August 2026 Writing Round-Up

Monthly Writing Progress

August 2026 Writing Round-Up

Writing Round-up for August with a little bit of What I Did On My Holidays…

cmrosens

August 31, 2026

4–7 minutes

writing update

Refilling the Well

This month, I’m so burned out from change fatigue and work shenanigans that my creative well is dry. I haven’t done much writing at all. I am spending most of my spare time and energy looking and applying for jobs to get out of the current one I’m in, as it’s the cause of most of my stress at the moment mainly due to the restructuring and the way everything is actively falling to pieces.

I worked on one WIP that I found a bit of inspiration for – none of the WIPs that need to be worked on, of course, something else. So it goes.

We went away for a long weekend to Chester, which I really recommend as a city break. If you like layered history, the high street is the place to be. Cote Brasserie and a few other eateries have Roman cellars which used to be at ground-level about 2000 years ago, and you can go downstairs and eat in them, while having medieval, Tudor/Stuart, eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century additions to the same building stacked on top of you.

What I Did On My Holidays

I think you need 3-4 days to fit everything in at a leisurely pace, if you want to hit up all the kid-friendly museums, go shopping, and go to the zoo (which has a well-publicised conservation programme). Here’s what we did comfortably in 2 days there (1 full day, 2 half days):

Day 1: Arrive late afternoon and chill out at the pub where we were staying – The Pied Bull in the city centre is a great option if you are okay with stairs, low ceilings, and potential ghosts. It’s one of the oldest pubs in Chester (16thC), slightly haunted (rooms 7, 8, and 9), does food and has great breakfasts. It was what we wanted, we’d stay there again.
Day 1: Dinner and a walk. We had dinner at Maray, which does Middle Eastern-inspired tapas, and had a wander around the city centre and down to the river, and a drink in the King’s Head, the most haunted pub in Chester. It was a trek to get up there so we had an early night.
Day 2: Breakfast at The Pied Bull, then a couple of hours in Chester Cathedral. We didn’t need lunch as the breakfast was so big.
Day 2: We spent a few hours in the Grosvenor Museum. Really interesting Roman tombstones, enjoyed all the galleries. It’s not big, but it’s got enough to wander around.
Day 2: We booked a 2hr boat cruise on the Dee to the Iron Bridge, and really enjoyed it. We got there 30min before and had an ice cream from the kiosk, then sat on a bench and watched the river before we boarded. Very relaxing, and fun commentary. You can get drinks on board, but no snacks – bring those with you.
Day 2: Dinner. By then we were actually hungry so we went for an early dinner in Carbonara, an Italian restaurant in the second storey of the Rows, which are two-tier timber-framed galleries lining the main streets, with shops, restaurants and bars on both tiers. This set up is unique to Chester.
Day 2: Evening. We explored the Rows and the shopping centre, then went back to the pub for a bit to relax in the room and get changed. We went out later that evening to see what the city nightlife was like – Metronome Jazz Bar is so small but worth going to, they play vinyls rather than live music. We finished the day with a drink at The Pied Bull before bed.
Day 3: Breakfast at The Pied Bull, check out at 10am, but we left our luggage there so we could explore a bit more before our train home. We went on a long walk around the city walls (a couple of hours, uneven paving, and you have to be okay with steps, free access).
Day 3: Had coffee & lovely homemade cake mid-morning in Huxley’s, a cafe on the walls with a cool porthole view of the city, and detoured into the Roman Gardens and Chester Castle/Agricola Tower (both free entry). It takes you around to the racecourse as well so you get a good view of that, if that’s something you’re interested in.
Day 3: Went back to the pub to collect our stuff, rehydrate, and then head for the train. No lunch as breakfast was big enough, and we’d had elevenses. Train home around 14:30. We had snacks on the train, and dinner in town before heading home.

Naturally, we did almost all of this in the pouring rain, including the city walls walk, because that’s how you know it’s a proper summer holiday. I think we’d need an extra day to have done other museums and fit in a few walking tours or a hop-on hop-off bus tour of the city, and also another full day to include Chester Zoo. Plus, it’s a good opportunity to explore more of Cheshire, so I think there’s loads to do while making Chester your base. Maybe next time!

I do feel better for that, so we’ll see how things progress!

What I’ve Been Writing

Things I’ve been working on this month:

Real Meat. I have a complete draft of this werewolf novel and I just need it to be much better, but ‘much better’ always eludes me. I’m just simplifying it now, making sure I don’t have too much plot, and making sure I set up all the elements of the plot in the right order. Ricky Porter gets mentioned, but isn’t featured. Tina, Mercy, and Jazz are characters in this, and it’s basically what they’re up to during the timeline of The Crows when they’re not helping Carrie with her domestic Gothic Weird drama.

Ko-Fi Reward

August’s Ko-Fi Reward was a 3.5K word experiment from the Alternative Universe version of Carrie/Ricky, a sequel to Birds of a Feather.

Read it here with your membership: ko-fi.com/post/August-2026-Reward-C1T425JQLE

Articles Published

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C. M. Rosens

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