editing

The Danger of Juggling Too Many Writing Projects

~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

I wouldn’t advise anyone to do what I do…

Image by Theodor Moise from Pixabay

The other evening I was sitting at my laptop in my bedroom typing away when my youngest child wandered in to ask what I was up to. I assumed he wanted the short answer, ‘writing’, but he wanted the long one. He wanted to know what book I was working on. Sweet of him, but I instantly rolled my eyes and laughed. I held up my hand and warned him. I can’t answer that quickly, I told him, it’s always a long and complicated answer!

So, bless him, that’s what he got and to his credit, he did seem interested. He kept asking more questions so I assume he was legitimately intrigued! My answer went a bit like this, “I’m writing what might be part three to the book I just published… but I’m still not 100% sure if I am going to do it, but I just finished the fifth edit on part two, so I need a little break from editing, but really I should be editing the next Black Hare Valley book, but I’m probably delaying that series now while I get this one done which was always meant to be one book but now looks like it will be a trilogy…or I should be starting the rewrite for The 7th Child which is an unrelated book I wrote recently which really needs a big rewrite, but I’m just not in the mood to do it yet, probably because these books are too much in my mind. Plus, I did write a chapter or two of another unrelated book recently, but I’m gonna have to ignore that too…”

We also got into how the trilogy that wasn’t meant to be is related to and connected to lots of my other books.

He nodded and grinned. Probably wondered how unhinged his mother is. I felt suddenly exhausted by the work I have given myself. It isn’t easy juggling multiple projects and although I long ago accepted that this is just the way my mind works and there is no point resisting it, I do sometimes feel myself buckle under the weight of it.

In an ideal world I would get an idea, plan and plot and research, start writing, finish book, edit, edit, revise, edit and so on, publish, market and then start again with a new idea. I feel like that would be so peaceful, so organised, so chilled… I truly envy people who work like that.

It has never been like that for me. I have always found myself balancing multiple writing projects, editing something while writing something new, marketing old books while marketing new books, writing down ideas I didn’t want, feeling books push to the front and jump the queue, and books that were meant to be standalones evolving into trilogies…. Most evenings involve me splitting my time between editing one book and writing another.

Most of the time it’s fine and I just go with it. There is always one book that is the priority and that is usually the one closest to being published, but not always. I try to prioritise that one so my approach isn’t completely scattergun. The book that is furthest ahead will keep getting pushed towards that publication finish line. There is always another book, maybe two, being written at the same time though. I just can’t help it.

And sometimes it does stress me out. I think one of the hardest things is having my mind in several different books at the same time. The worlds might be very different, for example. I’ll be fully immersed in the world of one book and then have to switch vibes to work on another. This is hard when it comes to characters. Character is the most important element of story writing for me, and I’m always extremely happy when my reviews mention how much the reader loved the characters. But it would genuinely be better to just concentrate on one book at a time and be fully engaged with that set of characters. Instead, I am all over the place, and I am constantly worrying that it might dilute the characters or that I might confuse them.

To be fair, I don’t think that has ever happened but it is one of the reasons I wish I could concentrate on one project at a time.

The other thing that makes it hard is time. I wish I had more time. I wish every day was twice as long and then I could get everything done twice as fast and get on to the next waiting story. I think I live with the fear that I will die before I get all my books written. There is a tab on this site for my upcoming books – that should give you an idea of the amount of noise in my head all the time! Every time I get a book finished and published, I feel such an incredible sense of relief and letting go.

It’s also difficult from a stress point of view. A lot of the time it is fun working like this, jumping from one project to the next every day. It keeps things fresh and exciting. Sometimes though, it is stressful. It feels like I have given myself an unbearable load of homework and it often feels like something terrible will happen if I don’t complete it all!

I have my everyday to-do lists: plant seeds, change the beds, order dog food, water the plants, put the washing on, etc. Then I have my work-related to-do list: reply to that email, check online banking, prep the next weeks lessons, edit the children’s project and so on.

And then there is the endless writing to-do list I insist on giving myself. My on-going projects are on a piece of paper pinned to the wall beside me when I write. About twice a year I get the thrill of ticking one book off because I have published it! But the rest lays heavy on my shoulders. And I really, really don’t want to get any new ideas. Which is why I often avoid writing short stories…

Who knows what they could grow into?

How I Write A Book – In Pictures

~ ChanAtkins ~ 5 Comments

This is my tried and tested process

The fastest I have ever written a first draft is four weeks, which broke my previous record of six weeks. Now, these are the easy books – the ones that burst into your head fully formed and simply require some dedication and slightly unhinged addictive typing to get written. My average time to write a first draft is three months. It’s also important to point out that I am not one of those writers who edits as I go. I don’t. I rarely even read over what I wrote the day before. I just let it tumble out in a gloriously clumsy, scruffy, and undoubtedly ugly splurge. The real hard work, the editing and rewriting comes after and that can take me a few years!

But here’s how I get that first draft out of my head and into a book form.

Step 1: you need a notebook! Image is mine

Step 1: Yep, it’s as simple and as old-fashioned as that. I get a notebook and allocate it to the book idea. The ideas are crowding my head now and need to be written down. It won’t be particularly organised. Other than pages for character bios and plot ideas, the initial writing will be an outpouring of what has been building in my head. I highly recommend the notebook approach. I know its tempting to do it all online or on Word, or whatever you use, but there is something scary and clinical about that crisp fresh new document blinking back at you and it can feel intimidating, even impossible to get started. A notebook is far friendlier and you can carry it about with you. No one has to see it. It’s private, just for you. It’s a way in. An open door. Now, anything can happen.

Step 2: First page of notebook: ideas explosion! Image is mine

Step 2: The next thing that happens is an ideas explosion. Mind-maps or brainstorms are good too, but I like to just list my ideas and then later when chapters are being written I have the satisfying job of going back and ticking off what I’ve done. These ideas won’t be in order, by the way. And a lot of them won’t make it into the book. New ideas and sub-plots will inevitably muscle their way in too.

Step 3: chapter outlines! Image is mine

Step 3: The next step is chapter outlines. This is easier if the whole book has leapt into your head the way this one did in mine, but it can be achieved with less as well. I often find that starting chapter outlines gets me really far into the book, and often ends with me plotting the entire thing. Outlining one chapter, for example, very often leads you into the next.

Step 4: Start writing the book on your laptop. I prefer Word for many reasons. The notebook of chaos runs alongside the writing. The notebook is indeed now very chaotic! New chapters have pushed themselves in between the original chapter outlines, and I end up with circles and crosses and arrows all over the place. No one else would be able to make sense of it, but I can, and that’s all that matters. Why still use the notebook? Why use one at all? I’ve already mentioned my own reasons for writing a book this way but there has also been a lot of research lately that concludes that all our brain is active when we handwrite, whereas only part of our brain is active when writing on screens. In other words, writing by hand makes us think more! I often wonder if my books would be different if I planned, plotted, outlined and wrote all of it on the screen.

Step 5: Using the notebook of chaos to guide you, ticking things off, circling ideas, crossing things out, now, you write the book! And how do you do this? It’s easy. YOU JUST DO IT. I can’t explain it any better. You just sit down at the keyboard and write. You make a habit and stick to it. Go for walks when you get stuck. Keep going. One word at a time until it is done. There is no secret formula, no magic spell. YOU JUST WRITE IT.

Step 6: 2nd draft is the timeline edit! Image is mine

Step 6. The book is now written in the first draft. I go back to the start and read through and at the same time I make note of a timeline in the notebook. I should do this when I am writing the first draft but I nearly always neglect to. For me, the purpose of a second draft is to read through what just happened, as I often don’t remember, and to apply the timeline so there are no date based plot holes or inconsistencies. I will also make changes and amend typos etc if I see them.

Step 7: the third draft is the first rewrite! Image is mine

Step 7. The third draft is the first rewrite! By rewrite I mean that I’ve found plot holes or changed my mind about sub-plots, or have decided to cut down some POVs, or change something fairly major. This involves more actual writing rather than editing typos. This is more time consuming than the second draft but much quicker than the first!

Step 8: The fourth draft is the Kindle edit! Image is mine

Step 8 is what I call the Kindle edit. I’ve written the book, applied the correct timeline and rewritten bits I didn’t think worked. Now I need to step back and read it as a reader. I send it to my Kindle and with a notebook on the go to pick up typos, repetitive words etc, I get going. I am mostly assessing how the book reads. Is it too fast or too slow? Are there parts that are in any way repetitive? Are my characters nodding or shrugging too much? (Yes, they always are.) Are my characters well written? Is the dialogue realistic? I am highly critical when doing this edit. Mostly I want to assess how much I enjoy reading the book!

my kindle edit – image is mine

Step 9: The fifth draft happens next. I go back to Word and fix anything the Kindle edit picked up. This might be quick if everything went well, or it might involve another rewrite if I wasn’t happy with the book!

Step 10: What happens next? The sixth draft. Another Kindle edit. Another draft. Then off to my editor. Do the editor’s edits. And so on….

So, there you have it. And to summarise, my top tips for writing a book?

  • a notebook
  • plan as much as possible before you start
  • THEN JUST WRITE THE BOOK

The Dark Finds You Is Out Now!!

~ ChanAtkins ~ 2 Comments

And is it about to become a trilogy??

Image is mine https://books2read.com/u/mKjewB

Last Friday I released by 24th book, gritty crime thriller, The Dark Finds You. This book about dark pasts converging in the battle to find a missing teenager, can be read and enjoyed as a standalone, but it also fits into a bigger universe of connected characters and plots. If you’ve read The Boy With The Thorn In His Side series, The Holds End Trilogy, The Mess of Me, The Mess of Us, Elliot Pie’s Guide To Human Nature or At Night We Played In The Road, you will find some familiar faces and locations in The Dark Finds You!

The idea for this novel came to me when writing The Mess Of Us and At Night We Played In The Road. Those books already fitted into a connected universe, as At Night We Played In The Road is technically a spin-off from The Boy With The Thorn In His Side series, and The Mess of Us and Me are set in the same universe and location. These books also had connecting plotlines with drug abuse, drug running, music and community being common themes.

The Holds End trilogy, essentially a murder mystery centred around enigmatic teenage singer, Bill Robinson, also takes place in the same universe and has similar plotlines converging.

This is why The Dark Finds You was so easy to write! All these characters had already converged, their storylines connected and their locations crossed over. The plot of a missing boy was then used to pull them all together and the plan was to end this universe for good. Tie up their individual storylines as well as the missing boy plot. I wrote The Dark Finds You over six weeks back in 2023 and it’s had to wait this long to get its release date. It is now available in ebook and paperback across multiple platforms.

So, what next? Well, in checking The Dark Finds You paperback proof for any errors just before Christmas, I suddenly got some new ideas and a sequel exploded in my head. There were a few things I left open at the end of the book and that crack was enough to let the ideas seep in. I had the whole plot within a day and simply could not resist writing it! Over Christmas I had three weeks off work and the book just poured out of me in a total of four weeks. Of course, that’s a rough first draft and it needs a lot of work!

This week I dived into my second draft of The Dark Finds You – Part Two. This is what I call a read-through draft, (where I remind myself of what I wrote!) and a timeline draft, (where I set out the timeline of events in a notebook to ensure there are no inconsistencies.) This didn’t take long to complete and by the end of it I had some things I wanted to change.

A few minor things to add and embellish and one major thing to change. This means that draft three which starts now, will be a rewrite more than an edit.

And then, guess what happened?

My rewrite ideas, which undoubtedly make the whole novel more twisty and unpredictable, led me to ideas for a possible part three…

Noooooooo!

I was meant to be releasing the Black Hare Valley series this year…

I have delayed that for the moment because it feels right to fully concentrate on this potential trilogy and get it done. I won’t say it will end the universe forever because that’s probably not going to happen, is it? It seems I love this world too much.

I am not 100% certain I will write a part three and make The Dark Finds You a trilogy… but the changes I make to part two will certainly leave that as a possibility.

In the meantime, I have got to crack on with this third draft/rewrite and also not neglect to market the first book!

As usual, thanks for joining me hear in my tiny corner of the internet! Thank you for your support in 2025 and for sticking with me into 2026!

Writing and Life Goals for 2026!

~ ChanAtkins ~ 2 Comments

What do I hope to achieve in the year ahead?

Image by Wilfried Pohnke from Pixabay

Hello everyone! I hope you have had a truly happy and peaceful holiday season and may I wish you a very happy New Year! My last post saw me checking the goals I set myself at the start of 2025 and exploring the reality of whether I met them or not! I failed two, achieved six, and half-achieved two, which I thought was pretty good.

So, let’s not hang about. What do I want to achieve in writing and in life in 2026?

  1. Publish The Dark Finds You in January 2006! – This won’t be hard to achieve as the pre-order is already set up for the 9th January. I’m giving myself an easy start…
  2. Start final/final edits for Black Hare Valley Book 1 and release it May 1st 2026: I really hope I achieve this as I want this book to be released on 1st May because May Day is a very important day in the Black Hare Valley universe! Book 1 is with my editor right now so fingers crossed…
  3. Release another anthology written by the kids I work with – Not long after publishing The World You Gave Us, we launched another collaborative writing project where all the stories and poems had to be set in a strange town called Lakeside View. At the time of writing I am waiting for a handful of longer stories to come in and hope to have all editing and formatting done by the start of February…
  4. Finish The Dark Finds You sequel – This should be easy. I am almost at the end of the first draft of the book that wasn’t meant to happen. I would like to get this ready to go to the editor in 2026 with a possible release date of autumn 2026…
  5. Continue to edit/rework the rest of the Black Hare Valley series: At the moment I’m not sure how close I want to release each of the 5 books, so there is no major goal being set for publication after book 1… However, I do need to keep working on the rest of them and prioritise this series over everything else!
  6. Start the rewrite of The 7th Child – I recently finished the first draft of this family mystery drama and hated it by the end. I know how to fix it though and it needs a major rewrite. I was all ready to dive into this when the sequel for The Dark Finds You suggested itself! However, I really want to start the rewrite at some point this year…
  7. Continue to stick to Substack and make a few changes, and continue to stick with Medium: It’s always hard figuring out where and how to prioritise your time as a writer. Is it writing for other platforms that might make you money and/or improve your visibility? Or is just writing your own books? I’ve enjoyed both Medium and Substack in 2025 and I plan to stick with them with no particular pressure to do better. Just to have fun. I do have a few changes in mind for Substack though.
  8. Have my best year in the garden ever!!: Oh, I hope so. This might be my most important goal actually. I have worked really hard through the autumn preparing the vegetable patch for the spring and summer and I feel more determined than ever to do really well. I also see it as an emergency. We can’t rely on governments to address or slow down climate change, or help us adapt to it! I am really concerned about rising food prices and food security in general. The best thing we can all do is at least grow something. I also plan to get more ducks and chickens, plant more fruit trees and bushes and lots more herbs!
  9. Complete a reading challenge: I haven’t done one in ages but an author I know created one on Storygraph where you have to read a book starting with each letter of the alphabet. This seemed fun and simple so I signed up! Let’s hope I manage to complete the alphabet!
  10. Get better at sketching: This is partly because I dearly want each chapter of each Black Hare Valley book to start with a small ink sketch and partly because I used to love drawing as a child and it’s been fun to reclaim it. I did basic drawings for the chapters I serialised but they all need to be much better for publication! I hope to find a good YouTube tutorial that will help me…

So, there you have it! A real mix of writing related and general life goals for 2026. I am so excited to get started! Do you have any hopes or dreams for the year ahead? Please feel free to share in the comments!

Happy New Year!!