Five runs?

I'm making up for lost time after three weeks of self imposed sitting down to edit Coalface - so I'm on my fifth run in as many days.

Five runs?  Yeah, five runs.

Okay, five short runs.

Day one was as much staggering as running.
Day two was all running, but I was good for nothing at the end.
Day three was... pretty good.
Day four better...
Day five, and I'm back up to speed.

After thinking I'd lost my running mojo, there it was - I just had to work for it.

I'm feeling the same thing about starting the follow up stories to Coalface and Hidden Daughter.  
Getting into the rhythm of being open to every possible new idea in an emerging story is a different discipline to making everything flow inside a finished one.

Then I find an old photo, or a quote, or work out the age of someone in 1882... and I'm off again.

Whatever you're working on, if you get the feeling you're stuck at day one or two, stick with it - day three is just around the corner.

Done.

Another milestone week - I've completed edits for Coalface, my YA Victorian adventure novel, after three weeks of intensive rewrites (there's always rewrites) and editing, while the rain fell and the sun shone outside, turning the back garden into a small jungle.  But now, we're done.  Spellchecked, backed up, saved.  Properly done.

It's a strange time.  I've spent a long time walking with the fantastic characters in the book, putting their hopes, fears, actions and reactions down on paper; but at some point, that has to stop.  I expected to feel a little anxiety about stepping out of my hero's amazing Victorian world, but the truth is, we've only just started.

Two glasses of very pleasant red wine and a page of scribbles later, the second book is underway.  New horizons to explore, new people to meet, new challenges to be faced.

Meanwhile, the grass outside is knee deep, and needs a cut; so I'd better get it sorted.  Well soon, anyway.