It’s out with the old and in with the new in my office this week…

Exciting stuff! For the first time in two years, I’m starting work on a completely new story. I’m creating new characters and I’m thoroughly enjoying making up profiles and back stories for Emily, Nate and Mike. (I think that’s what they’ll be called. I’m comfy with these names. Their personas are taking shape… but I’ll reserve judgement until I’m actually writing).

I thought I’d miss Sophie and Dan. And I do! But it’s fabulous to make new friends.

Obviously I’ve been talking about my upcoming fourth Work-in-Progress on Facebook and I realize that this must be really quite weird for people who aren’t me. I mean, Sophie’s RUN is only just out. Sophie’s ENCORE will be out in September, so there’s definitely another Nicky Wells book a-coming. And already this crazy author moves on, talks about her next WiP? How? Why? Slow down and… explain!

So I’ve been putting on my thinking cap and tried to visualize the internal, rolling work plan that I seem to be following. See, when one book goes to the publisher for editing, that’s the moment I use to plan the next book and, time permitting, to start writing. It’s a multi-stage, overlapping process that takes between 20 and 30 weeks from start to finish. And if your mind boggles at all of this, maybe a little picture will help. Here goes:

It is only a rough guide (and a blurry one~I do apologize. By all means, click on the image to enlarge it!). A lot depends on how it’s all going; how many edits are needed, how much time is spent proofing and, of course, any other commitments I may have (like…school holidays!). That’s why there’s so much flexibility in the weeks ‘alloted’ for each stage. And evidently one vital activity ~ promotion ~ is missing apart from a reference to ‘blog tours’; that’s simply because promotion is ongoing. It happens every day.  But nonetheless, maybe this little map helps you get an idea of how I work.

Right now, I’m at the overlapping tasks of starting to think about my next blog tour for WiP #1 (Sophie’s Encore) while planning my fourth book (WiP #2).

I actually find that alternating between projects and getting some distance from each several times in the process really helps me evaluate my work. Plus it stops me going mad, LOL.

So. You don’t have to be mad to be an author, but it helps.
What do you reckon? 🙂