An Ode to First Drafts (part 1)

Join me on a journey to book 2...

Jun 05, 2025

Hi, friends. Sorry for the delay, but I’m constantly delayed, so what did we expect to happen with this newsletter?

Let’s travel back to a time when my mental health was questionable at best… a few months ago

I’ve been in a writing trance for the past couple of months. I’m always jealous of other authors who are able to keep up with their social media and their newsletters and their personal lives even while they’re on a deadline. I try to remind myself that I have a full-time job outside of being an author, but it can feel like a flimsy excuse when you have Instagram brain1. Maybe one day I’ll learn how to balance everything better and have a routine and a schedule for it all, but today is not that day.

Anyway, back to the trance. I was lucky enough to get a two-book deal from Dell, but truth be told, there was no second book. I could tell you I had a few ideas floating around, since that’s what you’re supposed to say in these situations, but I really didn’t have anything. I had been working on a new book before everything happened2 with Casket Case, but it’s not a romance, and I had a hard time trying to force it to be one.

Most of my photos from the past few months involve Lucy and me sitting down and sometimes writing

Last summer after all of the edits for CC were turned in, I started working with my agent on new ideas. We were hoping for something *similar* to CC—real life with a magical (but grounded) twist. I had a hard time coming up with options because once you’ve chosen Death as a subject, everything else feels insignificant. I did eventually come up with an idea that I like, and my agent and I worked through an outline for it.

As a pantser, this is my first time doing a lot of prep before starting to write, so I thought the outline would be one of those quick things you did in school with roman numerals and half thoughts to be filled in later. Friends, the finished outline is eight pages, single-spaced. No clue if that’s normal or not, but it took some time to put it together.

The outline must have been okay, because the week CC came out in September, I met with my editor and got the green light to get started on the manuscript.

Well, that did not happen right away. I was a little overwhelmed with the launch of CC and my day job got a little busier, and I just couldn’t get started. I had an outline ready to go with most of the scenes laid out, but I still couldn’t do it.

It didn’t help that the obvious next question from everyone was about the second book. Have I finished it? When would it come out? What’s it about?3

The holidays were difficult for me because the questions came up a lot, and I didn’t really have an excuse for why I had no real answers and no words on the page. The problem was me. I have no issue sharing that with anyone who wants to know, but it was a lot to have the conversation several times a day. It was also a lot to be a person with writer friends and my Instagram brain telling me how productive all other writers are. Somehow other writers were able to launch a book while writing their next one, and they seemed to enjoy it. This did not seem to be possible for me.

Let me be crystal clear here: my editor and my agent and everyone else involved in the publishing of all this have been very kind and seemingly unbothered by my pace. I’m not sure if they are actually unbothered or if they’re trying not to scare the skittish writer, but either way I’ll take it.

According to my contract, the deadline for the book was in March. I had a big day-job-work-thing during the first week of April that required quite a lot of prep and brain space leading up to it, much of which would take place in March. My apartment lease was also up in March.

I had taken a week off in January to use for writing, and I knew that was my best chance to write without interruption for the foreseeable future. I needed to get as much done as I could, so I would have an easier time when life got busy again.

Sometimes I think of my ancestors farming in direct sunlight in Georgia and wonder what they would think of my dramatics.

Sorry to pull a Rebecca Yarros and leave you hanging, but this is getting a little long, so I’ll tell you the rest of the story next week. Thoughts? Questions? Concerns for my well-being? Leave it all in the comments.

If you’re looking for more, you can read the behind-the-scenes info about my first book here: