Am I busy enough? Apparently not. Between in-person events, The Big Purge last weekend, and trying to maintain some sort of a social life, I’m still managing to get lots of writing done. Am I overworking myself? Maybe. But am I close to burn out? I hope not. Once was enough.
Although I started out with strict writing and editing goals for April, things did not go according to plan. But in a good way. So instead of just working on one project, I ended up working on four. This is becoming an addiction, isn’t it?
The obvious project is Skull Daddy. With the book launch coming up, I’ve been prepping for the Night Market, finishing the copy editing (thank you Lisa!), and not-so-patiently awaiting the cover art (thank you Emily!). But given how much I’ll be talking about Skull Daddy during May and June, I’ll take pity on you all for now and skip over the details. Just know that this novella has taken over my entire life.
Next up: The Tunnel. As I mentioned in my last writing update, I needed a little longer with this round of edits. And boy am I glad I took that extra time. I am so much happier with the story as a whole and I’m finally ready to have another human being read it. Yes, that means Trevor. As you’ve probably guessed by the lack of podcast episodes, he has also been crazy busy. But he assured me that he gets to rest soon – which means he’ll have plenty of time for reading and podcasting! (I swear, we’ve recorded another episode. It just hasn’t been edited yet).
With everything going on, I needed a break from Flasher this month. This has been my silly and fun writing project, but once I started over thinking it, adding deadlines, and being strict with it, I lost the element of fun. I needed to take a step back so I didn’t end up resenting it. And I’m glad I did. I felt that the collection was missing something that (hopefully) later drafts would be able to address. As of this morning, I think I figured out how to inject more fun and more weirdness into the project. I’m going to get experimental – might even have to plan a photography day. I can’t wait to get back into this one now that I’ve had my eureka moment.
Originally, GOATS was supposed to be my only WIP this month (apart from keeping up to date with the latest Skull Daddy developments). I came up with the idea a year or two ago, wrote two chapters, and then ditched it. I liked the core concept but wasn’t sure how to go about writing this story. This idea needed time to marinate. And like with Flasher, I’m glad I waited instead of forcing something to happen. I realized that this would be a great opportunity to try out folk horror. It still has elements of my usual trauma-based domestic horror, but things are going to get trippy. I’ve loosely planned (What?! No pantsing?!) the whole book, but thanks to everything I’ve mentioned in the above paragraphs I am very behind in the writing. But I’m not going to rush it. This is one story I really want to take my time with.
And for those of you wondering – don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about Modern Hauntings. Now that it’s gone through its own marination period, I’m just about ready to open up that first draft and get started on edits. But that’s a problem for another month…
