My writing process is like steering a ship across the sea, constantly adjusting my course as the currents shift beneath an unpredictable sky. I have some control, but I’m also at the mercy of nature. It has its own ideas. Sometimes I can push through rough waters, and other times I have to accept that it’s time to chart a different course.
I always end up where I want to go when I accept the terms of this relationship. Each project is on its own timeline. Each one requires a different version of me—one with certain life experiences and a way of seeing the world that can’t be rushed. This was really hard for me to accept for a long time, but I’m finally internalizing how true that is as old projects return to my life and suddenly click in ways they never did before because I’m a different person now with a different emotional tapestry.
The tricky part is recognizing when it’s time to set a project aside and let it breathe, and when it’s just fear or boredom masquerading as intuition.
I don’t stop anymore when I’m growing tired of a project or have gotten stuck. Everything gets tiresome once the honeymoon phase wears off, so there will always be that point in a draft when I am sick of it and have to push through. Any issues that pop up are just my instincts telling me there’s a better way and that I need to ask the right questions to figure it out.
However, if it’s still not working after I use all the tools in my arsenal to diagnose the issue and put in the work, I finally (and very reluctantly) take a break to give the project space to breathe. Sometimes, it’s a few weeks. Others, a few years. Either way, I work on other projects in the interim, so my creative energy doesn’t lose momentum.
Writing is a dance of self-trust, discipline, and surrender. Of knowing when to work harder and when to go with the flow.
✧ MY WEBSITE FOR WRITERS GOT A REDESIGN
— new blog posts and resources on the way
I finished a massive redesign of my website for writers, which includes a library of free resources including blog posts, ebooks, and workbooks. I hadn’t updated it since summer of 2023, when I shifted my focus to my debut novel (Reality with You) and then Substack. But I missed having a dedicated space for educational writing resources that don’t quite fit what I want to do with this Substack. So, she’s gotten a facelift and will have new content soon.
✧ PROJECT TAKEOVER (ARDEN BEACH: BOOK 2)
— forbidden romance standalone in an interconnected contemporary romance series, set in a glamorous coastal city
I began drafting Project Takeover a few months ago and got 37k words in, then hit a wall. Something didn’t feel right. It was hard to peel myself away. I gave it a formidable fight before relenting, but after taking a break, I had a breakthrough and did a pretty big overhaul of some key elements. I started redrafting it last month—got rid of some scenes, rewrote some others, and added new ones—and I’m now at 43k words in this new draft. I’m aiming to finish it around 60k, then I’ll put it aside to simmer in the background while I focus on finishing a new draft of Project Time Travel.
✧ PROJECT TIME TRAVEL
— paranormal romance/sci-fi novel
— The Invisible Life of Addie Larue meets Stranger Things
While working on Project Takeover, I’ve been developing the world-building for Project Time Travel on the side so I can jump right back into drafting it once this round of PT is done. I have 10k written for this new draft so far, after previously writing the 50k first draft in 2019 and then shelving it. I’m really in love with this story. I can’t wait to share more about it. Right now, all I’ll say is that it explores loneliness, found family, and the mysterious nature of time and the universe.
Includes some affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission if you purchase something at no extra cost to you 🫶🏻
MEDIA
Disclosure Day — The movie trailer didn't grab me the way I’d hoped, so I had low expectations going into the theater. Couldn’t have been more wrong, and couldn’t have been happier to be wrong. The advertisements did not do this movie justice; they made it seem like another basic alien movie, but it was far from it. I loved the film’s messaging about empathy and its importance to all living things. The entire production—acting, writing, directing—was superb.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo — I finally got around to reading this book and damn. I devoured it in 3 days (and it only took that long because life got in the way). Worth the hype; I couldn’t put it down. The storyteller in me was taking notes because it was so well done. I’m (tentatively) excited for the movie adaptation.
EXPERIENCES
Layer by Layer: How to Edit Your Book (live on July 19th, 2026, with on-demand access afterward through the Reedsy Learning membership) — I’ll be finishing the first draft of Project Takeover this month, which means I’ll be diving into draft 2 soon, so this editing conference popped up at the perfect time. I’m always looking to learn new techniques to strengthen and tighten up my process because revisions are a beast.
✧ What I’m most excited for:
Editors from Big 5 publishers are leading the presentations, so I’m looking forward to getting their insight and advice on what an efficient editing process looks like to them. How do they approach editing a manuscript? What have they learned over the years? What are the common threads between the strongest manuscripts they’ve received? This is their bread and butter, and they’ve worked with the top publishing companies, so you know they have some valuable wisdom to share.
One of the sessions is specifically on cutting filler words and sharpening language, which is one of the most challenging and tedious parts of revisions (for me). It promises to help you “spot the patterns” when your instincts tell you something isn’t right, but you aren’t sure what, and it will also cover practical tools to sharpen your prose.
𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝒾𝓃𝑔! If you enjoyed it and would like to show your support for my work, please:
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𝓍𝓍 𝐿.𝐸.
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