here we go again
the highs & lows of the writing cycle
EVERY TIME.
I’ve endured it for years if not decades by now, the cycle of the low: I will never write anything every again, I have nothing to give, I am a failure to myself and my handful of readers, and it will be this way forever.
And then the high that I return to, the…hey, I think I have an idea. Hey, that was a good story I just watched/read. It makes me want to create something. Hey, I’ve been mulling this over for a while now… and now I’m thinking about opening my laptop and staring at a blinking cursor on a blank Word doc, and now I’m typing words…
You’d think I would remember by now that everything is temporary.
But anyway, breaking news: I want to write again! And I feel like I have the capacity to again. I’m brainstorming conflicts, characters… it’s fun. I’ve even considered going back and revising my query, because I just can’t let my friendship love story novel go. I want to take it far!
what i’ve been up to
Reading! I’ve been reading more books lately, because I decided to just read fun books and because I got an e-reader for Christmas so it’s been much easier to quickly get access to books I like and want to read. (I previously read ebooks via Libby or the Kindle app on my phone, which I hate doing, or physical books from the library that I only read half of because I’m SUCH a mood reader). I’m also excited about the potential for supporting indie authors through ebook purchases! I don’t have the budget (or space) to purchase a bunch of physical books, but ebooks I can manage!
books I’ve enjoyed recently:
Heated Rivalry and The Long Game by Rachel Reid
The Night Ends with Fire by K.X. Song
This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar
Interview with a Van-Lifer by M.K. Williams
I took time off over Christmas and also temporarily deleted by Instagram app. I enjoyed using that time to read, relax and spend time with my family and friends.
Another thing I’ve been doing on the side is coordinating some writing for a choir thing and it’s been funny working with people who don’t consider themselves writers and have them experience the writing process for the first time. “I have the vision but getting it down is hard!” “I just don’t know how to put what I want to say in words!” I’m known as “a writer” in my choir group (publishing a book will unfortunately do that to you), so I have to encourage everyone that this is actually just what it’s like to write and yes it’s hard and sucks mwahahahaha.
what’s next
I honestly have no idea if I’ll have time to do this, but I would like to go back to my query letter and overhaul it and maybe send out another round of queries.
The other thing I want to do is start something new! I have loved reading romance pretty much my whole life, but I have never been brave enough to try and write one. But I want to do it! I’ve consumed some good love stories lately (like the new People We Meet on Vacation movie) and I think it would be fun. I’m rolling around a few ideas at the moment.
read my writing (?)
I do wish I could give you some more exciting updates in these newsletters than “I finally wrote a paragraph in a blank Word doc!” I want to be able to announce new writing I’ve published recently and send you a link, because I want to give my lovely handful of readers something to read!
I do have an “other publications” section on my website where you can find links to previous writing I’ve published, but that being said, would anyone be interested if I started sharing some of my writing from my archives? It may be serious, it may be unedited, it may silly stuff from six-year-old writer Alyssa… Anyway, let me know in the comments or email replies if you’d be interested in reading more of my writing while I continue to slowly work on my other projects.
Happy February!
xo,
Alyssa