The month of February found me curled up in bed with either a trashcan or a box of tissues nearby. My glorious plans of a timely post and finishing chapter four of my current project were thoroughly dashed by drain on my inspiration, a stomach bug, and a week later, the flu. Needless to say, for such a short month, February was a long one for me.

And yet, it wasn’t an entirely unproductive month.

I got ready for Read An E-Book week by putting my books on sale on Smashwords. Two of my stories are on sale this week (March 3rd-9th) : Of Secrets, Letters, and Lions is free, and the sequel Of Secrets and Sound is half off at $0.99.

I also came to an odd realization. The more ill I am, the more inspired I become. Maybe it’s the fever induced dreams, or maybe it’s because I do so little aside from lying in bed and letting my mind wander. In an odd stroke of inspiration I decided to go back and edit what I had of my current project.

Although I’m still editing (it’s near impossible to edit when one is running a fever), the idea to go back and work on what I had has really worked for me. I also decided to share a bit of my editing process on Instagram. But now I want to share more details. While writing is a solitary experience, it’s more fun when parts of the journey are shared.

My editing process consists of me reading through the chapter and making notes in different colors. In this case blue was what I wanted to add, and purple was what I needed to change. Once that’s done, I go back and I read over my edits. If it doesn’t flow the way I like, I edit my edits. Eventually I’m satisfied and type it up.

I was pretty content to keep going forward with my second draft. But I’ll repeat the process quite a few times before I release this into the wild. Regardless, I’m looking forward to it. I love writing, the pouring out of words, but I also love editing. I love carving away what’s not needed and getting closer to how I envision the book.

Of course, if I’m sharing this picture from my Instagram, then clearly there’s a reason I chose those books to star in the picture. The three books (Zodiac by Graysmith, Outliers by Gladwell, and The Tattooed Girl by Burstein, De Keijzer, Holmberg), all touch on elements in my WiP. While there are no serial killers, there’s obsession, mystery, powerful people, and a darkness that I haven’t touched on in my other works. In a way that makes the book easier to write. There’s no limits, except my own. On the other hand, it’s more difficult. How far can I push myself? How do I write about very real, very dark topics, with respect? Like any story, it’s a journey, and despite some lingering sniffles, I’m quite enjoying it.