Back in March I decided to Spring clean my writing process. For the last five years or so I’ve been working on (mostly) short stories and the start of this year my Macbook’s files and folders were in a bit of a state, with finished drafts and works in progress tumbling over each other in great (virtual) piles. As I had put together (what I think is) the best of my short fiction from that period into my collection, Looking Out of Broken Windows, I decided it was time to declutter my desktop and writing folder. I rejigged my Macbook’s folders, creating an archive of everything written prior to December 2012 and slapping in everything written prior to that point.In the process, I also boxed and lofted the hard copies of anything written between 2008 and the end of 2012, as this Vine Shows.

In the eight weeks since then I have basked in the glory of not just a clean page on which to start sribbling new stories, but clean folders in which to put WIPs, drafts and completed work. It’s been a bit of colonic for the creative part of my brain, shaken quite a bit loose, if you’ll pardon the scatological imagery. Since deciding to do this I’ve completed two new short stories which are now the bedrock upon which my second collection will be built over the next few years. I’ve also managed to break 80,000 words on the novel. I’m hoping to finish before I break 100,000. fear not though, the early chapters need editing with a machete so the word count should be distinctly less than 100k. It’s going to be a lean slice of literature. At least that’s how it now looks in my head.

So that’s what I’ve been doing the last eight to twelve weeks. What with the move back to the U.K. in a couple of months, this year is starting to feel like one of real change. How are things with you?