So over the last few months, I’ve been busy writing the third Novella in Beyond Endless Tides. I have written around 40,000 words of Morg and Ethos’s part in the story, near enough to a conclusive end, and so now I’m writing in the story of the White Queen. It will reveal her true path in the story, and a little of how she came to be, though not extensively (this may come out in later books, or a separate one). If you’ve read The White Queen, you will have a picture in your mind of who she is, but reading this her world will open up and you will get an insight into why she has so vehemently implanted in the minds of many that a move to land is imminent, no, essential.
The ending I hope will be a satisfactory one, but will leave it open for me to come back to with novels, either in a series, or as stand alone’s. In essence, Beyond Endless Tides is the beginning of a much larger story, one that I will come back to in the years to come.

I've read that many writers use this advice, and give it themselves. But should you really?

Certainly writing to a routine helps as it keeps your mind focused and your fingers flexed. But not all of us can write every single day. We have various obstacles in our way; work commitments, family, lifestyle choices, I'm sure you can think of others. So does it hurt not to write every day?

No. Writing when you can will help keep your prose tight, refined and concise. You want every word to count when you don't know for certain the next time you will put pen to pad, or type away on your keyboard. One thing I've learned is we don't always have to be at a workstation to be writing, not for fiction anyway. We live our worlds in our minds through the day in our work places, or doing chores around the house/garden. It never leaves us, or it doesn't me. I write in my mind whilst showering, washing the car and such, so when I do find the time to sit at my desk, I know what I want to write, and set to it. It may not always be exactly what my mind's eye pictured me writing, word for word should I not have had my notepad handy, but this doesn't matter. It will be better.

Not writing every day will train you to become a quicker writer too. You should find yourself being able to write far more in one sitting purely because you aren't sure when you will have the opportunity again.

On a sort of flip side. Does writing every day have to mean writing your fiction/non-fiction book?

No. You could write in other ways on the days you just don't want to commit to writing the book. For instance take up writing in blogs. You become a better writer for it. You will find yourself thinking more thoroughly the words you type as you type for you know it is an instant thing and people will read your musings soon after you hit 'Publish'.

This can only be a good thing. Why? Well, it will aid your book writing, or rather the book editing process, as you will  find you have less grammar errors to correct. And less editing is always a bonus... right.

So write every day if you can, but don't despair if you can't. You are writing when you can, and this can only enhance your craft skills.

I haven't as yet done this before, but on writing my third novella in Beyond Endless Tides I wanted to share a line I wrote earlier today.

"None can control what hasn’t happened yet. We can only make greater decisions to curve a path to a desired end."

It is part of a passage said to Ethos soon after his rescue from the clutches of a sect of mermaids who believe if they sacrifice mermen they will gain knowledge of future events. I like it. It seems to roll off the tongue doesn't it.

On re-reading my Writing page I discovered that I have a message in there that cannot be stressed enough. This is that after you have written your story, be it; book, novella, short story, or poem even, and have gone through it, editing it until you are sick in your head with it, you must LET IT REST. Then go through it again, and again if necessary before sending it off to your publisher/editor/agent, or like me uploading onto createspace and the like.

Why am I saying it here and now, because I have re-read my printed books after I had clicked 'publish', and yes this is after I had received the books in the post and read them through before doing so, and months after publishing I still see mistakes I should have picked up on before putting it out to the public. 

LETTING IT REST will allow you to come back to it and read it as if you are the reader, not the writer, and iron out those little things you weren't able to see because you were too close to it so soon after writing the idea on pages.

What do you do whilst you are LETTING IT REST? Write something else. This will allow your mind to become so engrossed in a new story, you will forget about the previous one and every word you used in it. Ergo, when you do go back to it you will read every word anew and know every word is in its rightful place.

How long do you LET IT REST? As long as it takes to forget about it. If for example you have written a novel of 90,000 words, write a few short stories, or at least three good length chapters of another book. This really depends how long it takes you to forget what you've been working on. Experiment until you find the answer.

I'm currently touring a bit of Britain at the moment, taking time out of my piggin' lifestyle to get back to the world which has been swimming around my mind of the past few years. As I travel, in my beat up old Tranny Motorhome, (for a 1978 vehicle, it ain't in too bad a shape, just needs a bit of TLC), I find my mind wandering and I have to find nice spots, or simply a lay-by, in which I can get out, stretch my legs, make a coffee and sit down with pen and pad and jot down the third installment of Morg and Ethos' journey. Yes, this may be a spoiler for you, but Ethos is alive and... not altogether well. He's found himself in quite a pickle in fact. And now I have to get on and see if he can find his way out of it...

With a few new characters and an array of new underwater adventures, I hope you will enjoy reading the third and final book, as much as I'm currently enjoying the writing of it.

It is planned for release later this year. Exactly when I cannot say, but you'll learn of it here first.

The photo below was taken on route to Dartmoor. What's not evident is the view I had from this lay-by. It was stunning.

Here is a very helpful walk through on how to format your Word file into a paperback for upload to createspace, by fantasy indie author India Drummond.
I uploaded this as I found it a very easy to understand guide to how it's done.

So, redrafting the short story over the past few days has proven a little menacing. The trouble was I'd opened too many doors and hadn't successfully closed them. So that first draft of 17,000 words has now become just over 20,000 and still there are a few things in need of extending. I'd taken my two main characters, Morg and Ethos, through their paces to leave them ending, reasonably unharmed and set for a new quest, allowing my readers to finish and imagine for themselves how the story ends, or continues if you like. On re-reading though, I discovered, I'd like to know what happens to them, so... well, I've started writing it. Novella it shall be then.

On another note, concerning Words 'find and replace' function. Be careful, changing words this way the function doesn't cater for words within words. For example I wanted, 'sun' to become 'soltaire', well we are talking about a mermaids here, aka, actually I'll leave that for when the story comes out. So, I used the function to find within the passage words like, 'soltairek', which should have been 'sunk'. Be wary my good writer friends, it may throw you.

Yes, after a two week break from writing I'm finally getting back into the swing of it. I'm in the process of editing at the moment having written enough fantasy stories for the collection. (Still don't know what I'm calling it yet. A New Dawn, perhaps).

I've hit a slight dead end though and now I see the importance of why the first draft should be written with no real thought to how it is written. Having been selective in my word use and meticulously worked through a 10,000 or so word short story, I've now come to realise it has very little merit and may have to be binned. I'm just not sure it is doing anything for me anymore and therefore I've spent all that time and effort for seemingly nothing.

I say seemingly, because, all those words are shaping the way in which I write and helping me define my own voice. So, it has been a good run, and I've enjoyed the writing, but it may simply have to go.

I tried to revive it by adding a new perspective from a different character, but still I ask, what it is all about. Originally it was written as a quick read and was less than 5,000 words, but at the end of re-reading I knew it needed more, so kept it going.

Do I continue and try and make it earn its own merit? Or do I walk away?

The next read will tell and I shall make that decision. It'll mean I have to write another for the collection, from a blank page, but so be it. I'd rather have good strong stories included in the collection, than have stories that even I don't feel deserve a place.