update: what i've been doing in april

This spring has been a busy one so far, and I'm pleased to say that the first draft of my new story is starting to look more and more like an actual book. Since I haven't written an update post in a while, I thought that I'd share a few of the things I've been doing (mostly sitting at my desk writing,  it has to be said, but to liven it up I've also added pictures!):

The month began with a milestone: I finished drafting Part One of my new book. On the 2nd of April, I sent it to my agent, Simon. It was quite a nervous few days waiting to hear what he thought. But on the 8th I headed down to London to see him in person and there was very good news - he liked the book. In fact, the main question he had was how soon he could read the rest. So it was back north to Durham to work on it...

On the 22nd of April I turned 25, and around the same time I acquired a pet, Little Bear, from a local animal shelter. I'm so glad I did - he's endlessly entertaining, but impressively self-sufficient and generally likes to get on with his own projects, which makes him an ideal writer pet. I usually have breakfast at my desk, and when he hears me come into the office he gets up and has breakfast too, which is pretty cute!

And work on the book I did. I even made a schedule. With a first draft, it can often feel like a desperate sprint to get your vision of the book down on paper before you lose hold of it. So a schedule, as much as anything, helps you to pace yourself. I really like this process of working long, uninterrupted days on the book, watching it progress from idea to reality.

On the 25th of April I headed south again - this time to take part in a Literary Festival in Orwell, a village near Cambridge. I did an informal, book-group style event talking about my experiences of writing and publishing, and it was one of the best events I've done: an hour and a half talking to a group of really interesting, creative and thoughtful people about writing and reading.

And the rest of the month (and most of May so far) I've been writing pretty constantly. I'm getting towards the halfway point of the new book and I think I'm enjoying writing this one the most of all. It's such a different direction for me that it's almost like going back to the beginning and writing a debut novel. Even (or maybe especially!) the difficulties are interesting: trying to solve the problems of voice, tone, point of view, research, style and so on which emerge during each writing day. More updates soon...