It’s been a while since I’ve given a novel update. That’s because it’s been a while since I’ve worked on my novel much. After doing an Author Development program in 2021-22, I burned out and then got into an acting conservatory, so my novel took a backseat and I focused on my acting career instead. Things have been non-stop since then, and events—good and bad—have occurred one after another, so although I worked on my novel here and there, it was never a priority and I didn’t get very far in it. In fact, I think the best thing I’ve done for my novel in the last three years was when I cut the entire second half of it.

I don’t remember when I did that, but I don’t think it was very long ago. Deleting the second half of the novel was like trimming dead branches. The rest of the novel was suddenly a lot livelier and had room to grow. So I’m growing it again. 

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to write at least a little every day. I’m not strict about it. If I miss a day, then it is what it is, and I’ll try again tomorrow. It doesn’t have to be my novel either—any writing counts—but with the exception of a single day, I’ve written in my novel every day of the last two weeks.

Reading is one of the best things you can do for your writing. I did a challenge last year where I read 100 stories in one year, and the worst part about that challenge was that I kept getting inspired, but rather than put the book down and act on that inspiration, I’d keep reading in order to meet my reading goal. Now that the challenge is over, I’m still trying to consume books as much as possible, but whenever lightning strikes, I have the freedom to pause reading and go write instead.

I’ve got other tricks for it, too. I leave my document open on my laptop and every so often come across it when I’m not planning to write, but I stop and maybe add a sentence or two before continuing on to whatever I was doing.

The best trick I did was sync the document with my phone and delete my main social media apps, so now the time I used to spend doomscrolling gets redirected to writing. I get a lot of writing done on my phone, often on transit, and when I switch back to my laptop, all the updates are there. The only unfortunate thing is that my phone hasn’t got a tabs button for paragraph indents, so I have to go in and add them later.

I’ve really missed this world. I’ve missed my characters and their story. I’ve touched on it here and there, but it’s been so long since I properly immersed myself in it, I’ve forgotten how nice it is, like a vacation, but cheaper and more interesting. And because I’m making the second half entirely different, there are new things to discover. It’s a whole new adventure with characters I know and love.

Gosh, I love writing.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash