Today’s writing has been sponsored by the William Tell: Overture and I think I’ve slowly driven myself insane

Some really exciting news 😆

IVE BEEN SHORTLISTED!! 🎉 Check out the excerpt here: www.futureworldsprize.co.uk/2025-prize/

Guess who cut 20k words from their Caribbean Gothic novel? (tis I!) it’s now sitting at a very lovely >95k. I’m so close to being done with this R&R I can taste it!!

Down the spyglasses eye, the Tecora glinted in the distance. Its rusting metal hull flushed sanguine through peeling haint blue, disguising it as a bleeding cloud on the desert’s barren horizon. #Q #A #F #CMe #1stLinePit #CaribbeanGothic

It's Spring! What better time to embark on an epic writing adventure? I'm excited to be running my Writing Fantasy course again this year with @cbcreative.bsky.social starting April. If you'd like to join me, the deadline for applying is 16th March! www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/course/writi...

If you were ever wondering what an R&R and 72 hrs of listening to pitbull gets you, it’s this monstrosity. Yup every single one of those post-its has been colour coded and extensively written on 🫠

An updated agents guide for my Caribbean Gothic Fantasy that I #amquerying It’s Wide Sargasso Sea X The Unbroken X Black Sails, with disaster sapphics, a plethora of monsters and vengeful gods #WritingCommunity

I swear to god, if I ever think about pantsing a book again, please take me out back and just—

Got an R&R on my manuscript (which is delightful) but I have just spotted a spelling mistake in the third sentence of the opening chapter and good lord I feel like I have been stabbed 🥲 this is going to be painful.

This is actually giving me a stomachache 😂

Am I the first person to write about preserved testicles in The British Library, probably not. Will I be the funniest person to? God I hope so.

Tfw you’ve unknowingly written something really cool into your manuscript and past you feels like a genius, while current you is like…

Plot holes? I prefer the term ‘mystery elements I’ll fix later.’

I woke up to another full request 🥺 This is really making up for January being back to back rejections 🎉

I got another full request!!! 🎉🎉 which really makes up for the fact all my trains are cancelled and I’m currently stuck in London 🥴

Ophelia starts her last year at uni caught between a rock and a hard place. The rock: the Parthenon marbles. And the hard place, the criminals who want her to steal them to settle her father’s gambling debt of £13 mil. Or, that’s what’s she telling everyone #P2Ppit #W #A #C #F

I have no idea how I was able to sit in the library at university for days at a time, I’m on my second day at my local and I’m slowly going insane 🫠

So in theory, if I write 3000 words for the next 15 days I could have this first draft finished by the end of Jan, which means I would have written an entire book in around 2 months 😱

📖 After murdering her fiance, Selene decides to throw away her dreams of being a housewife to take care of the pack of werewolves she has inherited. MOONLIT is an adult, genre-bending novel about found family and how collapse can change relationships for good. #BluePit #Q #A #F #LGBT #Dis #OV

ARCANE x OCEANS 11 Em made a deal with a god five years ago to get her friend out of prison. Now it’s time to play her part. She must steal that god’s violin out of a museum and deliver it to his chosen bard. But if she’s caught, she’ll go to prison forever. #BluePit 📖 #Q #A #F #LGBTQ #ND #DIS

🕯️Gaslight in the Bayou 🐊 ✨Flickering Lights✨ Paula is raised on Laissez les bons temps rouler until the day her childhood ends abruptly when her parents die. In her grief, will she miss red flags that could prove fatal? #WIP #T #H #Q

HUNGER GAMES × COBAB × POWERLESS Inspired by Central African mythology A boy with dangerous blood magic must compete in a deadly competition to save his mom's soul from the Underworld, but his growing love for the Prince threatens to destroy the kingdom #BluePit #YA #OS

SUCCESSION X THE BELL JAR Following the suicide of her sales agent Rebecca Solomon, New York CEO Cassandra Feuerbach becomes entangled in the hypocrisies of the New York elite as she uncovers a controversial social experiment that took Rebecca's life. #BluePit #A #LF #Q

Sierra loves her family and dreads becoming them. Their folk healing hurts and their pills make you sick. But when infectious iron starts creeping through veins like kudzu, she is forced to take on her dark inheritance. But if she must become a monster, she might as well be a big one… #BluePit #YA

Heist WIP SKINS X BABEL X THE GENTLEMAN #W #A #F #C #📖 #BluePit In her final year of university Ophelia finds herself caught between a rock and a hard place. The rocks being the Parthenon marbles; and the hard place, the London gang who want her to steal them to help settle her father’s debt.

The problem with writing a heist is that the plot really does have to be tighter than a ducks arse, one slightly dodgy plot hole and the whole thing tumbles down like a house of cards

Officially reached 100 queries today! Did I send the 100th to the agency that required you to call them up and pitch live to get the submission email? Hell yeah I did! Did I also have a mild panic attack while doing so… 🫠…yeah🫠 (They were very lovely btw) But I did it and that’s what matters!

Ngl getting rejected from jobs as well as book queries is really tiresome. Like I know (logically) something will give at some point, but being told ‘it’s not quite right’ or ‘subjective’ suuuucks

Really hoping that was the last query rejection for the year (it was a very nice one), but there are two days left before query tracker closes for an update and I’m manifesting a partial or full request OR for one of the fulls already out to get back to me 👀

🌿White Trash Witchcraft💊 Southern inheritances are always dark—whether its a penchant for pills, a blood-soaked family farm, or an ancient magic. Sierra spurns them all, but when her dad disappears, she must chose which monsters to slay, and which to become. #WIPPit #H #YA #FBW

I have a slightly funny problem 😅 an editor from a contest that happened well over a year ago (maybe 2?) was interested in my manuscript, but between a re-write and their website being broken, I haven’t submitted to them. Is it weird to do it now?🫣 #WritingCommunity #amquerying

Nice.

Guess who’s hit 20K on the chaos draft of their new novel 🎉 goal is to have it finished by the end of January 🤞🏽

Writing is so weird, I’ve gone from trying to figure out how long bonemarrow takes to decompose to describing the smell of lynx (axe) body spray

November query stats time! Honestly I didn’t get up to much this month, been busy writing something new, plus it’s getting to the holidays so things are quiet Total queries: 65 Awaiting: 20 Passes: 41 Requests: 4 Partials passed: 2 Fulls requested: 2

Question: aaaaare stamps additive? Because wtf is this? 😂 I was always under the impression they weren’t 🤔

Ngl this new WIP has some bangin chapter titles

Well it’s taken 17,000 words but I think I’ve figured out 1st person point of view (again) and found a good voice for my protagonist 😂

This has confirmed exactly 3 things for me 1) I’m using Em Dashes correctly, which is nice 2) I’m not sure I know what an En Dash is 3) and I might be missing an En Dash or a Hyphen from my keyboard… 🤔

Got @clclark.bsky.social to give me some Ambessa themed motivation, maybe now I’ll actually get some work done 😳🫡

A reminder, celebrity voice talent commands a lot more money in an animation production budget as does music licences and marketing. Animation wages - especially in France - aren't doing so hot. So I'd take a CEO's statement about budget with a huge grain of pink himalayan salt.

Typical. Writing a new manuscript has me having epiphanies about the one with fulls out with multiple agents. One change, one slightly major change that could elevate the whole thing 🫠 I know a writers work is never done, but my brain has me palpatine-ing…

I have made the interesting discovery that I underwrite in 1st person and overwrite in 3rd 🧐

Me giving writing advice: 💐💕be silly, 🤪🥰have fun with it! ❤️💐 Me writing a first draft: 👀remember, 😜🤓be silly, have fun with it! 🥴🫡 Me trying to write in 1st person: 🫠😭🤬💀BE SILLY, HAVE FUN 😭😡💀🫠

I finally have a finished outline for this new manuscript 🎉 But now I have a blank page and zero thoughts…

Heist notes from some budding psychopaths… Secret history - Donna tart X Lies of Lock Lamora - Scott Lynch X The Gentlemen - Guy Ritchie X St Trinian’s School - Ronald Searle #F #A #DarkAcademia #Urban #LGBTQ+ #W #UnhingedPit

Secret history - Donna tart X Lies of Lock Lamora - Scott Lynch X The Gentlemen - Guy Ritchie X St Trinian’s School - Ronald Searle #F #A #DarkAcademia #Urban #LGBTQ+ #W #UnhingedPit

Secret history - Donna tart X Lies of Lock Lamora - Scott Lynch X The Gentlemen - Guy Ritchie X St Trinian’s School - Ronald Searle #F #A #DarkAcademia #Urban #LGBTQ+ #W #UnhingedPit

Recipe to Solve Your Best Friend’s Murder 🩸 #UnhingedPit #Q Ingredients: 🙋‍♂️ Your bestie's (suspicious) ex 🧪 1 vial of truth serum 🧠 2 cups of nightmares 🔮 4 tsps of supernatural secrets 🦴 2 oz. human bones 🌶️ A dash of spice Warning: may cause accidental romantic attraction to the prime suspect