Good evening folks! How are we doing this evening?

This morning I edited 11397 words on War Child in about two hours. Most of this edit is me correcting typos and removing unnecessary paragraphs etcetera. It’s also serving to show that there is a lot of problems that I’ve missed while doing the red pen pass a few months ago. A reason why I was so hesitate and fearful of this story is the complexities it has. I have the arc in this first book, but then I have the overall arc of the series. I know how it ends, and have a somewhat decent idea of some of the beats to get there, but in knowing it’s multiple books means I’ve got to get this first one right. Not only to hook the reader but to also have the building blocks for the rest of the series in place for when I come to write those books. And I’m scared I’m gonna bugger it all up!

I did do a little work on Penal Earth 2 yesterday. Compared to War Child this world is less complicated but in totally different ways. A big example of that is that although there is an arc over books it’s only over three books, and it’s a lot less broad than what War Child has going. It feels more straightforward, which I know it isn’t. It has it’s own complications but like so much in life, they are different.

I’ve felt better in the last forty-eight hours or so. Although I haven’t mentioned it much my mental health hasn’t been great for some time now, but I’ve tried my best to work through and figure out the why’s of where my head is on any given day. Now, come tomorrow I could swing the other way but until tomorrow comes I don’t know that. I used to think there was a silver bullet to perfect mental health. Over the last four years I’ve realised that there’s no such thing as a silver bullet. With my mental health it’s about looking at myself, figuring out why I’m down on a particular day; did I sleep badly? if so why did I sleep badly? Did I eat something that didn’t sit well. Did I do something like game or watch a movie that got my brain too active? There’s numerous things that can bring me down, but I find getting decent sleep is always a good start. I don’t think I’ll ever have great, long term mental health, but I can work limit my down moments and manage them better and better. I just have to be able to look at myself.

Okay, that went a littler deeper than I was planning too! I’m off to watch a movie. I hope everyone’s week has been good so far. If it hasn’t, I hope it improves 🙂