I noticed that it has been a little over three months since I last updated you guys on my writing! Really, for the first two months of 2021, nothing worthy of note happened in regards to my writing, so that’s the main reason. But some exciting things are happening now…sort of. Good news and bad news, really, haha!

I’ll start with the good news, since that kind of led to the bad news…

In my last writing update, I talked about that new idea I came up with. Unfortunately I am having one heck of a time finding something to call it, so I mainly refer to it as #DarkTides. Now, I do try and figure out little working titles/code names to call my stories, since I don’t usually work to hard at finding a title until the book is complete. So, for now, this is the name, even though the book doesn’t have much to do with tides at all, besides the Sirens of course. When I first began this book, it was to be about the Sirens and they were the main plot. Well, after a ton of consideration, they became more of a side plot, which I’m entirely okay with since I’m loving the book a lot more now that it’s all fleshed out.

So the good news. The good news is that I have the entire book planned out. I’m a pantser, which basically means I write by the seat of my pants and I don’t really do much planning. I’m not a full on pantser, though, as I like to have an outline, however vague it might be, to follow. I got through 11 chapters of this crazy thing and had no clue where I was going with it. The end half was just a blur of small ideas and scenes that I wanted to have happen. I started to panic a little since I had deadlines I wanted to reach!

Well, thanks to a lot of help from my best friend, I was able to work out some things and I wrote out descriptions of each chapter, a timeline, and filled in a few plot holes. With that all done, I was going for getting out three chapters a week for my beta-readers. This unfortunately meant I’d have to wake up a little earlier than usual to get in some writing time before school, but, for the first time ever, I’m actually enjoying my writing immensely! I have been working on my self-esteem, and I’m happy to say my confidence is in much better shape! Of course I get doubtful about my skill at times, but I just have to remind myself that that skill is God given and he knew what He was doing when He gave it to me! I just have to keep practicing and I’ll get better and better!

So with a knew love for writing, I’ve gone threw about 13 chapters of the book, and I’m currently working on chapter 14, so I’m about halfway through the book!

But then there’s the bad news….

It had to happen sooner or later with how much I’ve been writing the last few weeks, haha! I got a little burnt out this week, which was both a good thing and a bad thing since it’s spring break. Used to, this meant I would close up my manuscripts and forget them for months. That definitely didn’t help me, so instead of that, I’m going to keep on writing…just in smaller chunks. I usually try and write around 1,500 to 2,000 words a day, but I’ve drastically lowered that to 500 words, so I can keep moving but not get so burnt out that I start to write pure trash and hate every moment of it.

My deadline to finish the first draft is April 17th, so I’m hoping to be able to make that!

Let me know how your projects, whether it be writing, painting, or anything else you’ve set your mind to, are going! I hope it is all going well! God bless y’all and have a wonderful weekend!