Writing Waterfall
Welcome to a tale of writing progress and resolutions.
I was right! That trickle that had turned into a stream did, indeed, turn into a waterfall. While significant progress was made in Call of the Void, the YA Paranormal that I mentioned in the previous post, I am beyond ecstatic that that writing energy transferred over to Outkast. In fact, it transferred over so hard that I reimagined the entire outlook I had for the series, so much so that book one now has a different title: Mythic. You can see more about how all that happened under the “Mythic (WIP)” page in the Books section of this website.
While sitting at my desk at a job I didn’t have when writing the last post and no longer have while writing this one, Outkast turned into Mythic through an explosion of sudden epiphanies concerning the characters and their backstories just as much as their futures. That single great aha! moment—jotted down on a scrap piece of paper that I hid under the keyboard until I clocked out—only snowballed into late-night additions to the notes app on my phone and early morning scribbles in the journal I kept by my bed. I have since upgraded to a Kindle Scribe for all my e-reading and urgent note-making needs, thank you Mom and Dad.
Having been out of work for a month, a situation I have been in before, this is the first time I haven’t felt debilitated by anxiety about employment. That’s because I am writing. I am writing, and I will not stop. This surge in Mythic inspiration—yes, pun intended—happened in the middle of October. At that point, Outkast was just shy of 39,000 words. Now, only two months later, Mythic is coming up on 90,000! And, if I do say so myself, I have arranged those words all to be very important and intriguing.
It is important to note the books I have been reading during this time of raging creativity. So, I will have you know that I had started reading the ACOTAR series before the surge began. I have since read the Caraval trilogy by Stephanie Garber, her other three novels Once Upon a Broken Heart, The Ballad of Never After, and A Curse for True Love are recent Christmas gifts that I will be diving into headfirst once I finish reading Renegades by Marissa Meyer. The Cat and Mouse duology is always in my pocket, and the Rhapsodic series by Laura Thalassa has been a good read alongside another Thalassa series, The Four Horsemen. I have been doing A LOT of reading whilst completing A LOT of writing, and I have never been more happy. Now if only I could get paid to do this…
Finally, this wouldn’t be a proper first post of the year if I didn’t include my goals for 2025. Let me tell you a story:
As we humans do at the turn of the year, I looked myself in the mirror and tried to figure out just what it was I wanted to accomplish in the new year. Did I want to exercise more? Not actually. Eat better? I should. Go out more? I don't know why. Read more? Always. I couldn't really land on a resolution, so I posed it as a question. I stared into the mirror with serious eyes and asked out loud, "What do I want to accomplish this year?"
To that, my reflection laughed as if the idea of setting goals was a joke. It was.
The truth is I have no idea what I'll be able to accomplish within the year. Much less do I know if what I want to do today will be what I want to do tomorrow, or next month, or sixth months from now. Making a resolution seems like setting yourself up for failure. How many people give up doing anything at all after their first cheat day turns into a cheat week? I don't want to set the goal for myself to complete the first draft of Mythic and end up thinking less of myself if it doesn't happen.
I don't know what I'll be able to manage in 2025. I don't know if I'll have a job I can keep or the same apartment or any more health issues that disrupt everything. I'd much rather do what I've been doing: taking things one day at a time. So of course there are things that I want to accomplish, but I'm not going to declare them as some set in stone promise to myself. Life is too unpredictable for that.
What I want to accomplish more than anything is to get paid to read and write (and edit), but I am willing to accept that that may not happen this year, or even next, but one day. Beyond that, I just want to continue to find happiness. Now that I know I can do because there is something, a moment, each day that can spark joy, even if you don’t realize it at the time.
So keep writing, keep reading, and keep finding those little things that make you happy. The rest is confetti.
