Frenzied Fiction Feast
Thanksgiving is Thursday! Whether yours is a family affair, a gathering of friends, or just another day, it is also a perfect excuse to overindulge. Eat too much, nap too much, and do what you want (to the extent that you can) as much as you want. As for me, I’ll be thinking too much about the Touched Apothecary while hanging out with friends.
From editing Ripples to creating its cover in Photoshop, designing its interior pages for print in InDesign, and publishing it, I’ve accomplished quite a bit in the last couple months. The daunting thing now—though I had been so excited to get back to this part—is jumping back into drafting. During all of the headaches of formatting, all I kept dreaming about was returning to the Touched Apothecary. Now that I can, I’m finding it very difficult to jump back in.
So how do we switch caps as writers? Especially as indie authors who manage every part of the process. We are writers, editors, designers, and marketers. Sometimes, we can juggle multiple at once. Other times, and this is mostly between writing and editing, there is no in between.
The very last thing you want to do during your first draft is edit yourself. First drafts are meant to be messy. We know this. But when we’ve just spent months in editing mode, perfecting, it seems impossible to let your writing be vomit on the page like it’s supposed to be.
For weeks, I clung to the hope of something randomly clicking at the least convenient of times, such as in the shower or while out running errands. That was all I could do. Hope. Or so I thought.
I am the last person to promote scheduling your writing time. Yuck. But what actually got me to start putting words on the page again was going LIVE on TikTok. I assigned the day for myself to get started doing so again after releasing Ripples and stressed about what to do during the live since I couldn’t seem to write. Miracle of miracles, I started the live and just as quickly started writing. It was like magic. The seal had been broken, the dam burst, and I’ve written nearly 5k words in under a week.
Now, the pressure/expectation I set for myself by going LIVE worked for me, but that doesn’t mean it would work for everyone (though, one of my frequent viewers said they hadn’t worked a ton since I stopped going live and finally got to work again when I did). You’ve heard my story, but here are a couple of suggestions for you to try whenever you’re struggling yourself:
READ!
Seriously. Reading is the best thing we can do as writers, especially when we aren’t writing. We are informed by the writing we consume, constantly absorbing more than the story but also how the story is being told.
Write Tangentially
By this, I mean, write something related to the story you’re trying to work on. Maybe you want to explore a detail of your story, such as a small character or location, trying to intentionally choose colors or adjectives to build the desired undertones or mood. Perhaps you research colors and their meanings, what different animals symbolize, or characteristics of people from certain areas of the world and their habits/values. You probably have an unanswered question floating around. Try to answer that instead of trying to add words to the story. It can work many wonders brainstorming details and clarifying your own goals. Learning what you’ve set yourself up for by diving into these details and building meanings behind otherwise surface-level scenes can click things into place for you to move forward.
Engage with the community
During my brief hiatus, I veered off of the author side of Tiktok and into brain rot territory. If it wasn’t nonsense I was watching, it was fan edits from KPop: Demon Hunters to Julie and the Phantoms to Jeremy Jordan. Fight your way back to your people and the exposure will subconsciously reawaken that part of your brain. Trust.
This is where I leave you until next month. Go and write, and don’t be afraid! Indulge your cravings this Thursday and trust that if you want to write, you will. Even if it doesn’t happen immediately.
