stuck. There's probably a simple reason for this. Each work that is written recreates the fabric of reality slightly differently, and I have been too immersed in the particular world of the North family and their struggles to allow any other idea to develop. 

Recently, I've come to appreciate how much my obsession with becoming a better writer, striving for the next right sentence with which to tell these stories, has shaped the choices I've made in the last ten years. Really, it was what found me reading and rereading Thomas Hardy and George Eliot at thirteen years old when I first had an idea that wouldn't go away, with a vague, hopeful sense that these were the people who held the secrets of the novelist's craft. It was what drove me at fourteen to spend months studying every book on the craft of writing not just in my local library but in my entire county. It was what led me, unexpectedly, to finish The Eyes of a King at sixteen, caught up in the wish to bring the whole story to life. It's the reason I've read some of Raymond Carver's short stories ten or fifteen times, The Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird five each, and Middlemarch about eleven! Really, it's the reason I went to university - in order to get the space to study other writers' work solidly for three years. I'm not an ambitious person (as any of my friends or family will tell you!), but trying to tell these stories well has given me an ambition of sorts, a burning wish to do them justice.

Meanwhile, writing has been kind to me... It has given me opportunities that have changed my life, and brought me into the path of many inspiring, talented and ultimately very kind people - agents, editors and other friends made through the craft. It has allowed me to do the things that have made for a more interesting life: study, travel abroad, live in different places and take different part-time jobs. I'm lucky to have been able to write continuously, sometimes full-time and sometimes part-time, since the start of my adult life, making a career out of something I've always loved. Over the past few years, as I've fought to balance writing with the other elements of my life, I've come to appreciate just how important the craft has been to the way I make sense of the world. I am passionate about writing because of the satisfaction that comes from putting life into words in a way that maybe, with luck, hasn't been done before - and so perhaps capturing its beauty, its strangeness, its power. But throughout the last seven years, I've kept my belief that I can only be a writer as long as I have something to say. So I have always been clear with myself - if I didn't feel immediately compelled to write something after The Heart at War, I wouldn't push it. I would keep up my practise of the craft, do something else and wait and see what transpired...

And then, a couple of weeks ago, a few sentences came to me. Nothing pre-empted this: it was a cold, raw dusk and I was walking down the alley beside our house to get to the supermarket, preoccupied with the chores I had to get done that evening. The words came out of nowhere. I haven't even noted them down yet, as I want to give them a chance to develop. But I hope this is a sign that, after I finish The Heart at War, there may be other stories out there, waiting to be told...

Apologies - it's been a while since I updated the blog, as I've been hard at work on The Heart at War. I've just finished the last major draft. There are still a couple more stages to go through before the book is ready to share with my editors, but this is a big milestone in the process of getting the book finished, and something I thought I would let you know about!

I've been asked before about how many times I usually redraft a piece of writing that I'm working on. The answer varies, because it's always true that there are some scenes which will stay almost the same throughout the whole process of writing a book. But this is rare, and it's not unusual for me to rewrite and edit a scene up to 10 or 12 times. I'd say that most parts of The Heart at War are at about draft number 10 already. This might make it sound like a pretty laborious process, but it's very satisfying to see the book improving and becoming more intricate with each step.

At this stage, after a couple of years of work on The Heart at War, most of the main scenes and events are already in place. I have a clear picture of how the story fits together and nearly all of it is written to its final level of detail. Now, it's a question of checking and rechecking each thread of the book to see that it makes sense in relation to the whole, and adding intensity and colour to some scenes while also focusing on the short linking passages that often weave a story together and give it its distinctive tone (Leo's present-day voice in The Eyes of a King, for example, was the last part of all to be finished). The best metaphor I can find for the process is that of a painter finishing a picture, building the paint in layers stage by stage so that it comes into clearer focus, trying to see each part in relation to the whole, but not afraid to recolour or retouch the parts that need further detail or work.

I can't say exactly how long the process will take, but it's exciting to see the final canvas coming together. I will keep you updated!