Trying to simultaneously work on bits of 5, 6, and 7, all of which have worked out plots but need a lot of fleshing out. heading for 22,000 words now, so almost certainly over a third of the way through the book, though halfway still feels some distance off!
5 is a simple friends-y sort of story, which is about cheering up one of the characters who is sad - those sorts of tales are important for this kind of book, I think, as I need a fair number of "toned down" chapters and to hold down the threat level in the "adventure" chapters to keep the tone right. Doing a Tolkien and suddenly flipping writing styles into full epic is something I'm fairly sure I'll be fine at avoiding, but I do see where the temptation to do that comes from so I think it's an instinct I ought to think about keeping in check...