What's on your Mind about Your Writing? June 2025 to...

[Nether]

Some days I zig, some days I zag, some days I hit a snag. I'd kinda planned on dropping the other stuff temporarily to focus on getting LoLa out the door, but the comp-hunting is proving a lot harder than expected. That and I'm kinda not making enough headway on the synopsis and haven't really gotten a query underway.

However, I realized that besides kinda having a possible query for GB, it looks like the synopsis might also be passable, so I may return to editing that after all. And I'm also half-leaning toward not describing the four friends. As I've probably mentioned, I'm pretty sure Lindsay Currie didn't describe the three friends at the start of The Mystery of Locked Rooms * and iirc Katherine Arden didn't describe Brian until chapter 3 or 4 in Small Spaces** (probably because she spent 3 or 4 paragraphs describing CoCo; Ollie, the MC, isn't described at all), so it might not be a big deal.

[*Although she was already a NYT bestselling author by then. Also, apparently she had another horror novel come out this year where, despite being disappointed by her a few of her other books and not wanting to go all-in on any one author, I'll probably find up reading; if nothing else, the woman consistently knows how to title horror (X Marks the Haunt))

**Katherine Arden was also already a bestselling author, albeit for either YA or adult. iirc, the Small Spaces quartet is her only MG.]

In other news, I started reading GSI after accidentally opening the manuscript instead of GB. Read through the first few chapters, really got a kick out of the humor. Of course, I have no idea how I'm going to comp that. I might have to rely on that suggestion of going for tone with a story that bears no resemblance (and, actually, I might have to do that with LoLa, too, despite the fact there MUST be something within that same general sphere. Kids accidentally raising pet monsters in a contemporary setting can't be that rare)

And I'm kinda debating ditching the MG mall idea for not being commercial enough. Lot of creepy things I could do with it, but there's nothing scarier than having a manuscript that won't get interest. (Which might wind up being the issue with LoLa, considering Pointy Hat did so badly.)

Not really commenting on the specific story in question or the larger conversation about an opening's viability . . . but I would say that, personally, both as a child and an adult, I never really found any of those things to be relatable.

Personally, I don't really think the way MG students get portrayed is "ordinary." Most kids aren't relentlessly bullied (which is how it is often portrayed with bullying) or have no friends, or are specifically targeted by teachers and/or are complete loners.
What makes it relatable, at least remembering being a kid myself, is that everyone has had a moment where it was true of them - where they didn't think they had friends, got bullied, etcetera, so they can put themselves in the space of that character when reading - i.e. those tropes engage their imagination.

YMMV with all that. Personally, I've always thought the descriptions of MG bullying were tame. But I also went to a middle school where a classmate was expelled for sticking a pistol in another kid's face. (Unloaded, mind you. Also, this was obviously pre-Columbine where guns in schools didn't get quite the same reaction they do today.) There were students who were bullied so badly they had to transfer out.

I'm obviously happy to hear that you and your kids' experience hasn't been that, though.

yes it was a waking up opening (not sure if you changed that specific part prior to querying or not)

I kept it, and I think you might've seen close to the version that went out. iirc, I got feedback on the 10 pages and changed a few things before you beta'd it.

While I can't always be sure where I lost people or why, the agent who mentioned being open to a R&R didn't like the lunch table scene a bit further on. The agent who requested the first 50 or 75 pages stopped on the part where the MC and the twin were talking on the stairs, which, you know, you'd suggested I do something with and I don't think I finally did. (Although she made it past the rooftop escape, which I trimmed and adjusted, per your suggestions.)

I had a super lovely dream that is making me contemplate a new story idea... which I should leave on the backburner bc I have too many half baked ideas brewing and a lot of revisions to finish up before I should even think about another WIP. So, we'll see how long this idea sits. Might forget about it in a few days, anyway

tbh, despite swearing I'd never fall into that boat again, I probably have a few dozen planning docs now with barely anything in them. So the idea is kinda saved, but it's really not going anywhere.

I'd been pretty good about approaching planning then drafting methodically up until I had an idea for a comedic mystery-horror that parodied the idea that these small towns in amateur detective shows would have tons and tons of murders.

 

[owlion]

However, I realized that besides kinda having a possible query for GB, it looks like the synopsis might also be passable, so I may return to editing that after all. And I'm also half-leaning toward not describing the four friends. As I've probably mentioned, I'm pretty sure Lindsay Currie didn't describe the three friends at the start of The Mystery of Locked Rooms * and iirc Katherine Arden didn't describe Brian until chapter 3 or 4 in Small Spaces** (probably because she spent 3 or 4 paragraphs describing CoCo; Ollie, the MC, isn't described at all), so it might not be a big deal.

I think it's fine to either not describe or just very lightly describe characters - mostly pointing out interesting characteristics that are distinctive (from what I remember Coco was pretty distinctive but it's been a while). I usually do hair colour/style as a minimum, because that's an easy visual way to differentiate people (especially for me, as I'm terrible with faces).

And I'm kinda debating ditching the MG mall idea for not being commercial enough. Lot of creepy things I could do with it, but there's nothing scarier than having a manuscript that won't get interest. (Which might wind up being the issue with LoLa, considering Pointy Hat did so badly.)

Was Pointy Hat the witch-ish story, with the inherited magic hat? I heard from my agent that apparently witch stories are always popular but still very difficult to sell as they need to have something that really stands out (the MG fantasy I did huge revisions on last year is a witch story). I'm not saying that's why the response rate was low, just that it's a possible factor. The good news is that more speculative stories seem to be gaining popularity (there's a secondary world fantasy one coming out from Disney Hyperion this year, for example).

So with writing, remember how I said I finished the MG fantasy outline for revisions? It turned out I didn't and I only just finalised it today after cutting 2 chapters from the beginning (pacing issues). I'm hoping it'll be okay now, but I've asked betas to take a look because it's become fairly complex and I'm not 100% trusting myself with it.

In other news, I edited the first 4 chapters of the MG horror and there hasn't been too much to change so far (mostly making on character more aggressive right off the bat so she's consistent). I've got a couple of slightly larger changes to do, but I think I've got them planned out? I guess I'll see when I get there!

 

[Nether]

As noted in a few other topics, my usual laptop is offline and possibly for good. So at the moment I'm stuck choosing between a laptop that runs kinda poorly but is quiet or going with one that runs relatively okay but is L-O-U-D. And, after the frustrations with the slow-running one, I'm going L-O-U-D. (Although if it starts jumping, I'll probably put it aside.)

The backstory on the loudtop is I bought it during a Black Friday one year (iirc, it was a Black Friday) then a little over a year later -- and several months past the warranty -- something kinda went because it would sometimes get really loud and, after it started literally jumping, I stopped using it as much. (So no, the jumping wasn't me being cute. And it wasn't cute when the loudtop did it, either.) I'm not sure if a piece wasn't soldered correctly, if a component like the fan or HDD has an issue, but that's both why I started using the usual laptop (a loaner that I've kinda held onto for years now) and one reason why I've procrastinated in buying another laptop. (The only laptop I had that actually worked well was a HP Envy, although I can't be sure how long I used it for. However, it suffered some physical damage to the chassis because a relative was being an idiot, which led to more severe damage and eventually resulted in 2 drops.) At the moment, though, I think the loudness is just the fan, which is audible enough to be annoying (and stepping away from it for a while brings relief).

But all of that is also backstory. What I actually meant to post about are the misadventures resulting from not being able to use that laptop and continue what I'd been doing.

First, it included an absurd amount of time wasted spent comp-hunting. One of the most notable -- and absurd -- moments in that hunt was when I decided to try out Brave on my Chromebook (which isn't one of the previously mentioned laptops, it was a cheap item I'd picked up some years ago (can't remember when) that didn't really become relevant until I decided I needed something to read e-books on and then I use it for a variety of other stuff since it has a working battery and, other than being weak, runs okay. It's what kinda saved my drafting on multiple other occasions when I had tech issues, etc).

But I digress. Anyway, naturally, Brave has its own search engine. And naturally I've been curious about it, especially since I'd considered it as a Google alternateive when Google started to add all of its AI crap. And naturally, Brave has since added AI to its search enginge (because the internet doesn't want us to have nice things).

So, when I ran a search with it, Brave's AI recomended a book... that turned out to be fake. That it even acknowledged was fake when I pressed it on that, after not being able to find it on GoodReads or anywhere else. And now I'll probably be uninstalling Brave now.

(On a similar note, my laptop issues meant that I ran a search via Google. By default, the top result was AI, which told me it had no record of the thing I was searching for and that it likely wasn't publically availabe. Meanwhile, the second and third search results both listed what I wanted to know in the meta descriptions. So Google's AI can't seem to run a Google search.)

The comp hunt itself wasn't completely fruitless, though. I found one possible contender (The Cursed Moon by... Amanda Cervantes or something? idk, the important thing is it's a real book, unlike what Brave suggested). There was another book that sounded like it'd work for LoLa (Three Blue Hearts, about a boy aiding an octopus), but it only has some 250 GR ratings so it doesn't look successful enough to use. There were a few other kinda-maybe things, but nothing all that serious.

That part of the search was interesting, though, since I was using Chrome on the Chromebook (meaning no good ad-blocker, which is why I don't really use Chrome much) and it was showing Amazon ads for other books, where I saw some of the same ads ad nauseum (or, in other words, I saw the ads enough to be nauseous). One of the self-pubbed MG titles intrigued me, after I got over the disappointment that it wouldn't work as a comp for being self-pubbed and not having much in the way of results.

But the bigger change was, after determining the usual laptop will be out for a while (but not throwing in the towel just yet), I started to quick read The Way. Other than the opening chapter or two, I probably haven't touched it since 2023 because it's long (95k words) and presumably niche (being a comedy-horror about a cult). So it means I've kinda surprised myself at times while re-reading it, especially given how I probably overdo some things. However, I'm still doing it with the insight of knowing what and why certain things are happening where some things might be written off by the reader as a hallucination or dream.

Plus, I need to name 30 chapters... well, like 20-25 since some are already named.

Oh, and I wrote a query for LoLa. The kinda problem is I reference something that happens in the final quarter. However, the final quarter is a pretty much departure from the earlier story where there some maybe tiny hints as to the reveal, but it's kinda significant enough that I feel weird not having it in the query. idk.

I think it's fine to either not describe or just very lightly describe characters - mostly pointing out interesting characteristics that are distinctive (from what I remember Coco was pretty distinctive but it's been a while).

It probably helped that Arden repeatedly referenced CoCo's pink-blond hair and other characteristics. Those details seemed to come up again and again. As did her plot-convenient clumsiness (where she'll trip while running but can climb perfectly), although more so in the first book.

I usually do hair colour/style as a minimum, because that's an easy visual way to differentiate people (especially for me, as I'm terrible with faces).

Yeah, I usually just stick with hair color, eye color, and maybe height/body type. Just not sure where (and how) I'd work it into my opening without messing up the flow of things or seeming clunky. I've seen a very clunky examples lately that've been on my mind (including some from successful authors).

Was Pointy Hat the witch-ish story, with the inherited magic hat? I heard from my agent that apparently witch stories are always popular but still very difficult to sell as they need to have something that really stands out (the MG fantasy I did huge revisions on last year is a witch story). I'm not saying that's why the response rate was low, just that it's a possible factor.

That's the one. Although it's more just magic hat than witch.

So with writing, remember how I said I finished the MG fantasy outline for revisions? It turned out I didn't and I only just finalised it today after cutting 2 chapters from the beginning (pacing issues). I'm hoping it'll be okay now, but I've asked betas to take a look because it's become fairly complex and I'm not 100% trusting myself with it.

How detailed are these outlines?

 

[Clovitide]

I've queried two agents this fine morning who aren't perfect fits for either of the novels I queried, but I'm just getting so annoyed at the whole querying process, I decided to just submit.

Started an outline of my story idea I came up with last week. I am a bit worried there're too many genres and it might be too much to have a past and present time line with multi povs. So i might cut the multi pov... and then I went into the nitty gritty of the world building that I probably won't even add in the story. I also am unsure how or what the ending will be

 

[Nether]

I've queried two agents this fine morning who aren't perfect fits for either of the novels I queried, but I'm just getting so annoyed at the whole querying process, I decided to just submit.

Unless I'm choosing between agents at the same agency or which project I'll send somebody, I don't really worry about fit. (Although if they have an anti-MSWL, I'll look at that.)

Honestly, some agents themselves will suggest just seeing if somebody reps your genre and querying accordingly. (QM kinda makes that easy.) The reasoning for it varies, but a lot of it comes down to the fact you can't necessarily predict what an agent might be looking for in that moment.

And as others will sometimes point out, the second an agent either announces they're looking for something or seems to like a specific thing, they tend to be inundated with those kinds of queries.

 

[Nether]

Debating on whether to try nudging again on the PH full tomorrow. I'd planned it since that'd be like a week (or over a week?) since my last nudge attempt, although I'm now wondering if I should wait two weeks on that. (And that first nudge was sent after 3 months.)

I'm thinking once I get a response for that and some other PH queries, I might go ahead and just try subbing it to publishers instead of waiting until 2027 just because I have so many other MG projects lying around. Plus, publisher slush piles tend to take a while anyway.

In other news, I finished my quick-read of The Way and I might spend a bit of time figuring out what I want to do with it. Although the second half (or the last 40%) has a lot more going on, it doesn't have the same energy, probably because there isn't as much humor. (Of course, everything is fun and games until there's a ritualistic murder.)

I also repeatedly included mentioning needing a save a character who was dead by that point. Something happens to a character's tattoo despite the fact I'm not sure I gave that character a tattoo (where I might've been conflating two of the characters, although maybe I just give him one, too). And there's some general sloppiness.

On top of that, I should probably cut it from 95k words to 90k. In theory, if I eliminated 15 words per page, I'd be just about there. That or I could trim some scenes.

I might also break up a few chapters, particularly the 4k+ word ones. (The two most egregious examples are near the end, one being 4.7k and the other like 5.6k words.) Somehow, a lot of the chapters wound up lengthier than usual.

Of course, the overall concept is a bit out there.

 

[Jinks]

I’m a few hours away from jumping on a plane for another backpacking trip and I’m very curious what inspiration this trip will bring. When I went to Peru last year, I found enough inspiration to write an entire story, and it also inspired me to actually want to write again. So, I’m very curious what will come from my newest beach adventure and what type of story I will be able to tell.

 

[owlion]

Yeah, I usually just stick with hair color, eye color, and maybe height/body type. Just not sure where (and how) I'd work it into my opening without messing up the flow of things or seeming clunky. I've seen a very clunky examples lately that've been on my mind (including some from successful authors).

It's definitely a fine balance! I did have one agent comment when she passed that she wanted a description of the MC, because I'd left it very open, so I did something around the MC taking after their mum more than their older sister who took after their dad. It's tough though, physical descriptions of POV characters is one of the things I really struggle with!

How detailed are these outlines?

Basically short summaries of every chapter - the current one for the MG fantasy is over 11k words and now has a bunch of notes in there about what i need to change (it's so much...). I think the one for the secondary world MG fantasy was almost 15k or something because of all the worldbuilding.

I had to go to a conference this week, so I didn't get to do any writing for 3 days and they were very long days with lots of talking to people so I'm pretty exhausted today. Still, I made some changes to the MG fantasy outline and removed a big thing that was taking up space because it turns out it's not really needed. I also figured out how to get to the main location in chapter 2 which was a relief! It's going to take a lot of work to put these edits in, but I think it'll be way better once it's done.

 

[Woollybear]

Started Code Name Helene again (and had to DNF again after flipping through to see if a different entry would hook me, but no not yet). I only mention it because the author describes every little thing, so it's at least a resource for people looking for new ideas on character description. Look at the fattest paragraph on page one (look inside/read sample at the link) for an idea. The author is great at description, she does it a bunch of ways, but to my tastes it's too much. I don't need to know that the character's wearing a camel-haired coat any more than I need to know the character's hair color or eye color, or that she wears silk stockings. I need grounding, which means some description of something.

But the author does pull all the description-levers, so it seems like a good resource to scan, for ideas on ways to describe characters or a scene.

(Like, on every page. Loads of description. Some readers really dig that, and some writers love to write it. All good.)

 

[owlion]

I've been hit by some CFS/ME since the conference, so spent today cutting down and streamlining a short story, which went from almost 4k words to just over 2k, which felt pretty successful, considering!

 

[Woollybear]

ETA: I did not mean to quote myself and am deleting it.

 

[benbenberi]

Started Code Name Helene again (and had to DNF again after flipping through to see if a different entry would hook me, but no not yet). I only mention it because the author describes every little thing, so it's at least a resource for people looking for new ideas on character description. Look at the fattest paragraph on page one (look inside/read sample at the link) for an idea. The author is great at description, she does it a bunch of ways, but to my tastes it's too much. I don't need to know that the character's wearing a camel-haired coat any more than I need to know the character's hair color or eye color, or that she wears silk stockings. I need grounding, which means some description of something.

But the author does pull all the description-levers, so it seems like a good resource to scan, for ideas on ways to describe characters or a scene.

(Like, on every page. Loads of description. Some readers really dig that, and some writers love to write it. All good.)

And this is a great example of YMMV -- because reading that first page, it strikes me that the description is actually very sparse and functional. I have really no idea what the character herself looks like, just that she's wearing women's clothing under military parachuting gear. And that's the only description on the page. Everything else about the scene I have to fill in myself based on what I know about 1944.

 

[Rose Hawthorne]

Timing is so difficult. I can barely estimate how long it'll take just me to drive somewhere in a town I've known my whole life, let alone how long it'll take a hundred people to trek across a world I've never visited. And that's just happening in the background!

But straightening out this timeline has helped me connect a few dots better. I have two books happening at the same time, with separate parties that don't meet yet but do impact each other, and one character I'm apparently obsessed with because she's meddling with both parties. I'll have to cut her involvement later on in one book so she can be solidly present in the other, but I think it'll be alright because I hadn't planned anything explicit with her. She just drives one MC insane, but the MC is good at doing that to themselves, so she can just be the catalyst for insanity and bow out to the other book. I'll put it in the grand timeline and see how it goes

I also don't love when characters say "so much has happened in a day, I can't believe it was only yesterday when blah blah," it just seems to point out their characterization too directly. But looking at this timeline, one MC is going to have a fun thirty-six hours without sleep, so I shall be more understanding when characters bemoan their quick-moving plots

 

[Nether]

Still recovering from the ups and downs (mostly downs) of an unfortunate tech problems (specifically the laptop issue then losing everything I had on Firefox on the other laptop). Of course, the downs were a lot lower a few days ago when I started to write this post (where I either never got around to finishing it or didn't click to post), but at least the usual laptop is working now (meaning some of what I'd already written is moot).

Had the usual laptop not come back online, I would've also lost the spot-fixes on The Dryad (not a huge deal), the edits on JDP (since, despite finishing that round back in August, my most recent back-up was the mark-ups; imagine it was an oversight because I got through the next phase so quickly). and my planning docs from March 2025 onward (excluding whatever was on G Docs, which is now the starting point for my planning docs).

So, you know, that's good. Of course, Firefox wound up crashing again on that laptop and I lost all of my open tabs (possibly because I hadn't restored the session in between the thing going offline and crashing, or between two crashes), so that's an issue (much more so than losing my active tabs on the other laptop). Of course, at least now I have the usual laptop's bookmarks, which somewhat makes up for losing all of the bookmarks on the other laptop (or all-ish; more on that in a minute)

Anyway, I haven't quite been the same since all the tech troubles. Really threw me off my stride, on top of being demotivating. Although I don't like/trust the idea of letting Firefox or another service back up my profile, I realize I should've been at least periodically backing up my bookmarks by exporting them. As it is, one of my thumb drives had a set of bookmarks from 2019 (before I came back to writing) which might've been an older version of what I had on that other laptop or an older one.

Beyond all that, I've been adjusting to Windows 11 (which I'd previously updated this laptop to, which -- iirc -- wouldn't run on the usual laptop) and then getting everything with LibreOffice back to how I had it on the usual laptop. (As mentioned in the tech topic, I'm just going to be using the other laptop for a while. Partly because I don't want to unplug and move the usual laptop from where it is now.)

Can't remember if I'd mentioned this prior, but I decided to start adding the names of the editors for each book to my spreadsheet. Figure it might come in handy, same as listing the agent for each book. I'd started doing that prior to all the tech issues.

I'm also still being driven a bit crazy by editing. I'll sometimes fixate on relatively trivial things, same as I might do while reading (including when I recently spend several minutes considering an author's decision to write "these words" instead of "those words"). But then there's just the character description thing I haven't shut up about where I'm not sure where/when I want to fit those details in. Unfortunately, the four friends start the story together where it's easier to sneak something in when somebody is arriving. However, I probably won't change the scene to facilitate that, I'll just try to work around it. The real problem is vanished-friend-2. There were a few good spots for VF1 (including where the MC notes he's a faster) and for the one who doesn't vanish (where I could work it into an action beat), but VF2 doesn't have action beats. I could reference it in chapter 2 maybe.

Then the comp I've been looking into for GB (The Cursed Moon) so far hasn't been that good of a fit, but I might use it anyway. Unfortunately, it's kinda slow-moving, not a lot happening, and despite implying that kids vanish, all of the victims were from the past and the "didn't return" (or however it was phrased) just referred to them drowning. On the plus side, there are victims going back decades, so there's that. And then I was going to probably just use Lindsay Currie's It Found Us. Unfortunately, both of these are ghost stories where GB doesn't have ghosts and I don't plan on adding any. However, GB's MC is menaced by seemingly supernatural things, so that kinda works. The one thing that kinda kills me is it doesn't seem like any recent MG horror (minus stuff by big name authors) has a lot of GR ratings, so no comp is going to look impressive if an agent is just looking up. That's probably why so many agents list older examples on their MSWLs.

And then I just haven't made much progress on planning any new projects. I'd thought that I had extra notes for the spy project hosted locally, but the file I found just pasted what I had in G Docs unless there's another doc labeled something else. And then Choppy has ground to a halt, mostly because I can't think of a story arc I really like and I'm torn between several things. However, I'm still thinking it makes the most sense to have the MC's friend make the bargain and then the MC will be impacted as a result. Just to give some context, think Edward Scissorhands meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which are weird things to reference for MG, but it's a convenient shorthand.)

The fact that I'm not making progress on planning isn't necessarily a huge deal since my time is probably better spent editing / readying other projects. However, the final leg of editing mostly drags because I wind up dragging my feet.

Timing is so difficult. I can barely estimate how long it'll take just me to drive somewhere in a town I've known my whole life, let alone how long it'll take a hundred people to trek across a world I've never visited. And that's just happening in the background!

The good news is other people haven't visited that world either so who's going to know any better?

Otherwise, you could probably just look at any historical travel for clues. There's a surprising amount of information available on stuff like that.

 

[AfterSun]

I am making the conscious decicion not to be scared of writing anymore. The fear of failing is holding me back from writing either of the two story ideas I have. Well, they're more than ideas at this point.

WIP 1 (working title Three is a Crowd or 3IAC for short) is a YA/NA romantic fiction with some thriller aspects. I'm in the process of getting to know my MC's--there's three of them.
WIP 2 (working title Come As You Are or CAUA) is a YA fantasy, urban or slightly less urban, I finished the first draft of this story when I was sixteen, I'm twenty-eight now. Needless to say, the characters won't let go of me, and I couldn't imagine letting go of them.

Come As You Are has a lot more going on, and I think I need to sharpen my craft before I can do the book justice, so I'm planning on working on WIP 1 for now. I've given myself until July to write 75.000 words, which is a completely random number by the way.
The scary part is moving from plotting to writing. Being okay with things changing along the way, understanding that this is a first draft and not the final product. I need to write like nobody is watching.

So a little backstory about 3IAC--MC moves back to her hometown for senior year following the divorce of her parents. Girl meets boy, girl meets girl. Girl, girl and boy become very good friends. Alas, they all have secrets. The theme of the story is loyalty--how far would you go to protect your friends? There won't be things as serious as murder, but there will be illegal activities such as selling...things. Forbidden relationships, bullying getting out of hand and someone that went missing some time ago--my MC is the last person who saw the missing girl alive. Perhaps there is something going on there?

I feel like writing is a solitary activity, but with forums like these, it doesn't have to be. So while I toe the line between wanting to figure everything out for myself and asking for help, between being unnecesserily vague and spoiling the entire plot in some obscure thread, I hope to let go of the dread and see what beautiful things can come from writing fearlessly. And I wish the same for all of you!

 

[Bitterboots]

Decided to do a complete rewrite based on a paid editor's suggestions. This will entirely change the direction and feel of the original and I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. I loved writing and editing it, (5 rewrites). It is a slow burn which is one of my favorite types of books to read.
The new version has more action, more agency, more mystery. A recently completed chapter one has me excited but it's like watching your kids grow...you're proud of their progress but there's a bittersweet feeling that you wish they could stay little and innocent forever.

 

[Bitterboots]

Still recovering from the ups and downs (mostly downs) of an unfortunate tech problems (specifically the laptop issue then losing everything I had on Firefox on the other laptop). Of course, the downs were a lot lower a few days ago when I started to write this post (where I either never got around to finishing it or didn't click to post), but at least the usual laptop is working now (meaning some of what I'd already written is moot).

Had the usual laptop not come back online, I would've also lost the spot-fixes on The Dryad (not a huge deal), the edits on JDP (since, despite finishing that round back in August, my most recent back-up was the mark-ups; imagine it was an oversight because I got through the next phase so quickly). and my planning docs from March 2025 onward (excluding whatever was on G Docs, which is now the starting point for my planning docs).

So, you know, that's good. Of course, Firefox wound up crashing again on that laptop and I lost all of my open tabs

So frustrating. I feel your pain. I've lost all my bookmark before and still haven't found sites I saved for research.

Can't remember if I'd mentioned this prior, but I decided to start adding the names of the editors for each book to my spreadsheet. Figure it might come in handy, same as listing the agent for each book. I'd started doing that prior to all the tech issues.

Ah...to get to a point where I have names to add to a spreadsheet.

And then I just haven't made much progress on planning any new projects.

Absolutely commiserate on this one. I cannot move past my current WP. I'm worried I'm too autistic to ever start another project even though I've got two sequels and two other ideas drafted.

The fact that I'm not making progress on planning isn't necessarily a huge deal since my time is probably better spent editing / readying other projects. However, the final leg of editing mostly drags because I wind up dragging my feet.

Yep. Also sounds familiar. Took me two months to decide on a complete rewrite. The thought of it terrified me.

 

[Sage]

The new version has more action, more agency, more mystery. A recently completed chapter one has me excited but it's like watching your kids grow...you're proud of their progress but there's a bittersweet feeling that you wish they could stay little and innocent forever.

Total mood

Good luck on the rewrite!

 

[owlion]

Still recovering from the ups and downs (mostly downs) of an unfortunate tech problems (specifically the laptop issue then losing everything I had on Firefox on the other laptop). Of course, the downs were a lot lower a few days ago when I started to write this post (where I either never got around to finishing it or didn't click to post), but at least the usual laptop is working now (meaning some of what I'd already written is moot).

Sorry about the tech issues, those are always really disheartening... Hopefully everything will be back in working order soon!

Since I last checked in, I've managed to lightly edit an old short story, write and edit another, and finish beta edits on the MG horror (so now all I need is one final read through and I can put it away). I've had another idea for a horror short story but I might wait until after I've done the big edits on the MG fantasy first so I can intersperse editing with writing something quick and new to refresh my brain a bit. My CFS is still playing up, so I've been very tired all week - I'm hoping it'll have gone off by the weekend at least so I can enjoy that time without needing to sleep through it!

 

[Rose Hawthorne]

Still recovering from the ups and downs (mostly downs) of an unfortunate tech problems (specifically the laptop issue then losing everything I had on Firefox on the other laptop). Of course, the downs were a lot lower a few days ago when I started to write this post (where I either never got around to finishing it or didn't click to post), but at least the usual laptop is working now (meaning some of what I'd already written is moot).

Had the usual laptop not come back online, I would've also lost the spot-fixes on The Dryad (not a huge deal), the edits on JDP (since, despite finishing that round back in August, my most recent back-up was the mark-ups; imagine it was an oversight because I got through the next phase so quickly). and my planning docs from March 2025 onward (excluding whatever was on G Docs, which is now the starting point for my planning docs).

So, you know, that's good. Of course, Firefox wound up crashing again on that laptop and I lost all of my open tabs (possibly because I hadn't restored the session in between the thing going offline and crashing, or between two crashes), so that's an issue (much more so than losing my active tabs on the other laptop). Of course, at least now I have the usual laptop's bookmarks, which somewhat makes up for losing all of the bookmarks on the other laptop (or all-ish; more on that in a minute)

Anyway, I haven't quite been the same since all the tech troubles. Really threw me off my stride, on top of being demotivating. Although I don't like/trust the idea of letting Firefox or another service back up my profile, I realize I should've been at least periodically backing up my bookmarks by exporting them. As it is, one of my thumb drives had a set of bookmarks from 2019 (before I came back to writing) which might've been an older version of what I had on that other laptop or an older one.

Beyond all that, I've been adjusting to Windows 11 (which I'd previously updated this laptop to, which -- iirc -- wouldn't run on the usual laptop) and then getting everything with LibreOffice back to how I had it on the usual laptop. (As mentioned in the tech topic, I'm just going to be using the other laptop for a while. Partly because I don't want to unplug and move the usual laptop from where it is now.)

Can't remember if I'd mentioned this prior, but I decided to start adding the names of the editors for each book to my spreadsheet. Figure it might come in handy, same as listing the agent for each book. I'd started doing that prior to all the tech issues.

I'm also still being driven a bit crazy by editing. I'll sometimes fixate on relatively trivial things, same as I might do while reading (including when I recently spend several minutes considering an author's decision to write "these words" instead of "those words").

Whenever I find an odd phrase or simple sentence in some books, I wonder about the author's writing process, whether they don't feel the need to agonize over every word like me or whether that overthinking just burnt them out with those words, lol

The good news is other people haven't visited that world either so who's going to know any better?

Definitely taking advantage of that! Made-up creatures means made-up travel times. I'm usually consistent with the first instance of travelling mentioned, but they are powered by magic I can fidget with to make them quicker/slower

This will entirely change the direction and feel of the original and I'm not sure how I feel about that yet

I did this with a project recently, haven't written it yet but just replanned everything and it's odd, especially when the characters stay the same

A recently completed chapter one has me excited but it's like watching your kids grow...you're proud of their progress but there's a bittersweet feeling that you wish they could stay little and innocent forever.

At least you're growing with the book! And I always think it's special that only the author of the book knows what it was first like, the original plot and twists that are so different from what the reader will know. Definitely cements it as your book

 

[Bitterboots]

At least you're growing with the book! And I always think it's special that only the author of the book knows what it was first like, the original plot and twists that are so different from what the reader will know. Definitely cements it as your book

Well, I have had 12 betas. I'll be very interested to see what some of them who have offered to do take a look will think. I don't want to get too far in, just in case early readers prefer the slow burn. That way I'll be sure the editor was maybe just not a good fit.

 

[pebbleg]

No sure if anyone here remembers me, but i'm BACK after a long hiatus!! Glad to see many familiar names still active here -- i'll have to spend some time reading the thread and catching up!!!! Meanwhile, I'm ready to come back to this writing community (if you all will still have me) after a dark year battling with . . . stuff.

As for what's on my mind about my writing? I just dropped the agent I'd had for two years (it was painful but liberating -- and if anyone ever wants to hear I can share the whole ordeal one day), my book was never on sub, but on the bright side, my book was never on sub! So I'm hopeful another agent will take a chance on it. I've started a new historical fiction on-and-off, although the progress has been really slow, partly because the relationship with the previous agent has caused me so much anxiety and self doubt. But I'm excited to write more again, now that the weight has been lifted off my chest. Also excited to be exchanging thoughts with everyone here again!

 

[pebbleg]

Well, I have had 12 betas. I'll be very interested to see what some of them who have offered to do take a look will think. I don't want to get too far in, just in case early readers prefer the slow burn. That way I'll be sure the editor was maybe just not a good fit.

Is this the same SSF I read a while ago? I still remember it so if you ever need another opinion on the new direction or pages, let me know!

 

[pebbleg]

However, I'm still thinking it makes the most sense to have the MC's friend make the bargain and then the MC will be impacted as a result. Just to give some context, think Edward Scissorhands meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which are weird things to reference for MG, but it's a convenient shorthand.)


The fact that I'm not making progress on planning isn't necessarily a huge deal since my time is probably better spent editing / readying other projects. However, the final leg of editing mostly drags because I wind up dragging my feet.

Edward Scissorhands x Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind sounds fascinating. Intriguing for MG, look forward to hearing more about it!

I struggle with planning new projects and editing old ones at the same time too, and really admire those who can juggle them well.

 

[owlion]

No sure if anyone here remembers me, but i'm BACK after a long hiatus!! Glad to see many familiar names still active here -- i'll have to spend some time reading the thread and catching up!!!! Meanwhile, I'm ready to come back to this writing community (if you all will still have me) after a dark year battling with . . . stuff.

As for what's on my mind about my writing? I just dropped the agent I'd had for two years (it was painful but liberating -- and if anyone ever wants to hear I can share the whole ordeal one day), my book was never on sub, but on the bright side, my book was never on sub! So I'm hopeful another agent will take a chance on it. I've started a new historical fiction on-and-off, although the progress has been really slow, partly because the relationship with the previous agent has caused me so much anxiety and self doubt. But I'm excited to write more again, now that the weight has been lifted off my chest. Also excited to be exchanging thoughts with everyone here again!

Welcome back!! It's great to see you again, though I'm sorry you've had a rough time recently I remember you talking about your book and it sounded great - hopefully you'll have a new agent in no time! The historical sounds cool, I tend to enjoy those but the research needed is intimidating to me. (If you'd feel comfortable, I'd definitely like to hear more about the agent - I have a couple of friends querying and would like to give them warnings about who to avoid - so feel free to send me a DM if you don't want to post publicly, but I completely understand if you'd prefer not to go into the topic yet!)

In terms of writing, I'm a little under halfway through the final read of the MG horror and there hasn't been much to move around which is nice. I'm hoping to have this finished by the end of Tuesday, then I'll start looking at the big edits to the MG fantasy (which are intimidating me because the whole start needs changing pretty much). Mostly though, I'm trying to take it a lot easier than I have been because I'm still exhausted (I went to the cinema this afternoon and had to squeeze a nap in before so I didn't fall asleep there).