My regular update on my novel writing progress, including insight into living and working as an indie author with a full-time job and Crohn’s disease.
my_writing_week
Previously on WWW…
Hopefully I can banish the flu pronto and my progress isn’t blunted too much.
This week’s progress was definitely blunted by the flu.
Over the first few days, I wasn’t mentally alert enough to do the tasks I wanted to do (particularly adding chapters to The Spike series bible).
An idea I have for the cover of the second edition of The Spike Volume 1 is a kind of collage, so I spent some time each day looking through a photo library for images that may fit.
As rough as I felt, I wasn’t going to let my run of consecutive days end in the 440s.
On Tuesday evening, I finished reading Blood Slaves (The Blood Saga #1) by Marcus Redmond. It wasn’t my cup of tea, and I’m still trying to separate the bits I didn’t like from the bits that objectively weren’t good before I decide how to rank it.
Finally, on Wednesday, I started to feel a little more like myself. I polished, then posted, my piece Decoding the opening scene of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a shot-by-shot, line-by-line analysis of what makes it so effective. So effective that it’s my weekly_inspiration below. I don’t know if my piece is of interest to anyone else, but I enjoyed writing it, and I learnt one or two things too.
Thursday, I finally felt well enough to return to the office for my day job, and during my lunch hour, I began this WWW. I didn’t stay late in the evening as I normally would as; I visited my family to celebrate my sister’s birthday.
On Friday, I had a few chores to do, so all I did in the evening was spend some more time searching for images for the Vol 1 second edition cover.
That brings me to today. I’m still not 100% so I took the day off, only completing this WWW.
Not every week can be good. Fingers crossed a restful weekend will recharge my brain’s battery and I can get back to normal next week.
Reading this week: Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
Watching this week: The Wire season 1 and Californication season 3 (rewatch)
Playing this week: NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139
status_report
I’m still wavering on a new cover design for a second edition of The Spike Volume 1, and have begun work on a different idea. I think I’ve proven the concept — more work required.
I’m also working on covers for the two individual parts, 1.1_Application Infiltration and 1.2_Laying Down The Law, which are going to be published separately for the first time. I want both to have a similar style and layout, and I have an idea I like for each. The drafts I’ve created feel a little too minimalist, so I’m investigating what I can add that will make it more visually interesting without distracting from the main image.
Draft 2 of The Spike Volume 2 is complete! It contains three separate books from the perspectives of seven characters.
Revision will begin soon.
The aim is to publish Volume 2 in 2026.
Early brainstorming has been done for The Spike Volume 3. I know how it must begin; I have an ending that I think will be great; and I have a long list of ideas to get from one to the other that needs to be whittled down and put in an order. I’m not intending to do much more work on this until revision is complete on Volume 2.
There are a couple of other projects in the works that I’m not ready to share yet – they’ll be announced here first.
connecting_links
The Spike is set in our world, incorporating real events; the links below are relevant to the themes and overarching storyline, and may or may not provide clues to the direction of the series.
I do not necessarily agree with or endorse any of the views within.
Can AIs suffer? Big tech and users grapple with one of most unsettling questions of our times
YouTube secretly used AI to edit people’s videos. The results could bend reality
Japan has opened its first osmotic power plant – so what is it and how does it work?
The economic pros and cons of building more and more data centres in the UK
weekly_inspiration
Every week I share something that’s inspired my creativity.
This week, I posted my piece Decoding the opening scene of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Writing this has got me thinking how I can improve the prologue of The Spike Volume 2, and I’m looking forward to editing it with some of the lessons learnt.
What’s inspired you this week? Please share in the comments.
See you next week.
Arrowmaker Books 