My Month in Writing – May 2025

What can I say? It’s been a whirlwind. One. Whole. Month. Of just pure chaos. And I saw one of my friends do a sort of April writing update where she wrapped up everything that she did in April, and I decided, “Hey, I wanna do that!” And so here I am. XD With this very, very chaotic post.

So let’s just start with writing! Um, hehe…. It’s been interesting? Honestly, I’m just typing out this post late at night and my brain is totally blanking on what to say, so bear with me here!!! But as I’m sure you all know, I’ve been working on my Island Keepers, my MG fantasy action/adventure which is basically Spark meets Skandar and the Unicorn Thief which a hint of Sophie Anderson’s magic, perfect for fans of Unicorn Academy on Netflix, with a touch of Aru Shah’s humor. Is that very specific? Yes. Is that precisely what I’m writing? Pretty much.

It’s officially been 6 months since I started writing this book (where has the time gone by??), and by all the stormy skies, I think it’s safe to say that this is the hardest book I have ever written. Like… the HARDEST. Not even Enchantria: The Last Hope measures up to the level of difficulty I have had with this book!!!!!!! And I think it’s because this is a standalone, which I have NEVER written before, and so I need to juggle so many things — characters, plot, pacing, worldbuilding, reveals, where this scene goes, where that scene goes, all in one book!

And it is chaos!!!

I made a sort of brain dump outline for this book because I have decided that there is no way I am EVER in the whole wide world of possibilities going to be able to write this book without some form of outline. I need to know where I’m going, otherwise it’s going to be pure chaos. >.< So I made a (very messy) brain dump outline in Google Sheets, and it is ever so messy, but at least I can see all my plot points and endings and that provides some relief, I suppose.

Now, as hard as this book is to write, I cannot help but say that I do truly love this book. It is incredibly messy, incredibly wild, incredibly rebellious, but I love it so much!!!! My main character’s voice is just so real and I can just really feel her thoughts and just picture her perfectly in my head and oh my gosh, the whole voice this book is written in… I love it so much!!!! It’s got lush descriptions mixed with snappy action scenes and also, of course, my main character’s humor and (very light) sarcasm!!! And I really love the world and the ending I have in mind!

One thing I’ve definitely been struggling with is word count, because I struggle with writing short books, alright? I love long books!!! I grew up reading them!!! Enchantria: Sun and Flame is a whopping 86K words!!! (Yeah…. I thought I was going to cut down on word count in revisions. Haha, funny story, I did the opposite. Same with Island Keepers)

But lately, I’ve been seeing all these blogs and forums saying that kids don’t read anymore. They hate long books, and even 200 pages is just really a slog for them to read. I also heard a school librarian say that kids hardly ever check out long books.

And as an MG writer who writes long books, that’s…… discouraging. Really discouraging. Because the way this story is structured, there is no natural way to break this up into two books – if I were to do so, book two wouldn’t have enough story! And the most I can cut it down to would be 85K. POSSIBLY 80K, but even that’s a stretch.

I really don’t know what to say about this except that it feels really discouraging. Apparently the general rule for MG is that it should only be 30K to 40K with a bit of leeway for fantasy (50K to 60K) and no longer than that.

Which is odd, since let’s see how many books I can list that go way over that word count and are yet insanely popular:

• Skandar and the Unicorn Thief, published in 2022 from debut author, A.F Steadman. Word count: I’m assuming around 90K, from the page count.
• Paper Dragons: The Fight for the Hidden Realm, published in 2024 from debut author, Siobhan McDermott. Word count: around 80K according to what Siobhan McDermott says in her acknowledgments.
• Amari and the Night Brothers, published in 2021 from debut author BB Alston. Word count: around 90K according to the author himself.
• The Peach Thief, published in 2025 from debut author, Linda Joan Smith. Word count: somewhere between 80K to 95K based on the page count.
• That’s five, and I know I know more, but it’s late over here, and my brain is fried, and I’m not interested in racking my brain for more.

And they are all wonderful books that don’t drag at all! I cannot imagine Amari and the Night Brothers ever being shortened into 30K words! And Skandar and the Unicorn Thief blew up to be an international bestseller! So word count is an ever so confusing conundrum…….

As for my actual word count in Island Keepers… I’m at 49K out of (possibly, for this 2nd draft) 90K! And I’m in Act Two, about to cross into Act Two, Part Two in a few thousand words, so we’ll see how this goes, I suppose. It mainly just feels like I’m just walking through the dark with a flashlight that only lights two steps ahead at a time… So wish me luck!

I’ve also been struggling quite a bit with deadlines and time management. My self-imposed deadline for Island Keepers is June 31st (maybe July 15th if I can’t make that deadline), and I have another deadline which is… today. For the fantasy anthology I’m in. And yeah…. with all the hectic things going on I’ve hardly been able to work on it! The problem is, I’m ridiculously terrible at short stories when it comes to fantasy (I can do a Christmas short story. Horror? Sure. Sci-fi? Probably. Contemporary? Sure! Fantasy? Absolutely not.), and the maximum word count for this is 6K.

Act Two has only just started and I’m at 3K.

I’ll see if I can cut down on stuff. And if not…. we shall hope nobody notices. XD It’s not a very formal fantasy anthology (just a fun one I put together with a bunch of other writers), so we do have a bit of leeway when it comes to word count — I know for a fact that there are quite a few stories in the anthology that go above 6K, and they are brilliant stories! 6K is mostly just a general guideline, so if your story needs, say, 7K then that’s fine.

Now on the publishing side of things…

That is even more chaotic. As I’m sure you all know, I’ve been quite busy preparing for the launch of Enchantria: The Last Hope, and since I’m going on a blog tour (and I’m an indie author, so I’m my own publicist and all that) I have countless emails to answer! Lots of book bloggers to respond to and also quite a few guest posts to write!

And of course, there are all the things I must keep you guys updated on (including the blog tour dates!), and so I must write these posts to keep you updated!

And that’s probably about it….

I know, I know, that doesn’t sound chaotic at all! But when you put together writing and really take a look at how many book bloggers have agreed to feature me (five) and how many guest posts and interview questions I must answer…. that’s where things get hectic. XD

But nonetheless, it’s still absolutely incredible that I’m actually doing all of this and that book four is coming out (even though Goodreads has listed my books under the wrong Isabelle Knight AGAIN. Part of me has wondered whether I should add in the first initial of my middle name just so that there’s nobody else with the same name as me. Also if you’re curious on what that would look like, it would basically look like this: Isabelle L. Knight).

I’ve also been dabbling in poetry lately, since we’re currently focusing on writing and reading poetry in English!!! I’ve always wanted to write poetry (I have a few poems on my blog!), but I just never seem to get around to actually writing one. And now we literally have to write poems for class, so hurrah!!!! 🙂

And then there’s the even funner, even more terrifying thing….

I’ve decided to take part in a poetry competition!!!!! And it just so happens that that poetry competition is one of the biggest and most prestigious competitions for young poets — the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award.

So….

Hehe. There is absolutely no way I’m going to win (though I would very much love to!) out of the thousands of entries they get. I’ll probably submit three poems, and the deadline is July 31st, and all winners will be notified in September! There are 100 poets chosen — 15 top poets and then 85 commended poets.

But I mean, it’s free entry and all young poets ages 11 to 17 from all countries and walks of life are eligible, so I might as well try for it!

And I have listened to some of the year’s previous winning poems — my poems are NOTHING like the winning poems. All the winning poems have been very gritty and real and (a tad bit) dark. Mine are light, whimsical, but also very true to me.

The official deadline is midnight BST July 31st, and I really have no idea how this is going to go. I’m more of a novelist than a poet. But if I don’t win, then I’ll probably either (maybe, if the competition allows me to) enter the poems in other competitions or just publish my own poetry book!

So yeah! That’s what my May month-in-writing has been like! Hectic, fun, even more hectic, absolute chaos! 🙂 How did yours go? Do let me know down in the comments!! ^^ I’d love to hear from you! Until next time, I suppose!! Adios, au revoir, and farewell for now!!!

Isabelle