I lost my social skills a while ago but now I feel them coming back

Inside Ed’s Head 2023-12-04

Happy birthday to my mum!

#Music

Some of you can probably remember that I took the title to Marshall from Arab Strap’s comeback single, The Turning of our Bones. I’m going to see them in sunny Galashiels (read: effing cold Galashiels) on Thursday, but here’s another cracking tune by them (the video’s a bit weird):

#Last Week

Okay, so my task last week was to finish the outline for Marshall 5. Did I?

I’ll leave you in suspense to talk a bit about focus. One of the reasons I can release so many books, so frequently, is I have the luxury of being able to focus on my writing for hours at a time without interruption. It’s not always been that way – I used to write on trains (or occasionally on planes and in automobiles – there’s a film in that) during my commute, which was all about interruption. It’s when I learnt the power of the outline – plan out what I’m writing for the book, so I can pick up and tap out some words in ten minutes when I’m waiting for a train.

So, did I finish? Of course I did! Did the final few chapters on Thursday before I went to collect my car from the garage. Of course, that wasn’t finished, so I had to trudge back on Friday night to collect it.

#This Week

Anyway, I fixed up the text over the weekend and sent it off for editing. So that’s one of the main tasks this week. Fingers crossed, I should be cutting some words on it this week. Be good to get back to writing something. I find writing the Marshall books a bit easier than Fenchurch, which is why they tend to be longer books too.

Otherwise, I’m spending a bit of time this week working on PROJECT NEXT STEP, which is a co-writing project (hopefully third time lucky on that score). It’s going pretty well, have to say, and I hope you’ll all enjoy it when it comes out. No timescale or release – probably just drop it when it’s ready to go live.

And I’m having a bit of a think about PROJECT HIGH CONCEPT’s sequel. Had a great idea I can’t use (or rather, shouldn’t) that would fit PERFECTLY. But I’ve got something different that’s maybe not QUITE as strong conceptually, but is pretty bloody solid and will make for a more riveting read – the other idea was impossible to write in a satisfactory way, but this is a touch more direct.

Anyway… That’s me for a week. Got a busy one, so I’ll see you all next week.

Oh, there’s this:

And this:

Aye, it’s been snowing. Hopefully it’ll melt without getting all skytie.

Cheers,
Ed