Hello everyone!
I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving filled with lots of turkey, pumpkin pie, and good company. I know I sure did! I even got to play some Mario Party with my girlfriend and family, which made the day super awesome.
It’s funny how my feelings about Thanksgiving have evolved over the years. When I was younger, I dreaded it. For me, Thanksgiving meant riding around all night helping my dad deliver newspapers until the crack of dawn. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to appreciate the holiday more and more.
November has been a great month overall. I had the opportunity to participate in a craft fair at work and share my art with my coworkers. Many of them didn’t even know I was a writer! That experience was eye-opening because it reminded me that I don’t talk about my writing enough. I tend to be shy about sharing my work, but I’m working on getting better at it. After all, I put a lot of heart and effort into these stories—I should celebrate them!
While at the craft fair, I had an interesting conversation with a scientist who’s working on a research paper she hopes to publish. She asked me how I managed to publish four novels, and I told her the truth: I’m terrible at meeting deadlines! My advice to her was simple: just write. Don’t worry about word counts or arbitrary goals. Let the ideas flow, and eventually, they’ll come together.
I remember when I published my first book. At the time, publishing wasn’t even on my radar—I was just writing for fun. I didn’t think anyone would want to read it, let alone that I’d be good enough to publish. But I was wrong. It took me about six or seven months to finish My Love Lextacy, and the moment I completed it, I dove right into The Bloody Revenge of David Redd.
For a while, I set a goal to write at least one book a year, and I was actually hitting that target. Life was good, and the creative juices were flowing. I couldn’t imagine ever running out of inspiration.
But I did.
After finishing Once Down in the Dirty South, I decided to take a break from David Redd and focus on another story I’d always wanted to tell: Blackwater Falls. With my one-book-a-year goal in mind, I sat down to write, and...nothing. For the first time in my life, I faced writer’s block, and it was terrifying.
Months went by, and everything I wrote felt like garbage. I scrapped draft after draft. On top of that, I was going through a rough patch in my life—a breakup that drained my excitement and passion for writing. Still, I kept returning to my notes, tweaking my story, and struggling to find the spark that would bring it to life.
It took two years before the words finally came and the story started to flow. When I finished Blackwater Falls, I was proud—not just of the book, but of the journey it took to get there. What I learned from that experience was invaluable: it’s not about rushing to meet a goal; it’s about creating something meaningful. If I’d forced myself to stick to a rigid schedule, Blackwater Falls wouldn’t have been the book it is today. The drafts I initially wrote were simply shit, and they needed time to evolve into something better.
So, if you’re working on a creative project—or pursuing any goal in life—my advice is this: give yourself the grace to take your time. Focus on creating the best version of your work, even if it means starting over thirty-seven times (like I did with Blackwater Falls).
Anyway, that’s my rant!
In other news…
I’ve been working on a new project, which is why this newsletter is coming out a little later than usual. Thank you for your patience! I’m happy to say the project is going well—I’m already 22,000 words in, which is ahead of schedule for me.
This story is unlike anything I’ve ever written before. It’s both exciting and scary to try something new, but I feel compelled to tell this story, and I hope you’ll enjoy it when it’s finished. I can’t wait to share more with you soon!
Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday season. I’ll see you back here next month with more updates and, hopefully, some exciting news for 2025. Take care!
Related Posts
