So, it's been a while...

It has been more than a hot minute since I last made a post here. It seems like my prediction that this side project would fade off of my radar was fairly accurate. I never posted anything past the first entry.

Book writing is going very well. At the end of April, I (finally!!!) finished Draft 1 of the first book in the fantasy series. It's gone through quite a few name changes as of late and I can't seem to settle on one I like, but for now, I'm calling it 'Prophet in a Dry Land'. For the sake of simplicity, I'll refer to it as 'Book 1'. 

The month of May was a refresh month for me, writing-wise. I took two weeks and didn't touch my story at all. Then I came back to the first draft and started reading it over. Granted, "first draft" is a really generous term, as much of it is a glorified outline. Once I'm finished with the re-read (which is taking so long because I have a bunch of other commitments in my life now), I am going to create an official outline for the book and start draft 2 with that as my compass. The goal at the moment is to finish draft 2 by the end of July, but a part of me honestly thinks that I'm just being optimistic.

I finally built myself a desktop last weekend and it has been truly wonderful to have a solid, steady place to work that isn't my laptop. Not my job work (thanks be to God I still get to work from my office because I do a lot of commuting around my county during the day), but the writing and my extracurricular things that require a large amount of desktop work throughout the week.

It's a little bit hard to believe that I have been working on this story for almost a year now. Hard to believe, but also frustrating. I honestly thought I would be writing Book 2 by now, but I think the extra time has been helpful to really get a good feel for my story and my characters. I have big things planned for both of them now.

My writing playlist has grown exponentially. I no longer work off of Spotify, but YouTube Music. The latter is just easier for me to use and I already pay for YT Premium, so it works out well. Sometimes when I haven't been in my story in a while and I need to regain the feel for it, I'll put my writing playlist on shuffle and let my mind wander through the scenes. There is one song in particular I heard a few months ago that immediately put a scene in my head for the ending of the series. Generally (though I know some changes may happen over time) I know how this series will end. I know who will live, who will die, which characters will get together, and a thread of an idea for what things need to happen in order to get there.

All in all, I am very excited about where this story is going. I have big plans in the works and characters who need their stories to be told.  

I don't know how often I will be coming back to post in here. Life has been crazy -- something I'm sure we're all painfully aware of right now -- and the business of all of my responsibilities has been snowballing as of late. Sometimes I just need an outlet to get out all of these writing things. There aren't any people in my life who know enough about this kind of thing to just listen to me ramble about my writing journey without getting bored. I have a writer friend, and she has been awesome to vent about things and brush ideas past, but she also has her own life and writing projects and I don't want to burden her.

Long story short, I'm very thankful for this moment of reprieve to write this entry. If you found this blog somehow (though I'm not sure where you would have seen it), thanks for reading. I appreciate you taking the time to "listen".

This post has been all over the place, hasn't it? I don't have another better way to sign off, so here's a quote from the first draft of Book 1. I think it's fitting for the times we're living in right now:

Sure, Kenna had seen her fair share of violence over the past few years, but never anything like this.

Stay safe, I love you all even though I've never met any of you. May the love of Jesus Christ bless you,

- Nichol ❤

Book 1 Current Word Count: 80,586

A Song From My Writing Playlist: What's Wrong by PVRS

Currently Reading: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan