I've been writing the book for 24 days now and I've managed to write something every day so far. Some days have been better than others but I'm feeling the benefits of momentum, the happiness of making progress.

The word count is now at 24,000 words.

On other slightly related news, I discovered a podcast series called The Bestseller Experiment, run by two guys who are attempting to write a bestseller in a year. They have interviewed some great names so far like Michael Connolly and Joe Abercrombie. They are full of great nuggets. I particularly like Abercrombie's quote about making it: "The longer you dance in the rain naked, the better your chances of being hit by lightening." Basically: Don't quit.

I've been thinking about self-publishing SWITCH/BLADE and HE WHO FIGHTS recently.I'm proud of the books and both have come close to being picked up by real publishers so I believe they are of a quality good enough to stand up if I do go down that route.

With that in mind, I designed another fake cover (or rather the cover) for HE WHO FIGHTS.

I know I'm watching word counts but the sense of making progress is very important at this stage - especially after the writer's block that plagued me over the summer. The book stands at just over 18,000 words. I lost a bit of steam last week due to work pressure but that's unavoidable.

I write in Scrivenir which is just the most amazing writing programme. I love how it shows the words done in changing colours. Already I've moved from red to orange.

I had a very good day yesterday and managed 1400 words. As I've said before I'm not the fastest when it comes to writing.

I also did a couple of drawings last night. My first attempts at characters from Harry Potter.

The Book now stands at just under 15,000 words after 13 days. I slowed down over the weekend. Two crazy kids kind of take up a lot of energy - to the point it feels like being back at work is a break! But still managed to get stuff done. I got up at 5am this morning to crank out 700 words before breakfast as well.

I know I'm not the fastest writer and I easily get distracted but I'm super happy with where I am. I must admit there were moments post-finishing HWF that I honestly thought I wasn't going to be bale to write a book again. Everything I tried, I failed spectacularly to make any progress. I couldn't even write one page of one book idea I had.

The Book almost feels like it's writing itself at the moment.

I'm still drawing too. Not as regularly as I was during Inktober but sneaking time here and there — mainly when I'm too frazzled to write.

As the release date for Rogue One draws near, I've started doodling some of the characters from that movie.

I've bought a few Copic markers to try out. They are the ones all the comic book artists use and I must say I've become a big fan very quickly. Much better than the ones I've been using previously - especially the Windsor and Newton ones I bought. Rather surprisingly I found them in a book shop rather than an art store - but that's Dubai really!

Another boring word count update but I'm at 12,000 words after 10 days. Super happy with the progress. Super happy with what the words actually say. There are 4 main POV characters so it's also the most ambitious novel I've attempted. Plus there are no sword fights yet either! Shocking.:)

I know word count updates are boring but I've reached 10,000 words on my new book after 8 days of writing. I know I have another 110,000 to go but after not being able to make any progress of any sort for so long, I'm super happy with what I've done.

It feels good. It feels fun. It's on its way.

I'm making good, steady progress on the new book. 6 days of writing and 7500 words. Having different POV characters is a joy again after writing a whole book from one POV. And more importantly, I'm really enjoying writing again after months of pain and frustration. It just goes to show that it was my brain telling me there was something wrong with the ideas rather than my ability to tell a story.

Not such great news on HWF. One of the agents turned it down last week and the other has gone silent on me and isn't replying to any chasing emails. I don't really understand why this practice is so common. Surely, it's easier to just drop a note and say "no thanks" than to go dark? It must be annoying getting chaser emails from writers all the time?  But it is what it is.

I'm proud of my work on the book but time to emotionally move on to the new one.