July has rushed past in a flash, like most summer months. I’ve spent it being quite creative, but not with my writing. Gardening, baking and new sewing projects have all taken up my focus and time this month. It’s been good to have a break from the computer screen and focus my creative energy on something else for a little while. In fact, it’s actually unlocked a few difficulties I was having with my recent scene of Assassins and I managed to write the next two scenes in my current drafting plan.
Drafting and re-drafting is very circular, especially for someone like me whose very much a gardener writer. I’m slowly scraping back the layers of the story to find it’s final form, and tweaking the bits in the early story that will help set up the later arcs.
It’s a slow process, and I’m not as far as I hoped with the draft. However, I will keep plugging away at it – once the beginning is unlocked, I have a feeling the rest of the story will slot into place.
Writing on Caffeine
I have a monthly writing advice newsletter called Writing on Caffeine. If you want to find out more information check out my newsletter page here. As a subscriber you get access to my short story The Gateway of Arieum, which started out as a short story that I then expanded upon.
What else I’ve been up to
I’ve been back on Teaching my Cat to Read’s podcast talking about all things Stormlight Archive! I love doing these special episodes as a “friend of the pod”. If you’re looking for a friendly book review podcast, do check them out!
You can check out the other episodes I’ve previously been involved in on their episodes page.
What I’ve been reading
Having made my way through The Farseer Trilogy, I’ve now dived into The Liveship Traders Trilogy by Robin Hobb. So far, it’s been a great read!
I’ve also (finally) read Arcanum Unbounded by Brandon Sanderson – a definite recommendation for anyone whose reading the cosmere stories!
Alex.J.Cobalt 