The process of writing is always some combination of inspiration and perspiration. As the cliche goes, it’s usually more perspiration than inspiration, and one of the things that that makes writing a job and not just a hobby is writing even when inspiration is low. It’s always better to get the words on the page, 500 words a day, or 1,000 words a day, 2,000 even, and then edit them later. Writing always needs polishing before it can see the light of day, so words on the page are always better than words in your head.

All this is to say that I’ve been gathering my thoughts and getting ready to write something new. There are always times when my day job keeps me so busy that I’m not writing anything, and there’s always a stage where I have a little time but need to get back into the groove. That’s one of those times when the perspiration over inspiration rule is important. Sometimes, just trying out a paragraph of a new story helps get the habit back, even if the paragraph ends up being deleted or consigned to the ‘story ideas’ file. There’s way too many ideas in that file, way more than I can write at any one time!

This time, I spent a long time deciding what to write next, even if I know that a lot of the ideas I have are ones I’ll write eventually. I’m definitely going to write a Book 3 to the Poolside Pleasure series, and I now have the first 1,000 words down. It’s not going to be next though, and neither is Book 5 of The Sex Club series. They’ll come, but they’re not ready yet. There are other, even older ideas I could have used: picking up with Holly and Nick after Amber leaves them is on the cards, but not yet either. Every once in a while, I add a few hundred words to a story called Welcome to Hardshaft Hall, and I’ve got a coming of age story set on a university campus that I’ve got a full story outline for, plus detailed notes for a very dark story called Corruptible. They’ll get written, one day. There are also newer ideas, pushing their way to the front of the line. I wrote a 500 word outline for a menage a trois story set on a farm last week – I very nearly let it jump right to the front, I liked it that much. A couple of days later though I was looking for cover images for another story idea, something called Passed Around (I think the title makes the story theme clear enough…) In the end, I turned to another story, one that’s been in the ideas file for about a year, competing for attention when I was in the middle of The Sex Club series (it’s another story where I even got as far as making the cover, I liked the idea so much). It’s called Straying at Home. Last time I tried (a year or so ago), I wrote five lines. This time, more than 3,000 words have appeared in a couple of days. I think it’s fair to say that Straying at Home has pushed it’s way to the very front of the line!

I don’t know when Straying at Home will be out, but it’ll be soon-ish. I’ll update you again when I’m surer!