It’s a very odd thing to look back at my list of blog posts and realise that I haven’t posted anything in almost 10 months! More than anything this has been because my work on my second book in the Source Stories series has pretty much ground to a halt. I love the concept and the story that had begun to evolve, but I’m stuck on moving it beyond the first chapter.
The pandemic has been a factor, but I can honestly say that it is more down to me. My mental health issues are largely dormant (although enforced lockdown of the last few months has made it harder), but I find myself crippled creatively. I look back on two periods of my immense writing activity – the first two months of 2018, when I first started writing FtCW and this time 12 months ago, when I was finally working to make major edits to that original manuscript – and I don’t know how I did it. How did I maintain my focus on the project? How did I go from having nothing to an almost complete book?
One of the big conclusions I have come to is that I just did it. I focused and I wrote and somehow the book came together. I just wish I could do that again…
So instead of dwelling further on my difficulty, I have decided to take a break from trying and am going to work on other writing projects. I hope to create some short stories over the coming few weeks and months. The aim is to publish one a week. They will be stories about Norfolk and the East of England, historically plausible and well-researched as has been my intention from the beginning. I will publish them on here initially, but may look to compile them into a volume later, we shall see.
I welcome any suggestions for subject areas from readers, just leave comments below and I will take a look. Please bear in mind, anything I write will be appropriate for a Middle Grade audience and written from their perspective.
I hope all who read this are staying safe,
JGJ
JGJ Books 