Oh, hello there!! ^^ How’ve you all been doing? I know the holidays have likely been a busy, busy time for you all, but I wanted to pop in here with a little writing update. 🙂 It’s been a while since I posted a writing update, so I thought I might share a bit of how my writing’s going! But do let me know down in the comments how your December went (if you did anything fun for Christmas!) and how your writing’s been going!
Oh yes, and before we get on with the writing update, I just wanted to share a few little pictures I took…
…
They came, y’all! After so many weeks of pacing around, arguing with Amazon about how long it’s going to take to ship these books, and also all those years spent writing these books…
My author copies arrived in the mail!!
I… I really do think that there is nothing in the world that shall ever be anything like getting to hold your own books in your hands. To see your own words, printed and bound in ink and paper — those words that you spent months agonizing over, that story that wouldn’t leave you alone!
It is just so surreal. And not to mention, the books printed perfectly!! I was so worried about the spines (and I wasn’t able to order proof copies), but they came out looking perfect!! And the font and the chapter headings and the copyright page and the map…
It’s just… again, so so surreal. To see these books in front of me. To know that they’re real. To know that all those days spent, just huddled at my desk, tap-tapping away at the keyboard everyday, paid off. And to know that people are actually holding my book in their hands. That other people are reading my book.
Wow.
I was also interviewed a little while back by a good friend of mine, Gwenivere Dionyssiou, so you can head to her blog to check that out if you’d like! 🙂
Now onto la writing update.
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Writing has been going… slowly, for me. Which I don’t really suppose is a bad thing — it’s going somewhere at least. A few hundred words here and there. I’ve been stuck in such a dry spot for so, so long now, mostly because I’ve just been pushing myself way too hard. To write the perfect book, to write an amazing draft, to have a perfect blog, a perfect YT channel, and… yeah, perfectionism, I suppose.
But a few days ago, I was thinking. About writer’s block. About my book. And it was while I was thinking that I realized something.
When push to comes to shove, when I really really look at all my fears in the mirror…
There is really only write this book or don’t.
I have this new idea for Island Keepers. This new direction.
And you know what? I don’t know everything about this book. I don’t know everything about this story. I don’t have all the answers on how to write this book. What I really do have is a sort of inkling. A faint idea of the internal character arc, the external plot arc, the climax, the MCs, and the scene that’s supposed to go in the middle of the book.
And now…
I guess the only thing left to do is to actually write it.
And this is the part that has me frozen.
I’ve wrestled with anxiety and fear and pressure a lot of times. So many times that, to be honest, to write another post about this feels repetitive.
And just the fear.
The fear of failure.
What if I fail? What if I can’t make this book come together? What if I can’t weave together all these plot threads? What if I can’t?
And so I’ve very much been lingering in that these past few months.
Yes, I’ve given myself a break this December to not stress about writing. To just… refill my creative well a bit.
But these past few weeks, each time my mind drifts back to my book, one thing has really just been coming clearer and clearer to me.
If I don’t write this book, no one will.
If I keep spending all these weeks worrying about failure, not setting a word down on paper, not a single word is ever going to be set down.
I kept spending all these weeks just… waiting, waiting, waiting.
For the right moment. For the right person. For the right time to start writing.
Except there is no right time to start writing.
You can either write. Or don’t.
So… yeah. These few days, writing has been chugging along slowly. Me tapping out around five hundred words during the rainy afternoons here and there. I’ve been trying not to make this draft perfect, because it’s not going to be. The prose is going to be clunky. The pacing is going to be… terrible. There are going to be the most random metaphors and placeholders smattered all throughout the manuscript.
And I think I just need to embrace that. The messiness and the joy and freedom of letting yourself write so messily was really one of the things I loved about writing!!!!
So this is where my writing has been recently. Chugging along very slowly into the dark, not really knowing where this story is going to take me. Fiddling around with ideas. Trying to just… write. Without the pressure or perfectionism. 🙂
There really is nothing better than getting lost in a good book on a rainy afternoon — especially if those are said books you got for Christmas! I hit my reading goal* of 200 books a few months back, and I got quite a few books for Christmas!!! Lianna and the Hombit by Valinora Troy, and both books in the Impossible Creatures series by Katherine Rundell!
*said ‘reading goal’ isn’t really a goal I take all that seriously. Tis indeed fun to see how many books one has read in a year, but I don’t ever read for the purpose of hitting that goal.
Nearly everyone on my blog has been telling me to read Impossible Creatures for over a year now!! (Honestly! I cannot tell you how many times this book has been recommended to me by friends and fellow book bloggers!)
It is such a beautiful book!! I can certainly see why everyone has been recommending me this book. The archipelago is so fascinating, and I love all the magic creatures!! Though the ending of book one left me shaken…
And not to mention what happened to poor Gelifen!
Katherine Rundell, how could you?? *sobs*
But at any rate, it’s a wonderful book, and I may end up reviewing it on my blog a little later!
And yes, that is indeed a sword you see there. I got a sword for Christmas!!! (Thanks, Dad!) At long last!!! A SWORD! *cackles with great glee* I’ve named it Olia! Tis not a real sword, of course, so I won’t accidentally stab myself while randomly swinging it around.
I must admit, I haven’t been doing all that much art at the moment. Christmas is a busy, busy time, y’all! I did do a watercolor painting for my mom though and painted two Christmas cards! I do think my watercolor is improving — especially when it comes to light and shadow! I always struggle to capture light and shadow in watercolors. I always end up adding far too much paint. Alas. But I’ve been learning to start a bit lighter and to be patient with layers and such.
Here is a rather terrible picture of the cards (it was like 2 am when I was done and took this picture. And I didn’t have the patience to re-take the pictures…)
I suppose that is how my December has been going. I did write a good 1,000 words yesterday though, which was nice, though I still do feel quite lost with Island Keepers. *sighs* Alas, what am I to do with such a problematic book?
But do share down in the comments how your own December has been going! 🙂 I love hearing from y’all!
And now I think I shall go and slink back to my little writing cave with my books and pens and half-baked manuscripts to fiddle around with some ideas.
Till next time and wishing y’all a very Happy New Year’s!!
-Isabelle
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