Hellooo, all you peoples of the interwebs!!! After a long while buried knee-deep (or, actually, no neck-high. Tisn’t even knee-deep at this point.) in what is the first draft of a middle-grade fantasy standalone, I have finally returned with…
A WRITING UPDATE!!!
I haven’t done too many of these on my blog recently (though I’ve shared monthly updates over on my Substack newsletter), and so I thought it was high time that I shared what was going on with my novel! But first, I hope that y’all have had a fantastic weekend!! ^^ How have you all been? And how have all your projects been going??
I myself have had a nice weekend! There was (somehow) both a lot of rain and sunshine here in China, and I’ve been having a splendiferous time re-reading The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower!!! It is oh-so wonderful to be able to return to the world of St. Crispian’s and to be reading this with my ever-so-splendid trio!!
However, before we head onto this writing update, I would first like to give a shout-out to my friend, the one and only Journey Bloomfield because…
SHE HAS FINISHED HER NOVEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(emojis for some reason aren’t supported on my blog, so just picture a bunch of celebratory emojis here, okay? And also confetti!!!! Because this is a moment worthy of confetti.)
I am oh so proud of her, and in case you haven’t already, you simply must check out her blog!! It is full of fun writing updates, book reviews, and a good deal of humor and chaos!!!
Now.
Onto the updates!
Writing a.k.a Story Wrangling
Writing has been going… slow, these past few weeks. I used to write about 2,000 words a day (and once actually got a 10,000 word day, which happened two years ago and I don’t think will ever happen again), only I’ve been healing from a great deal of burnout from 2025 with my last novel. And so I soon realized that 2,000 words perhaps was not the most realistic goal. Of course being consistent and productive is great, but at the same time, I truly do believe that you still need to remain kind to yourself. So writing’s been going slow, but it has been going.
Nowadays, my word count goal has been around 300 words a day. Sometimes I might write more than that! Sometimes I might not. Which is fine!! Either way, whenever I sit down to write — even if I’m not feeling like it — I say to myself, “Okay. You only need to write 300 words. Nothing more than that. But you have to write something.” And that’s usually encouraging enough to get me going.
As for my story…
…
I am really not entirely certain what to say about it. XD On one hand, figuring out the ending has been a bit of a muddle. On the other, I can feel that it is indeed going somewhere and that there are cogs in my brain slowly working behind-the-scenes to make everything come together. So far, there’ve been magical forests, lanterns, and there will probably be some ghosts.
(Nice ghosties though!!! I think. Some might be a tad grouchy, but… *shrug*)
I… also made my main character fall and sprain her ankle in a previous chapter, only to be confronted with the fact that she has to walk two hours to get to this city, wander around in this ancient library for a few more hours, and then walk around a mysterious forest and follow this strange path till what will probably be the climax of this book.
As wonderfully brave as we force our characters to be, I am not entirely certain she could realistically manage such a feat. *clears throat awkwardly* First drafting, am I right?
But though it’s messy, I just love this story so so much. Yes, there’ve been a great deal of rough patches and times when I’ve texted my friends in despair over the ending. But there is also so much in this book that I love — Latin, ancient cities, forests, lanterns, pixies, brave heroines — and it has most certainly kept me going during all the hard spots.
It is quite hard to say when I’ll be done with the first draft of this novel, seeing as in May I thought I’d be done in June and in June, I thought I’d be done in July.
And I’ll be upfront when I say that the ending’s been a struggle. But after a great deal of brainstorming (a huge thank you to all my writer friends for helping me with brainstorming, getting me through the hard days, and all the random things you’ve said that’ve sparked ideas for my novel — I really, truly do not know where I would be without you), lists (The Mighty List of Possible Ways This Novel Could End, to be precise), sticky notes (I have taken to sticking a lot of motivational sticky notes up on my wall) , and late nights spent scribbling down random thoughts, I think I have an inkling of what the ending shall be.
asd;flhaewo;qih.
I’m both excited and also anxious about it. XD
Oui, tis not a perfect idea and tis most foggy, but tis a crumb the story has dropped me nonetheless.
So onwards we shall go!
(I’ve been obsessed with this GIF ever since I found it. XDD Isn’t it a fun one??)
*has such a strong urge to just include this GIF at the end of every one of my blog posts*
*especially now that I have figured out how to put GIFs into WordPress posts*
I’ve also been working on a fun little short story about ~ dragons ~ and though I’ve never been too good at writing short stories (*cough* short stories ballooning into novels *cough*), it’s been a LOT of fun!!!!!!! I hath also made a nifty Spotify playlist for it and so far, the MC has demanded I give her black hair instead of blonde and that I make her fourteen instead of twelve. I think I shall oblige her.
Latin
This is getting rather lengthy, so I shall try to keep this short. But I’ve also been studying Latin!!! I fully blame Millie Florence for this (more specifically Beyond Mulberry Glen which is a FANTASTIC middle-grade book you all should check out! It’s so sweet, y’all!!!) and also the fact that my WIP has Latin in it. (I have not yet decided whether to keep the Latin in the later drafts, but for now it is fun and adds an Air of Mystery to the names of places.)
It’s been really fun!!! Although wrestling with declensions has been somewhat less fun. But it is a fun language, I think, and since English has a lot of Latin roots, you can guess the meaning of a great deal of words!
I’ve had a lot of fun giving places in my books Latin names too! (And also the city in my novel whose name is only one R off from the Latin word for “desire”, which somehow fits it perfectly even though I didn’t plan for this at all.)
A Hello from the CFC
The CFC have also been faring well, and the three of them would like to send along their regards!
Charlotte: HELLO ISABELLE’S BLOG READERS!!!!!! HOW ARE Y’ALL???
Me: Oh my Charlotte, you scared me!!!
Charlotte: Why? I’m adorable.
Me: Le sigh… (A term I have stolen from Shannon Messenger because I… have shamelessly been stalking her old blog. XD Because Le Internet Archive has archived it and it is most fun to read through, even though she took it down several years ago. *Blushes*)
Charlotte: ANYWAY HELLO BLOG READERSES!!!!!!!!! :DDD We are doing well and fine We have been dying in this miserable summer heat recently, but we have had the privilege to be cozied up on the couch in Isabelle’s writing shed while she completes her book. And steal her snacks. *nod nod*
Me: CHARLOTTE!
Charlotte: D – Did I say steal snacks? No I didn’t! I didn’t at all!!!! *beams* Anyway, yes. We have missed you, but fear not because we are planning a lot of fun bookish goodies including a middle-grade summer reading list for y’all!!! But aside from that, I have mainly just been staring at Isabelle while she writes.
Izzy: Indeed. We are very impatient for her to finish her novel. *glares over glasses at Isabelle*
Scrabble: Well, take your time, dear, writing a novel does not appear to be a very fast proce–
Charlotte: WE WANTS THE BOOK!!!!!!!!!
Me: Okay, okay, I get it!!!! You want me to finish my novel!!!!!! Which will happen. In due time. Anyway. *clears throat and herds them away*
the CFC staring up at me as I write this post.
Aaand there you have it, folks. That’s pretty much what I’ve been up to these past few months!! :)) Do let me know down in the comments what you thought and also how your projects are faring!! I love hearing from y’all!
Till next time and wishing y’all a FANTASTIC week!
-Isabelle
Be the first to comment