💡 sunday tea: slow writing rituals

It’s a Wednesday, and I’m biking through the sunny wetlands of Reno with family, stopping for a beautiful breakfast bowl before finishing our ride. The marshland birds fly over the shimmering water with towering weeds, the Tahoe mountains in the background.

Then, after an afternoon of cooking corn on the cob and lunch on the grill, I sit outside in the shade to get some writing time for my new novel, let me be your ghost.

The progress has been steady. I’ve been writing chunks of the book on calm afternoons just like these, an iced green tea sweating on a side table while I write away. And — most recently! — I’ve just completed the full first draft and have been doing an edit pass as I’ve been queuing up chapters.

Here’s how it’s been going so far:

I’ve been working on this current version of let me be your ghost since early May of this year, although the concept itself was adapted from a screenplay I wrote back when I worked in Hollywood. It’s very different now, in ways I think make the story more interesting (you can read chapters 1-4 for free to judge for yourself!)

Every novel seems to have its own writing process, and let me be your ghost as a draft came together in a much more seamless way when I figured out some major story engines. These engines were notably lacking in previous drafts, which is why I kept writing flashbacks previously (gratuitous flashbacks is a sure sign of author in distress!)

Story structure is what determines if rewrites will take you months or years, and I’m so grateful to have basically been put through “story structure bootcamp” during my past experience of being a TV writer.

I taught a class on this for Founding Members about how to use TV structure to improve your romance novel’s pacing, and I’ve used all of these tricks in the outlining and preparation of let me be your ghost so far:

In terms of draft progress, since I recently finished writing the entire draft, I’ve been doing revisions on earlier chapters ahead of scheduling them. I’m a few chapters ahead of what’s hitting your inbox each week, which has been ~ so important ~ for building some more cushion for me to strengthen story components.

I’m also going to be diving back into more of the week-to-week marketing of each chapter, and will share what’s moving the needle there soon.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading and also sharing feedback on the draft so far! I’ve been enjoying reading your emails and I’m glad you’re digging the story so far :)

• creating: we just launched our free quizzes on CozyJobs, and our Cosmic Career Quiz has been described as “scarily accurate” and has even been endorsed by a professional astrologer!

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• creating: I’ve been using ProWritingAid to help me edit some of my novel, and it’s given me some really interesting notes to work with during this process. if you’re a paid subscriber of Make Writing Your Job, ProWritingAid is giving our subscribers 20% off if you missed the announcement!