So January happened, huh.

It’s been two weeks of attempting to mentally adjust to the new status quo with varying degrees of success. But I think it’s a good place to sit in discomfort with, to not stop fighting for a better future. And sometimes that fight looks like creating which is what I hope to do more of this year!

After a slow 2024 for a number of reasons (the least of which were a new job and moving house), things are finally starting to settle and that means it’s time to get back to an actual routine with my writing. I have 3 novels in various stages of in-progress, and just came up with a quick outline for a fourth (was supposed to be a short story… oops…).

And it’s another horror! I don’t know what happened but I find myself heading more and more in that direction with my stories. Perhaps it’s a sign?

I’ve also tried my hand at more of the hype pitch events on BlueSky and had a lot of fun this past month with #BluePit especially. I hope to start querying one of the projects I’ve pitched by the end of this year 🤞

And I’m also getting back into short fiction. I used to write short stories in college more but fell out of practice, but the other week I submitted a short story for publication for the first time! It was for an anthology and I fully expect a rejection for the competitiveness if nothing else, but I took the first step and hope to submit more shorts moving forward with the hopes of publishing at least one by the end of 2025.

on outlining

I’ve been thinking a lot about outlining as part of my writing process lately. I’ve gone from extreme pantser to extreme plotter, and the last few years have been lots of little experiments to find a happy medium. I realized while doing this that I tend to follow a certain internal outline when I start a story that comes from a Frankenstein creation of many different structures, so I finally decided to write it down! These aren’t new ideas either, but I sometimes find reframing concepts makes them stick in my head more.

Some are single scene beats, others might take multiple, but I usually have to have something figured out for each to make it from start to finish. And each of my projects don’t necessarily fit this structure 100% but I find it helpful thinking through each beat anyway and seeing how it relates to the story as a whole.

ACT ONE

• Status Quo - current view of the character's life, both internal and external arcs

• Disruption - moment that disrupts the character's normal life and pushes them toward making a decision

• Decision - character debates their options and makes a decision

• Break Into 2 - character acts on the decision and their world transitions into a new space (physically, mentally, etc.)

ACT TWO

• Obstacle #1 - something gets in the way of the character's goal

• Obstacle #2 - something else gets in the way of their goal

• Midpoint Reversal - the world shifts again for the character and changes their trajectory (upward to downward, or the inverse) in relation to their goal

ACT THREE

• Obstacle #3 - last big thing that gets in the way of the character's goal

• Rock Bottom - character hits their emotional (and sometimes physical) bottom

ACT FOUR

• Beginning of the End - character prepares for the final confrontation of the antagonist

• Final Conflict - the final confrontation with the antagonist

• Reverse Status Quo - a flip of the original status quo in some way, often internal

It’s certainly not a perfect structure but it does the job! I love seeing how other writers approach their stories so wanted to share in kind in case others also find it interesting.

currently consuming…

In recent weeks I’ve gone down the cooking show rabbit hole that I revisit now and then so binge watching a lot of MasterChef and Kitchen Nightmares. Ironic because I absolutely hate cooking but for some reason I keep coming back to the shows 🤷‍♀️

The reading did not go well in January. I didn’t finish a single book, but I did start two! I picked up Chuck Wendig’s Black River Orchard as a potential comp title for my folk horror novel, and Sophie Kim’s The God and the Gumiho totally on vibes. Enjoying both for very different reasons and hoping to wrap them up this month so I can count them toward the Beat the Backlist challenge.

I also got my pre-order of Motheater by Linda H. Codega! I came to the (very annoying) realization that I really can’t afford to keep pre-ordering every single book I want to read 😅 so I’ve been limiting how many I have coming in each month and focusing on library requests for the rest. This was one, though, that I just knew I needed on my shelves (and is also a potential comp for that same folk horror project of mine).

further distractions

I’ve stumbled my way down the gardening path for Reasons™ now that I have a yard of my own. Ordered some seeds, bought some more from the store, and got a few started in seed trays to see how it goes! It’s one big experiment for me so not sure how this first year will go, but I’m excited! Going to try and get the rest of my trays for my early seeds set up in the basement in the coming week.

My other plants are chugging along. Some better than others (my aloe is just not happy these days) but they’re overall much happier in the new house with all the extra light they get.

I hope to have some gardening updates in the future! And one of these days I’ll get back to the house renovations. Ended up on pause for a bit as I started to get settled but feeling that itch to fix things again.

Until then, I hope you stay safe and take care of yourself, mentally as well as physically!

💜 austine