Latest News from the Desk of Sooz

Holy whoa, the last few weeks have been total chaos with the end of the school year + deadlines. But I am through the worst of it, and now visiting family in Georgia.

And oh my goodness, I have had the best time! I discovered a few days ago that my mother has heaps upon heaps of letters that my grandfather wrote his family during WWII.

For those of you haven’t heard me talk about it at events, I’ve been in my “WWII Dad” era the last few years. But I mostly only read about the Western Front and civilian life/adaptations. My Pacific theater knowledge is woefully inadequate.

So this was such a joy to find, since my grandfather was a naval gunnery officer in the Pacific. And I’ve been transcribing his letters while also piecing together what he was really doing during/between each one. Censoring meant he had to be super vague about his location and activities, and some of his most “upbeat” letters came during what I now know were his most horrific moments of the war.1

But now onward to what you came here for!

The Misfits & Daydreamers Primer Series

We’re down to the final TWO in the Misfits & Daydreamers Primer Series, and phew. These are big ones! I’ve apparently had a lot to say about work/life balance, as well as the realities of publishing.

But in case you’ve missed it so far, this is a planned 7-part series, and the topics are:

1. Following the “Right” Story — Shared Feb. 16, 2026.

2. Building Characters & Worlds — Shared Mar. 9, 2026

3. Scenes, Sentences, & Series — Shared Apr. 6, 2026

4. Revisions & Editing — Shared Apr. 20, 2026

5. Finding Your Unique Process — Shared May 2026

6. When Things Get Difficult — We are here!

7. Publishing: the Honest Truth

Catch up or dive in starting today. No right order or wrong order to see what I’ve been writing about on Substack over the last four years.

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Reminder: this is a separate series from my much more robust Susan Dennard Writing Academy! If you want truly deep dives on all these topics spanning back to the early aughts of my writing advice, then the Academy is the place to explore.

6. When Things Get Difficult

Many of you have followed me for many, many years. So you’ve seen my career dip to its lowest moments, then rise to its highest…and dip back down again.

And you’ve seen my life rise to its highest moments…and you’ve seen me get hit hard. Repeatedly.

That is the joy (and challenge) of a long career: you hit all the highs—personally and professionally—and you hit all the lows. The real success is if you’re in it long enough for that to happen.

Do I wish life had been a bit gentler to me and my family? Sure. Ha! Do I wish I were a mega bestseller with guaranteed sales and a big advances? YOU BET! But…

I’m also just really glad to be here. I’m really glad I get to wake up and write every day—or that I get to wake up at all, for that matter!

And look: I won’t pretend I’m some saint who doesn’t get into grouchy tailspins because a plot just will not cooperate. (I’ve been stuck in one of those grumpy moods for weeks now!)

But I will say I’ve gotten a lot better about at least recognizing when I’m squeezing the bird too tightly—and hey, a decade ago, I still put all my energy into publishing/writing only. My emotions and identity were completely tied to success and output. Setbacks set me back personally.

But I’m not that person anymore, and phew!

I’m so much happier.

Motivation & Mindset

Audio: Staying Motivated: Here I talk about what actually keeps me going—the spark of new ideas, the foundational need to connect with my readers, and how assessing your relationship with external pressure can be help you find happiness.

Battling Your Own Impatience to Finish the Writing: As my taekwondo teacher tells me constantly: “Patience, Miss Susan. You’re not patient enough.”

I’m really not, guys. I want every book to be done now.

Finding Your “Fulfillment Metric”: Sometimes what works for YOU in your downtime doesn’t work for me. I really hate the advice to “just relax” or “take a vacation.” No! My idea of a “vacation” is what I described at the top of this newsletter: transcribing old letters and making a timeline. I need mental stimulation to unwind.

Finishing What You Start: Do you really need to? I’ve stopped believing in the myth of “don’t start new things until you’ve finished other projects,” and my output (and completion rate) has exploded!

Your Last Book Won’t Write the Next: I really wish people would let go of past manuscripts. Because every new story is a chance for fresh discovery and success. Past performance—good or bad—doesn’t predict what comes next!

Redefining What Success Looks Like: As mentioned above, my biggest gains in the last few years have come from detaching myself from what everyone else thinks success looks like. It’s okay to reimagine what you want in your career!

Audio: Strengths as a Writer: I love Clifton Strengths. Understanding mine and working with transformed my life. And what I’ve learned about Strengths has helped me both understand my own writing better, but also everyone else’s processes too.

Writing Even When It Sucks: Oh, the eternal question: write what sells or what you love? I think you can all guess my answer on the subject.

Chasing Perfection: “Perfect” is a moving target that will never stop moving for your writing and your life. It’s hard, but sometimes you’ve just got to accept, “This is good and I’m done now.”

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Burnout & Recovery

Procrastination or Burnout?: Is it “laziness” or do you just need a break? (Shocker: it’s rarely laziness.)

Hitting Cement Walls and an Industry of Burnout: This is an old newsletter from the start of my Substack, but the things I worried about then—the systemic burnout baked into publishing—have only gotten MUCH worse in the last four years.

Publishing employees (and authors) are exhausted!

Finding Flow Again After Burnout: How do you get back into the creative stream after everything has dried up? I have been in this state multiple times in my life, and I won’t pretend it’s easy… But it is doable.

Burnout Recovery: Again, me and burnout go way back. Baby burnouts and some mega burnouts too. But I always come back from it!

Balancing Creative Work With the Business Stuff: Holly Black once told me that story immersion is like swimming in cool water—keep jumping in and out, and you’ll never acclimate. I’ve never forgotten that advice, and it’s what works best for me. All in on X, then all in on Y, then all in on Z.

Cross Finish Lines & Celebrate Milestones: I share this advice which I myself never take. But hey—maybe you’ll do it! That part where we actually celebrate our accomplishments and hard work.

Healing & Resilience

Take the Time to Heal: This is tough to read, so you can skip through the first half. I won’t be upset, I promise. But I go into my near-death delivery, the PTSD that resulted, the utter cruelty of my own self-talk, and how I slowly (so slowly) learned to extend myself the same grace I give my friends.

The writing will still be there when your body is ready. I promise.

Grieving the Loss of a Dream: Even after discussing grief that I can’t have a second child, I had to go through that grief all over again—and with far more intensity and physical impact—when we lost a baby a year ago.

Honestly, I’m still grieving that loss. A lot. And I do “just want to cry a little bit.” Often. And it’s okay! That’s part of life.

Learning to Forgive Ourselves During Tough Times: Sometimes we can’t stay on track with the words—and that’s okay. Truly OKAY. (I won’t pretend I’m great at accepting this myself, but I am getting better!)

You’re Not a Failure: How to rewire your brain to create healthier thought patterns. This was a skill I learned in therapy, and it has been transformative for my life in so many ways.

It’s Been a While: This is about adjusting to my new normal (again) after intense life disruptions and difficulty. Phew. I’ve gotten pretty good at this by now!

Writing Rituals as a Mom: I was not prepared (no one can be) for how much becoming a mother would change my writing life. What an adjustment! I won’t pretend it’s easy, but I did eventually find a new rhythm.

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Quitting Social Media

I WILL FOREVER EVANGELIZE THAT ALL OF YOU QUIT SOCIAL MEDIA. AND YOU CAN IGNORE ME. BUT I WON’T STOP SHOUTING IT. Because do the benefits really outweigh the cost? I can’t answer that for you, but I’d bet for many people, the answer is no if you really drill down and get honest with yourself.2

Ahem.

What Happened When I Got Off Social Media: Here’s my original post on quitting social media. I wrote more words in 2023 than any year before. And oh yeah, most importantly: my mental health improved dramatically.

What Happened When I Got Off Social Media, Part 2: The one-year update. Holy smokes, I thought I wrote a lot in 2023? 2024 was only bigger and better.

Goals Achieved for the Fluid Creator: Okay, I know I also shared this in the last primer, BUT. I had even more gains in 2025, and so much of that is thanks to quitting social…So I felt I ought to share again here.

Okay, back I go to transcribing letters from 1945. I’m so happy my grandfather was a sentimental hoarder and kept all these—and that my mom kept them in turn!

I’m also almost done (finally!) with the Stange & Deadly reboot. I finished the climax last week! Just have a few denouement scenes to write. Woohoo!

💚 - Sooz

Latest News from the Desk of Sooz

It’s the end of the school year, so life is chaotic to say the least. Recitals! Concerts! Field trips! Art shows!

But I like chaos!1 It forces me to be smart with my time. If I’ve got 45 minutes now, then I’m going to use that 45 minutes now.

Yesterday, for example, I was helping with an all-day field trip with my daughter’s school. So I made sure I got up at 4:30 to get in some words. Then I brought my laptop with me, since there was a 30-min break I needed to fill while I waited for a bus of kids to arrive…

I always think of Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle on days like that.

Today is more chill for me—only a school concert tonight, ha! But that means I actually have to work harder to enforce strict focus and the busy, busy, busy I achieve more naturally on crowded days.2

Wish me luck. I’m so, so close to the end of the Something Strange & Deadly reboot (WOW, is this a completely different story now! OOPS). I don’t even know what the actual ending is now, but I’m so excited to keep writing and find out!

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Four & Twenty Blackbirds 🐦‍⬛

Oh, hey! In case you missed it, I revealed the cover for my next upcoming cozy horror mystery romance, coming January 19 2027 from HarperCollins (and Daphne Press).

Please pre-order if you can! Here are links to do that. ☺️

The Misfits & Daydreamers Primer Series

In case you’ve missed it so far, I have an organized primer series running that covers the many topics I’ve explored over the years on Substack. This is a planned 7-part series, and the topics are:

1. Following the “Right” Story — Shared Feb. 16, 2026.

2. Building Characters & Worlds — Shared Mar. 9, 2026

3. Scenes, Sentences, & Series — Shared Apr. 6, 2026

4. Revisions & Editing — Shared Apr. 20, 2026

5. Finding Your Unique Process — We are here!

6. When Things Get Difficult

7. Publishing: the Honest Truth

Remember: this is a separate series from my much more robust Susan Dennard Writing Academy! If you want truly deep dives on all these topics spanning back to the early aughts of my writing advice, then the Academy is the place to explore.

5. Finding Your Unique Process

As many of you know, I’ve written a lot about this subject in the last few years. It’s been my biggest aim on the personal front: finding what makes me creatively tick—and then leaning into that more instead of molding myself according to what I think a writer should look like.

And I’ve succeeded! Beyond my wildest expectations, honestly. I’ve never been happier in my creative life than in the last few years. And that’s in spite of objectively difficult life stuff happening behind the scenes.

Not to mention, my output has just exploded. Part of that is absolutely from quitting social media. No more noise in my brain! More space for story! No more wasted time on my phone! More time for daydreaming and writing!

But a 75% of the output explosion (and happiness improvements) are absolutely from accepting my brain as it is, and leaning into it.3

So without further ado…

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How I Actually Work

My Typical Work Day: This post really resonated with people in a way I wasn’t prepared for. Turns out MANY of us don’t do well with the strict “work on only this for eight hours a day” approach, and my “jump as often as needed” approach was exactly what many of you were looking for!

Goal Setting for the Fluid Creator: In response to the previous post, some of you asked how I handle goals. Welp, tl;dr: I ditched SMART goals, replaced them with “Really Vague Destinations,” and now I track progress without word counts.

Goals Achieved for the Fluid Creator: Did the fluid approach actually work in 2025? Yes, friends. It did beyond my wildest dreams.

3 Tricks For Easily Jumping Between Projects: Again, since so many of you wanted more on this subject, I laid out some tips for anyone who—like me—is happiest when working on multiple stories at once.

Experiments in Focus: I started 2026 with a plan, and this was a January update on my progress. (Spoiler alert for May: it’s going so well, and last week was the first time since December I logged onto Instagram, posted, then immediately logged off and deleted. FREEDOM!)

The “Permission Slips”

Remember: Not All Writing Advice Is For YOU: Just because someone else writes 5,000 words a day at 5 AM doesn’t mean you have to. I spent so long trying to follow all the advice I read—be an outliner, write everyday, etc. But when I stopped “shoulding” myself, guess what: my output and joy erupted.

Why I Stopped Writing Things I Don’t Enjoy: Since short stories never clicked for me, I finally accepted and stopped trying to be a short-story writer. So this post for all of you who also need permission to lean into what you love and let go of what you don’t.

Hard Writing Isn’t Bad Writing: I was torn on whether to share this on the Right Story primer day…since it might fit there better? But then I ultimately put it here because it’s a “permission slip” of sorts. Basically, sometimes writing is HARD, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad…

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Tools That Support the Process

Working in Scrivener: I don’t use most of Scrivener’s features, but what I do use—Snapshots, the Binder, easy scene rearrangement—is invaluable for my process. I love variety, so I’m always trying new programs…but I never last long. I always end up back in Scrivener.

The reMarkable 2, a Review: I remain obsessed with this device. I still use it constantly, and if it ever dies or gets lost, I will immediately purchase a new one. No hesitation. (That said, they discontinued the reMarkable 2 device and have a new version!)

My Top Writing Tools of 2025: This is a list with some obvious choices (the reMarkable 2, ha!) as well as some new surprises that most of you likely hadn’t heard of before.

Standing Out in a Crowded Market: Though the second half of the post is about markets, the first half offers a detailed look at my brainstorming tools.

A Gift Guide for Writers: MORE TOOLS! And books on writing! And softwares! If you want to treat yo’self or a writer in your life, then head here.

Alright, back to the drafting I go! I mentioned at the start of the year (newsletter linked above) that my writing computer has no fun stuff on it at all. Everything is blocked—even email—24 hours a day.

That continues to be the case.

If I want to check email or write a newsletter or pop onto discord or even check the news, I have to use a very old, very cracked, very sad iPad which is kept in a completely different room. (I also keep my phone in a different room.)

It’s been so good for my happiness and focus while writing.4

Until next time, friends! 💚

For a few weeks, I’ve been in what I call a state of general stuckery.

Basically ever since I finished drafting a book a month ago, I’ve been feeling meh about everything.

And while sure, I have chipped away at three other books in the meantime, and I’ve made some progress in each of them, my gains have been small steps instead of big bounds…

And ugh.

Ugh.

I am at my least happy when I’m in one of these funks. When flow is elusive and each project I poke at requires heaps of thinking. Heaps of cutting. Heaps of reworking.

To be clear: thinking and arranging and assembling are all necessary at certain points in my process. And I actually enjoy them during revisions. But during the drafting process? When all I want to do is see word count go up 📈 and then type The End?

Well, this is when I get the most frustrated with myself.

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I’ve talked about my “circling process” before. But for the uninitiated, it’s basically where I regularly reread what I’ve written, edit as I go, and then proceed onward.

As a person who writes entirely based on the emotional state of her characters, I have to regularly reread so that I can make sure I’m following the emotional dominoes correctly.

Often times, when I get stuck while drafting, it’s because I wrote a character behaving out of character. And as soon as I spot (or rather feel) in the course of my reread were the emotions went awry…

Well, I fix and move onward.

In other words, I’m accustomed to writing lots of pages. Then cutting lots of pages because they don’t '“feel right.”

I’m also accustomed to backtracking and brainstorming and mind mapping and voice memo-ing. And I’m accustomed to my current state of moaning and despairing and being generally unpleasant as I feel my cortisol rise, rise, rise…

Because what if I NEVER figure out the words?! What if this book is the one where it never, ever comes together?

Fortunately, I have enough evidence to the contrary by now. And as puts it so very eloquently, confidence comes from evidence.1

I’ve written a lot of books in the past seventeen years. I’ve been in this exact state of general stuckery more times than I can possibly count. And even the books where every chapter was a constant state of circling and cutting and frustration, I’ve always figured out the Right Story eventually.

Always.

It might have taken literal years, but I have always figured it out.

And for the reader, there’s no difference between my flow and my frustration. By the time the book is printed, I will have edited and polished until it’s all flow on the page.

I know this because I have done this. And so I have confidence I will get through this stuckery just as I have many times before.

But ugh.

Ugh.

This is my least favorite part of my creative life. The part where gains are so tiny as to be nearly imperceptible. The part where my left brain has to push against my right. The part where I’m still tasting the high of typing The End in a different book, so I’m hungry for a fresh hit of those endorphins…

But alas. This is simply not how my process works.

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After almost a month of simmering in this state of self-loathing, I can practically taste the cortisol.

I’m squeezing the baby bird too tightly.

I’m beating myself up over my “failures” to finish a second book in the past thirty days2

And I’m not even making small gains anymore so much as moving sentences around that I’ll probably move right back when I have more clarity.

So yesterday, after lunch, I made myself stop.

I did not brew my usual post-lunch coffee. I did not sit back at the computer.

Instead, I read a book, cover to cover. Then I trained hard at the dojang. Then I played a made-up game called driveway ball with my daughter until sunset.

Now here I am, using my usual 5AM writing session to write this newsletter instead of thinking about a book’s next scenes or draft new words in a project.

Do I hate it? YES. I absolutely hate it. My 5AM writing session is my most favorite time of the day. A sacred creative time where my brain is sharpest and that first cup of coffee always tastes the most delicious…

Plus, just as a rule, I’m not great with “taking time off.” At least not in the traditional sense (it’s not a control thing but an energy thing, I swear!).

Yet I need to loosen my grip on the baby bird.

I need to accept that maybe my creative well needs refilling and I’m actively losing ground instead of gaining it.

So that’s my mission for the next day or two. I might game a bit3. I’ll definitely read. I’ll get outside with the dog and practice my forms. I’ll play more driveway ball. And I’ll just see see how it goes.

Evidence from the past suggests the spark and clarity will return. I just have to be patient.4

But hey, Sooz, what if I’m a beginner? What if I have no evidence on which to base my confidence?

Well, get started building your evidence.

I was a beginner once. I taught myself everything I needed to know about writing thanks to an internet connection and a library. And I wrote and I revised and I wrote some more. I read books on craft and took workshops when I could afford them. I emulated other people’s processes and meticulously applied what seemed to work while discarding the bits that didn’t.

Now here I am. After fourteen published novels later (and with many more finished or in the works), I have a very, very clear writing identity. I know how I create stories and what works best for my brain, my goals, my voice—and I know I can finish projects, even when all I want to do is rip out my hair out and scream BEHAVE, CHARACTERS! BEHAVE!

I did the thing, which built the evidence, and now I have the confidence.5

One side note: I would urge you to detach yourself from the external outcomes of the writing.

Or at least do so as much as you can.

Trust me, I know how hard it is to compartmentalize, and that’s not what I’m urging you to do here. Life will impact art, and it took near death for me to really understand and see that.

But! But. Keeping your creativity as separate from your success as you can will only lead to positive gains, both in your work and your life.

Just as losing at a taekwondo tournament has no actual bearing on whether or not I can do a powerful side kick tomorrow at the studio, the sales of my book have no bearing on whether or not I can write through my current stuckery.

Sales and commercial success are something I cannot control. I can drive myself toward that outcome by being the best I can be at all times, but I can’t ultimately make anyone buy or enjoy my books.

Creative success, however? Pushing through stuckery and writing more books? Oh yeah. I’m completely in charge right there.

I just have to keep showing up and doing the thing.

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Okay, off I go now to intentionally…not…create something for today. (Ugh! Ugh!) Wish me luck.6

I was supposed to do the next Primer Series post this week, but then I felt inspired to write about squeezing baby birds and building evidence instead. So I promise the next post will be a resumption of the Primer Series!

Until then!

💚 - Sooz

Latest News from the Desk of Sooz

I finished a book! Two weekends ago, I got to type The End on a project. ☺️

No, it was not my reboot of Something Strange & Deadly1, ha! In classic Susan fashion, I hit the 2-week mark on SS&D and had to get some variety in.

So I finished a post-apocalyptic, dark fantasy, WW2-vibes with monsters book (yeah, it’s a lot of genres mashed together). I’ve been working on for a bit, and yay! It was so exciting to cross the finish line on it.

My goal was to finish two books this year—with a stretch goal of three books—and that gets me through number one! 🎉

Now onto the main event: REVISIONS!

Speaking of revisions, you all definitely seemed interested in seeing my edits on SS&D 2.0!

So if I get permission, I’ll share my edits between different drafts along with explanations for why I did what I did. 🥰

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The Misfits & Daydreamers Primer Series

In case you’ve missed out so far, I have this organized primer series running that covers many topics I’ve explored over the years on Substack. This is a planned 7-part series, and the topics are:

1. Following the “Right” Story — Shared Feb. 16, 2026.

2. Building Characters & Worlds — Shared Mar. 9, 2026

3. Scenes, Sentences, & Series — Shared Apr. 6, 2026

4. Revisions & Editing — We are here!

5. Finding Your Unique Process

6. When Things Get Difficult

7. Publishing: the Honest Truth

Today, we’re heading into one of my favorite parts of the process. REVISING!

I love taking a book that I know is broken and making it into the thing I actually intended for it to be.

But I also realize most people hate that part of the process, so I hope my resources below can help ease some of your friction!

Remember: this is a separate series from my much more robust Susan Dennard Writing Academy! If you want truly deep dives on all these topics spanning back to the early aughts of my writing advice, then the Academy is the place to explore.

4. Revisions & Editing

As mentioned above, I really love revising.

It’s that #2 Restorative (to use Strengths language): I love “restoring” broken things. A first draft has so much potential; I know what I was aiming for; and revisions are when I actually get to take the mess on my hard drive and turn it into it’s final form…

It might take only one round of light edits. It might take an uncountable number of rewrites, backtracks, do-overs, and polishings.

No book has ever been the same as the one before, and no book has ever been wrong. It just took a few more “choices” to get to the Right Story. (More on that concept below!)

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The Basics to Revising

A Guide to Revisions: I shared my VERY first guide to revisions way, way, way back in 2011. Before my debut novel had even released! But I updated it over the years (and the newest version is available FOR FREE on the Academy!). Although most of this is intuitive for me now, I still follow a lot of these steps—I just no longer need to break them down as I do so.

Rewrites & Later Draft Edits

How I Revise and Edit Later Drafts: What changes in draft three, four, five? I never edit only once and them I’m done. Instead I get more and more granular with each draft…

Tackling the Big Rewrites: As you all know if you’ve followed me a long time, I’m sometimes prone to be a REWRITER. If I see a better way to tell the story, I have to do it. I can’t just burnish what I have—I will start over. Repeatedly. 😅

Audio: Rewriting and Reframing: As per the previous link, some books just take a lot of drafts to get right. Here I have an in-depth audio post of what that actually looks like in practice. And HERE is where I discuss this idea of a “series of necessary choices to find the Right Story.”

Beta Readers & Editors

Why You Need Feedback From Someone Who Isn’t Your Editor: Outside readers—critique partners, beta readers—catch things you can’t see yourself. I find them not only good for my books, but downright necessary. And by the time a book hits readers hands, I’ve worked with a lot of beta readers and incorporated their notes along the way.

Working With Developmental Editors: This post is about when to hire an editor and when to find “free” support instead. (I have links to other posts in here about finding critique partners and beta readers!)

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The Screechers Revision Series (Paid)

Some of you were with me for this series way back when I launched the Substack. But for newbies, this is a real-time, behind-the-curtain look at how I revised a novel from scratch. (It’s also available on the Academy—but for members only!)

It starts with the full WIP chapters (no need to read, unless you’re just curious to how bad I was as a writer 15 years ago), followed by a discussion of what I think works and what I think is terrible.

Then I dig into the actual revision process, which included a complete tense change. 😬

• Work In Progress: Screechers, Chapter 1 — Read the opening for free

• Chapters 2–12 — The full WIP

• Screechers Discussion & Revisions — What works, what doesn’t, and how I plan to fix it

• Revising Screechers: Introduction 🎬 — My general methodology

• Part 1: Finding the Problems — Reading the book and taking notes

• Part 2: Changing Tenses — Taking the book from past tense to present

What’s almost hilarious—and also kind of painful 😓—is that I wound up not only rewriting Screechers as seen above…

But then taking that rewrite and turning it into a novelette for an upcoming anthology.

It was NOT EASY. Holy wow. I had to condense and summarize, cut and tighten, and what was like 100,000 words I squeezed into 9,000 words.

Admittedly, I didn’t do the whole book. I just condensed (heavily) the opening and got us up to the book’s midpoint, a high action “hinge” point in the story with some of my favorite scenes I’ve ever written.

Then that hinge sequence of scenes became the bulk of the novelette.

I’m really, really excited for you all to read that when it releases from OwlCrate later this year!

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As I say with each post in this series, there are probably more posts I’ve written on the subjects, but so many of my posts straddle the 7 topic lines…

Well, these felt like the best for today’s theme.

Don’t forget: there are so so many more craft-focused posts on the Susan Dennard Writing Academy. Even just on the free resources page! So head there if you want more!

Now stay tuned for Part 5: Finding Your Unique Process. And thanks for reading Part 4 in the Misfits & Daydreamers Primer Series!

💚 - Sooz

Latest News from the Desk of Sooz

I’m rewriting my debut novel. From scratch. And let me tell you, gang: it has been an absolutely delightful experience.

For one, it’s been just sheer joy because whenever I am in the “writing zone” I’m at my happiest.

For two, seeing the growth in my writing from when I was a total beginner—I wrote Something Strange & Deadly in 2009!—to today is a real comfort. Like, Oh, wow! Look at that! I guess I have learned something from all this writing I do!

I have a True Sooz Voice now with a cadence and style that uniquely my own. I have a writing process that taps into how I work best. And my craft—wow! The quality of how I build character and world, magic systems and relationships is just exponentially better.

Does that mean people like my books more now? Not necessarily.

But I’ve reached a point in my life where I also don’t really care.

I have a profound certainty in my own writing—something that also took me seventeen years to hone.

You can take my words or you can leave them. It won’t really change what I’m going to do.

Which is to keep writing, keep learning, keep trusting my intuition, and keep waking up everyday utterly delighted that I get to do this as a job.

Does that mean every day is easy? Hell no. But the good stuff makes all the frustrations, challenges, tedious moments, exhausting deadlines, and terrifying pressures worth it.

I love telling stories. I just do.

So stay tuned for news on the Something Strange & Deadly reboot, coming direct to readers later this year.

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QUESTION: I’m considering doing a first draft to finished draft Substack series for paid members. I’d show my first draft of SS&D—truly, a first draft with rough edges and all—then I’d share the next draft (and next draft after that) along with an explanation for why I made the choices I made.

If that’s of interest to anyone, please leave a comment and let me know! It would obviously be a lot of work to pull together, so I’d only want to do it if you all would find value in it.

🥰

The Misfits & Daydreamers Primer Series

In case you’ve missed out so far, I have an organized primer series going that covers the many topics I’ve explored over my years on Substack. This is a planned 7-part series, and the topics are:

1. Following the “Right” Story — Shared Feb. 16, 2026.

2. Building Characters & Worlds — Shared Mar. 9, 2026

3. Scenes, Sentences, & Series — We are here!

4. Revisions & Editing

5. Finding Your Unique Process

6. When Things Get Difficult

7. Publishing: the Honest Truth

Today we’re diving into the nittier, grittier pieces of craft. The scenes, the sentences, the show vs. tell trick that took me years (YEARS) to really understand.

Initially, that’s all I was going to cover, but then I decided we needed just a bit more meat on this bone…

So today, we’re also zooming out to look at series and complex plotting. Onward!

Remember: this is a separate series from my much more robust Susan Dennard Writing Academy! If you want truly deep dives on all these topics spanning back to the early aughts of my writing advice, then the Academy is the place to explore.

3. Scenes, Sentences, & Series

Today’s stuff covers things that, while drafting, I simply intuit.

I’ve written so many books by now, I don’t have to think about “accessing interiority” so I can show instead of tell.

Nor do I have to think about the shape of a scene. I dive in, sometimes with a scene screenplay (more on that below), and the words simply come.1

BUT. Big BUT. That doesn’t mean I get everything “right in one.” Far from it. I lean on filter words constantly. I use way, way too many action tags when I only need one. My action scenes aren’t crisp or clear…

So I fix a lot of the below topics in revisions, using the tools I share in each post.

And then complex plots and series…

Sigh.

I love you so, Complexity and Earned Payoffs, but boy do you make life difficult…

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Sentences

An Easy Trick for Showing Instead of Telling: What makes for actual showing instead of telling? Read on to see. This one trick alone is what takes a flat scene (for me) into a breathing one.

Filter Words: This is SUCH an old post for me, updated and shared many times over the years. Because filter words creep in for everyone, often when we want them least. Sometimes I do want to build in distance, but it’s like salt. Every recipe needs a different amount, but too much will always make a meal inedible.

Tightening Your Prose: Part 1: I am an impatient reader. Get to the point. Move me along.2 And when it comes to my own writing, I am ruthless. Any beat that feels redundant or sentence that doesn’t add to the narrative in some way gets slashed. Period.

Tightening Your Prose: Part 2: This is a continuation of my approach to tightening, trimming, and generally improving your sentence-level prose and scene-level construction. Just say no to excess!3

Scenes

Assembling a Story Scene by Scene: I like to imagine that writing a book is like stacking LEGO bricks. Scenes are discreet units that can be moved, removed, rearranged, reoriented, cut apart, glued together…Whatever I need to create a castle at the end.

How to Structure a Scene : There’s no one right ring to rule them all for scene construction, but there are useful ways that I like to think about it. (And here’s where I link to my old scene screenplay method!)

How to Build Tension in Your Fight Scenes: Personal stakes! Interiority! Fight scenes can be shockingly dull if they don’t have the right pieces to connect to the reader.

Series

Writing Big Complicated Stories: I naturally lean toward complexity. I don’t mean to, it’s just the kind of reading I built my inner algorithm on growing up. So me and “complicated” have…well, a complicated history. But to resolve that, I have a very simple “promise index card” method.

Keeping Track of Subplots: When you have 14,578 plot threads and character arcs (as I tend to do), it’s easy to lose track of them all. I came up with a very straightforward way to make sure I can “see” at any given time what the balance and flow of my story is.

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As always, there are probably more posts I’ve written on these subjects, but as mentioned in the past primers, a lot of my posts straddle the 7 topic lines. These felt like the best for today’s theme.

And don’t forget: there are so so many more craft-focused posts on the Susan Dennard Writing Academy. Even just on the free resources page! So head there if you want more!

Now stay tuned for part 4: Revisions & Editing. And thanks for reading Part 3 in the Misfits & Daydreamers Primer Series!

💚 - Sooz

Today’s post is brought to you by Cal Newport’s podcast. I am a longtime fan of his work, and his podcast is one of the only few I listen to with any regularity.

On this week’s episode he talked about something called “the bottleneck.” This is the aspect of your work where productivity gets slowed.

The general gist is this:

• We think a tool will greatly improve our productivity.

• We start using it.

• But then it turns out the actual bottleneck for our work isn’t solved by the new tool at all.

• The new tool simply streamlines some side things that, sure, are nice, but not transformative.

• The bottleneck is where the real work happens, and the tool hasn’t touched that at all.

• So our long-term productivity holds steady.

To quote Newport’s blog (where you can read more on this):

When working on Deep Work, for example, I spoke with a prominent Wharton professor who told me that one of the keys to publishing journal papers in his field was access to interesting data sets. He published more papers per year than most of his peers, largely because he spent more time building relationships with companies and institutions in search of good data. This was the bottleneck for his work.

Newport dives into this more on the podcast, so I highly recommend giving it a listen.

But the point is: no tool can help Wharton actually do the part where he has to talk to people and hope they’ll share their datasets. In the end, there’s only the difficult work of rolling up his sleeves, making phone calls, finding people, and doing that work directly.

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So what’s the bottleneck?

You can no doubt guess where I’m going with this.

What is the bottleneck for writers?

Well, let’s assume the main thing we want as output is actual writing. Words on pages or books finished or sales made—that final productivity metric is up to you.

But no matter what, the starting point is always: words.

It’s always the act of putting your hands on a keyboard (or pen or mic or whatever!) and doing the difficult work of translating concepts and ideas into little symbols that convey something.

So then from there, if the bottleneck is the actual act of producing words, then the thing most of us need in order to write more words is pretty straightforward.

Admittedly, it will also vary person to person.

You might be someone who also needs chunks of uninterrupted time. Or you might be someone who needs a special combination of factors to get your brain into flow.1 Or you might be someone who needs their life to feel stable so you have the energy to give to your sentences…

All of that is perfectly valid!

But it doesn’t change the fact that at some point, you need to write words. And no one else can do that for you, nor can any software do it.2

There might be tools that help you write faster. (I love Scrivener! I love my reMarkable 2!) But they can’t actually do the difficult, bottleneck part of writing.

That’s why it’s a bottleneck: only YOU can do it.

Nurturing my bottleneck

As you all know from following me over the past few years, I’ve been downright merciless in my elimination of anything that I felt wasn’t “adding” to my career in a meaningful way.

(Note: my definition of “meaningful” might not be yours. We all have to define it for ourselves.)

But as you all also know, I didn’t cut back on social media, email, etc. with the aim of simply increasing productivity. Instead, I was faced with an absence of choice.

Life was not easy on the personal front; it wrecked my schedule; if I ever wanted to finish books again, I had to peel away the parts of my “job” that weren’t actually vital.

But now (knock on wood! Oh my gosh, KNOCK ON WOOD. DO NOT JINX ME, UNIVERSE), life has found a decent rhythm. In theory I could reintroduce my social media presence or all-day-inbox-checking or whatever else I used to think was so “vital” to my author career…

Yet I haven’t reintroduced any of those things.

Because the increased output of more books written is all the proof I need that what I once thought was vital, wasn’t vital at all.

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Okay, so fine. YES. I did fracture my big toe last Wednesday while teaching a children’s taekwondo class. See the above X-ray.

And no, I wasn’t doing anything cool. I just tripped like the graceful gazelle I am not. Then I ignored the pain for an hour and kept teaching.

Then I finally got a ride to Urgent Care because my toe was enormous and blue and excruciating. Whoopsy!

But this is just a little hiccup. Nothing like the nonstop trauma and vigilance we were going through for several years.

(Knock on wood. Again.)

Nurturing YOUR bottleneck

Every one of us is different.

How we write, how we create, how we fall into flow (or don’t), how we spend our free time and refill the well and search for inspiration and yadayadayada, Sooz.

I get it: I always preach this same message of our individual uniqueness. You’re probably sick of it by now.

But once again, it’s true.

I can’t say what YOU need in order to write more words. All I can do is focus on my own needs and try to accommodate them.

But I do urge you to look at the bottleneck and consider it AS a bottleneck. As the point at which words will get throttled if you don’t “keep it open.”

For me, ensuring I have uninterrupted “immersion” is the key to output. Existing all-in on a project so that all I want to do is sit at my computer and pour out words—that’s when I produce the most and I’m at my happiest.

I’ve found, by accident, how to create this “immersive life.” But what other ways might I enhance it? What tools—if any—could actually help me get there?

I don’t know.

But I do know, thanks to Newport, I’m going to consider that now every time I do look at a new tool or consider if I really should be on that new platform or…or…or…

You get the idea.

And I hope you all will ask the same questions for yourself moving forward.

Keep the bottleneck open, dear friends!

Okay, now back to the writing I go!

I was supposed to do the next M&D Primer Series today, but I just felt the urge to discuss bottlenecks instead. So stay tuned for more primers next week…

And now I’m going to return to my rewrite of Something Strange & Deadly because yes! I am finally tackling a rewrite of my debut series, refreshing it to match the voice I’ve spent the last 16 years honing. I cannot believe how much I have grown and changed as a writer since I sold that book in 2010!

Until next time, friends.

💚 - Sooz

I’m headed home from North Texas Teen Book Festival, and ah!! It was such a wonderful time. Thank you to all who came to see me! I had an absolutely blast meeting uber fans and new readers alike. 😊

(Side note: I was genuinely surprised and delighted by how many of you had the entire Luminaries series with you and were devoted fans?! I’ll admit, I completely forgot about that series, since I was so focused on TE3 and Witchlight last year. So THANK YOU for loving my dear Winnie Wednesday!!)

Also: I’ll be at the Tucson Festival of Books next weekend! So come see me there!

Also, also: don’t miss the latest Great Critique Partner Meetup, if you’re looking for a critique partner, beta reader, or general writing cheerleader. This is a great place to find someone, and I’ve met multiple people over the years who got their writing friendship start in the M&D comments section.

Now onward to building characters and worlds!

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The Misfits & Daydreamers Primer Series

In case you missed it, a few weeks ago, I started an organized primer series that hits on all the many topics I’ve taught and explored over the years on this Substack. This is a planned 7-part series, and the topics are:

1. Following the “Right” Story — Shared Feb. 16, 2026.

2. Building Characters & Worlds — We are HERE!

3. The Craft of Sentences & Scenes

4. Revisions & Editing

5. Finding Your Unique Process

6. When Things Get Difficult

7. Publishing: the Honest Truth

This week, we’re diving #2: the people the world that actually make a story into a story.

Note: this is separate from my much more robust Susan Dennard Writing Academy! If you want truly deep dives on all these topics spanning back to the early aughts of my writing advice, then the Academy is the place to explore.

2. Building Characters and Worlds

As many of you know, my approach to character development and worldbuilding is fully intuitive. (If you saw me just this weekend at NTTBF, I talked about my “pantsing” approach a lot!)

But it’s not as if I dive into a book with no idea what’s coming. Instead, I always know my character and their world.

No, I don’t fill out character questionnaires, and my worldbuilding is less “create a detailed wiki”1 and more “let’s draw a map and build a new magic!”2 But I did use the word system, and system means I have a methodology, messy and fluid as it may be.

On top of that, there are many “lessons” I’ve learned over my seventeens years (!) of writing that I apply while drafting for characters and worlds.

So let’s get started, shall we?

Before I Draft

What I Need to Know Before I Draft: This is the post that lays out why character and world are so critical to me. Without them, I simply have no story! There is literally nothing for me to write until I hear my character’s voice and see the world around them.

How I Create Characters: It begins with a lot of questions. Not a personality quiz so much as an interrogation of the feelings I want to come out of a story. Both feelings for the characters and feelings for the reader.

Character Arcs & Growth

Audio: Crafting Character Arcs Over a Series: This audio (with transcript!) post is about how I handle character growth across many books. This is relevant whether you’re writing a duology or a sprawling multi-POV epic. (Ask me how I know! 😅)

When Character and Voice Go Wrong This happens so often for me. And frankly, it’s terrifying every time because I always convince myself you’ll never figure it out and let everyone down! WOE! But I always do figure it out, and I call it my Circling Process: how I orbit around a character until I find my way back inside their feelings and can proceed onward.

Writing Romance Intuitively: Each of my romantic pairings in my books is distinct—but how? It comes back to ye olde character voice, magical cookies, and earned payoffs. 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨

Setting & Worldbuilding

How I Build Worlds: From logistics to maps, if you’re new to worldbuilding and intimidated by it, this is a good place to start! Worldbuilding is often one of the most fun parts of the brainstorming process for me. (To the point that I will absolutely use it to procrastinate, lol. Don’t do that.)

Audio: An Intro on How I Build Worlds: We think of worldbuilding as only applying to fantasy or sci-fi, but that’s not true. Historical, contemporary—those tales also exist in worlds, and so they require worldbuilding too! This post is a deep dive into how I tackle it.

How to Level Up Your Settings, Part 1: As huge gamer (you all know that), video games are probably the number one source of inspiration for my writing and worlds.3 So I like to also use game development’s approach to “environmental storytelling” for fleshing out settings in each scene.

How to Level Up Your Settings, Part 2: This is how I use character as the key element that takes a setting from “interesting enough” to “downright fascinating.”

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I realize there are probably more character + world posts here on Substack, but a lot of my posts straddle the 7 topic lines listed above—so I had to pick which bucket I felt was a better fit.

There are also so many more craft-focused posts on the Susan Dennard Writing Academy. Even just on the free resources page! So head there if you want more!

That said, if there are any posts from my Substack archives you think should be on this list about character and voice, PLEASE SHARE!!! I will add them. 🥰

Also, stay tuned for the upcoming part 3: Constructing Scenes & Sentences. And thanks for reading Part 2 in the Misfits & Daydreamers Primer Series!

💚 - Sooz

‘Tis time again: time for another critique partner meetup. Also, it’s my birthday! So clearly that makes it a good day for spreading love. 😉

So, if you’re in need of a secondary reader, share the following in a comment:

• Title (or working title, code name! Just something for easy reference)

• Genre (e.g. fantasy, mystery, romance—get specific, if you can, with subgeneres too)

• Reading level (e.g. adult, YA, MG)

• Word count

• What you’re looking for in a reader (e.g. a quick gut check, a thorough editorial pass, a cheerleader to read as you write)

If you see someone’s project that interests you, leave a reply and figure out how to get in touch outside the comments section. ☺️

Oh, and I highly recommend that no one share their ENTIRE manuscript right away. Treat this like dating! Only share a few chapters initially, so you can get a feeling for how your writing and critiquing styles align. If the connection is there, keep sharing! If the connection ain’t there…then no hard feelings. Better to be honest that your styles don’t match than to keep reading when neither of you is enjoying it.

Now, happy reading and connecting, friends! 😘

💚 - Sooz

I love how I was like: I’m going to be more frequent in my posting, gang! And then here I am with almost a month between posts.1

IN MY DEFENSE, life got hit with a series of speed bumps. We had 7 (7!!!) consecutive snow days with the kid home. Then I got super sick for two weeks, and it coincided with the Frenchman being out of town for an entire week. And then, write as my brain started to clear of mucus, winter break began and the kid was home again. 😑

On top of that, the post I had planned for today (actually a long series of posts) is something that took far longer to compile than I anticipated. More on this below.

Random side note/correction: I referred to my plant in the last newsletter’s image as a money tree. It is not a money tree. 😂 My money tree is about three feet away and not in the picture at all. I have been beating myself up for almost four weeks about calling that thing a money tree!

Ahem. Now onto the things that actually matter here.

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The Misfits & Daydreamers Primer Series

One benefit of having a lot of content is that I have…well, a lot of content. There’s so much for readers and writers to wade into and learn from.

Another benefit is that if someone asks me about anything writing or publishing related, I’ve almost certainly discussed the subject before.

But of course, the downside of so much content is that it’s overwhelming. Not just for new (and old) subscribers, but for me as well. When those aforementioned people ask me the aforementioned questions, I’ll be so certain I wrote on that subject before, but…erm…where was it exactly?

And while yes, tis true I have organized my hundreds of pre-Substack writing newsletters on the Susan Dennard Writing Academy (and the Substack newsletters are there too!), the Academy is intended for rigorous learning for the committed writer.

For this series, I wanted to create an organized starting point that hits on all the many topics I’ve written about over the years.

I’m calling it the Misfits & Daydreamers Primer Series, and it’s broken down by theme:

1. Following the “Right” Story

2. Building Characters & Worlds

3. The Craft of Sentences & Scenes

4. Revisions & Editing

5. Finding Your Unique Process

6. When Things Get Difficult

7. Publishing: the Honest Truth

So buckle up. I’ve got part 1 for you today.

1. Following the “Right” Story

We’re kicking off the primer series with what I consider the beating heart of my writing advice: how I find and follow the “right” story.

As you all know if you’ve followed me any length of time, writing a novel (for me! everyone else is different!) is never about following an outline from Point A to Point B. It’s about feeling the story. About being inside the characters, inside the world, and following emotional dominoes wherever they might lead.

Does that mean I never outline? Hell no. Does that mean I simply float along chasing feelings? Hell no.

It’s far messier than that, involves heaps of stop[ing/starting, and is something that—even after almost 20 years of writing novels—can both frustrate me almost tp tears and bring me profound, unmatched joy.

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The Core Philosophy

How I Find the Right Story: Like the name on the tin describes, this is about what happens when the story stops flowing and I can no longer feel the character. I’m just telling the story instead. This post also dives into why forcing words from an outline, even a perfectly logical one that should work, can send my whole plot off the rails.

Magical Cookies, or Don’t Write the Boring Parts: This is the phrase that made me “famous” in the writing world (even if most people now use the phrase without knowing it started with me 😅). Magical cookies drive my entire drafting process, and this idea has helped more writers than almost anything else I’ve ever written about.

How to Stay Excited While You Write: This post is a deeper, more recent dive into the Magical Cookies method—and also an honest look at what happens when the cookies aren’t enough. Just because you find your process doesn’t mean the writing will always be easy! (IF ONLY. 😭)

Unsticking When Stuck

Three Reasons I Usually Get Stuck In My Stories: After 14 published books (and 4 more on the way from HarperCollins + who knows how many on my hard drive?), I’ve noticed a pattern in what derails me. These three root causes are almost always to blame when a manuscript isn’t “working.”

What I Need to Know Before I Draft: This post is about why I’ve stopped trying to plan everything upfront and started leaning into my intuition instead. Not because planning is bad, by any means! But because my brain (and I repeat: not necessarily yours!) just has unique “on-ramp.”

Asking for Help During Story Stuckery: Shocking—I know—but you don’t actually have to figure it all out alone? I am so bad at not doing this, yet whenever I take the leap and ask for help, the results always speak for themselves. (Shout out to Rachel and Jo, my invaluable, go-to story helpers.)

When to Push Through…or Not

When Just Finishing a Draft Isn’t Best for the Story: “Just finish the draft” is one of those pieces of advice that sounds like it should be true…but I’m sorry, it simply isn’t. Sure, it’s true for some, but I am living proof that such advice doesn’t always apply.

When to Let Go of a Story and When to Hang On: Should we listen to the ideas we can’t get out of our heads? For me, it’s almost a hard yes.

When You Have a Book You Keep Coming Back To: An unintentionally part 2 to the previous post—and the long, winding story of —a project I started years ago, abandoned, and have returned to again and again. (And that is finally coming out as a novelette soon with Owlcrate! 😱)

Combining Two Books Into One: This post details the long, agonizing saga that was Witchshadow. I give a behind-the-scenes look at the structural challenge of merging two books into one. It was…well, a saga worthy of the Witchlands.

When the Story Simply Flows Sometimes—only sometimes!—everything just clicks. And oh, the glory, my friends. THE GLORY. In this audio post, I talk all about the true, unmatched joy in that feeling and how I’ve been tapping into it in recent months.

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Aaaaand there you have it: part 1 in the new Misfits & Daydreamers Primer Series.

If there are any posts from my archives you think should be on this list about the “right” story, PLEASE SHARE!!! I will gladly add to this list. 😌

And of course, stay tuned for the upcoming part 2 with my “top hits” for Building Characters & Worlds.

💚 - Sooz

In recent weeks, I’ve had a few friends reach out with a text message along the lines of, I notice you’ve been really quiet on our Discord/WhatsApp/Signal chat. Everything okay?

Yes, everything is great, I’ve typed back. I just got a new computer for Christmas.1 And I’ve blocked all social media and messaging apps on it. Even email, too. So I’ve been in a state of blissful silence working! Sorry I didn’t warn you!

In my defense, I didn’t know how long this experiment would last. Then, once I’d actually been away from the internet for a few days, the thought of ever returning to it…

Ugh. That would require walking into another room and turning on my laptop and just ugh.

So I’ve barely touched my laptop. And the days of focus have accumulated.2

As I was sinking into the vast empty clarity of this new computer, I also happened to listen to a podcast by famed author and computer scientist Cal Newport on neuroscience and phone use. His message really resonated with me.

As you all know, I’ve done everything to make my phone as boring as possible. But I still can’t seem to stop myself from grabbing for the dang thing constantly. It doesn’t matter that there ‘s nothing to do on it, my fingers move of their own accord.

According to Newport (who’s looking at the science here), this constant “grabbiness” is because of the ubiquity of the phone. That fact that it’s in my pocket means I’ll always be reaching for it, seeking dopamine to relieve any brief moment of boredom or discomfort in my life.

And it’s true! Be honest: how often do you check your phone simply because you’re walking from one room to another? That three second lull in mental activity is enough to send me grabbing, certainly. Even though there is literally nothing to do on my phone but look at the occasional WhatsApp or Signal message.

But I don’t want to be like that!

So I was determined to start this year by removing my phone’s ubiquity.

The only reason I haven’t taken this nuclear option before is because I have to be “on call” for my daughter. Her asthma means I might get a phone call from the school at any moment, and that fear of missing an emergency means I’ve never committed to putting the phone far away or even locking it up as some people do…

But if ubiquity is the problem, then surely I can find a solution!

And I have.

Shortly before New Years, I hooked up my ancient Coros Pace 23 to receive phone call notifications.4 It’s not a glossy interface, but the watch beeps at me if a call is incoming.

Otherwise, all other notifications are silenced. Meanwhile, my phone itself is all the way on the other side of the house. Far enough away, in other words, that inertia works its magic.

After three weeks wtith this experiment, the results have been amazing. Unsurprisingly, I don’t need to check my email 8,473 times a day. Twice a day is plenty. And unsurprisingly, there haven’t been any conversations in my group chats that I haven’t been able to catch up with later in the day.

Do I still reach for a phone? Yes! That first week, big yes. I’d hit a pause in my work or reach a point where difficult thinking (ugh) was required, and I’d find myself leaning back in the chair and searching for a phone…

But it wasn’t there.

Then I’d laugh at myself, sigh, and get back to the work.

Now look: I want to be clear that I’m not trying to become an ascetic. I don’t want zero contact with the outside world and nary a disruption to slow my writing.

My goal here isn’t “improved productivity.” In fact, my aim for 2026 is to focus less on work and more on my health and my day-to-day relationships. But phones are active impediments to that!

The reality is that being a parent…or simply being a human can be so stinking boring sometimes. But I hate feeling as if I’d rather be checking my email than engaging with the person directly in front of me.

For that matter, I hate that I can’t walk down a flight of stairs and not reach for my phone in my back pocket. That’s ridiculous. And unhealthy. (I literally broke my heel bone and two metatarsals falling down stairs because I was on my phone. Yet who still keeps reaching for her iPhone?)

The reality is that less I’m on my phone or even on my browser surfin’ the web, the happier I am as a human being.

Addiction runs strong in my family, and I fell down the slippery slope of substance abuse when I was in my late teens/early twenties. Ever since coming out the other side of that, I’ve tried to acknowledge and subsequently manage anything that feels like it’s hijacking my brain and behavior. Sugar, caffeine—even those I have to manage lest they take charge.

But the phone has been this one thing I can’t seem to truly control. Or rather, the one thing I can’t stop from controlling me.

So for now, the phone will continue to stay in Time Out all day, tucked over in a shadow by the refrigerator, while my shiny new computer will remain blocked of all things alluring online.

Wish me luck!

Do you have any kinds of focus-building or tech-limiting plans for 2026?

Leave a comment

‘Tis that time again, although I don’t know how. Last year was such a true blur of deadlines and book releases and, of course, grief.

Thank you for supporting me throughout that.

And now please choose your free, signed book as a Founding Member!

Given that I had two books come out in 2025, I’ve got some new titles (and editions) shoved onto the selection lists. (TE3, for example, is all the way at the bottom. Witchlight, meanwhile, is added into the Witchlands mix.)

As usual, choose a first, second, and third edition to receive! And I’ll send out what copies I have on a first-come, first-serve basis.

And again: THANK YOU. You don’t have to support me financially, but you do — and that means more than a measly newsletter can ever convey.

Choose your free book!

I hope you all are having a good introduction to 2026 so far. I know the world continues to feel unsteady and dark around us, but I truly believe that with each other is how we’ll make it through.

So thanks for being one of my “each others.”

💚 - Sooz

Read more

As mentioned in the last newsletter, I had a year that far surpassed my greatest writing output dreams. And while I credit a lot of that to quitting social media, I absolutely had some more tangible tools that helped get me there.

Some of the items below will be familiar if you’ve followed me for very long. Some will be new.

That said, at this point—fifteen years into my publishing career—my routine is pretty locked-in. Sure, I love to try new things…but I rarely discover something new that truly disrupts my process. Although a few items below have been game changers!

Read on to see what they are! (And note, none of these links are affiliated. I get zero kickbacks. These are just things I really love and use a lot!)

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1. reMarkable 2 ($629, but can be cheaper with sales)

You knew this not was coming. My love for the reMarkable 2 knows no bounds, and it is still my most used tool aside from my laptop.

I have been awake since 5AM, and until right now, it’s the only tool I’ve used today. My favorite work hours are the ones when I never have to crack open my laptop and I can work “analog” with only the reMarkable 2.

I stand by everything I said in this review from almost two years ago1:

And yes: I know the reMarkable 2 might seem expensive once you add on the Type Folio (I highly recommend getting the keyboard!) and marker with eraser…

But given how much I use this item, my only regret is letting the price tag keep me from buying sooner.

2. Scrivener ($60, one-time purchase)

Yep, I always recommend Scrivener.

It’s the most used app on my computer, hands down. Do I even know all it can do? Nope. I doubt I use even half of its functionality—and that’s just fine.

I’ve got my setup; it works for me; and other than changing the font between projects, I always use the same layout.

(Note: as a “circling” writer, the snapshot feature is truly INVALUABLE. Same goes for the binder tool and being able to rearrange scenes at will.)

See how I use the software here:

I realize some people love Word or Google Docs, and that’s great. Use what your brain is happiest with! But there’s a reason Scrivener is so beloved by so many writers.

Plus, there’s a weeklong free trial—so why not give it a try?

3. Voice Dream Reader ($79.99/year)

I added this app to my lineup two years ago at the suggestion of two of my friends with visual impairements.

What does it do? Read documents for you in a not-that-great AI voice. (This is not the kind of AI that is built off real people. It’s…robotic, at best.2)

Initially, I set up the app with the intention of using it when my migraines make screens agonizing to stare at. What I discovered instead was that I love listening to my books read in a clunky, only vaguely human voice.

Again: as a “circling” writer, I go through the same parts of my manuscript many, many times. And as a writer who jumps around often, I have to reorient myself in a book each time I return.

That means I get sick of reading the same pages again and again and again.3

To help alleviate some of that “ugh, I have to read my words again” feeling, I now upload my document to Voice Dream Reader, listen to it at 250% speed, and reorient myself in the manuscript while I’m doing other things. It lets me cram the reread into the parts of my day I otherwise can’t work—while driving, cooking, doing the laundry, walking the dog, etc.

Truly: this app has become an invaluable part of my process.

It’s also great for a final reread before your book heads off to your editor. I catch typos, clunky sentences, etc.

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4. Becca Syme’s Resources (prices vary)

I’ve been singing the praises of Becca Syme for so many years now, I feel like a broken record. But I truly cannot overstate how much her “writing alignment” resources have impacted my writing output and creative happiness.

No, you won’t get results from simply reading some books or even from taking a workshop or two. You have to apply what you learn—which isn’t easy. Yet here I am, four years after discovering Becca, and I am the happiest writer I’ve ever been.

Try her podcast if you want free resources.

Try her books if you want cheap resources. ($)

Try her workshops if you really want to dive in and get to work. ($$$)

Try coaching if you want help tailored just to you. (−$)

5. Voice Memo app (free on iPhone)

I record voice memos so often that I’ve actually made a shortcut on my home screen. All I have to do is tap the icon, and bam: it starts a new recording.

What do I record? Anything! There is no wrong answer.

If I’m stuck, I brainstorm aloud as if I’m talking to someone. The ideas flow out, and I don’t have to worry I’ll forget something useful. It honestly feels like brainstorming with another person, since so often all we really need is a sounding board.

The simple act of translating a problem into words that I then articulate out loud frequently reveals my solution. With a voice memo, though, there’s no “middle man” necessary—so I don’t have to feel guilty about bothering a friend.4

Sometimes I will dictate actual words I want to write into a scene, and then I will copy/paste the transcript5 into Scrivener.

Other times I describe what I want to come next in the story—broad beats or dialogue that’s on the horizon. Basically, it’s a vocalized version of my scene screenplay that I use to guide me when I sit at the keyboard.

And sometimes, I simply map out my overall life and work plans. Like, here’s a literal transcript from one such “conversation”:

Okay, I’m going to finish editing Three Mollys in the Well this afternoon. Then I’ll take a break and teach the taekwondo class. Then it’s dinner and redacted’s bedtime. So I’ll basically turn off the brain and let the subconscious chew. Then tomorrow I can dive into Sector 26, if I’m feeling it when I open the document. But where did I leave off? I know I was stuck, but was it because the emotions weren’t clicking. Or was it that the plot was missing something? I don’t want to get to dug in like I always do when I squeeze a problem too tightly…

As you can see, the words just flow out, and the act of speaking them feels differently for me than simply thinking them. The insights and planning sinks more deeply into my brain, and since I know everything I’m saying is recorded, I don’t worry I’ll say/think something brilliant…then forget it.

If you’ve never tried just talking at yourself in a memo, I urge you to try! Truly! It’s such a critical part of my process now!

Other Stuff I Use — at varying price points:

6. Boox Mira e-ink monitor ()

The Boox Mira monitors are not cheap. And as such, I would never have bought this for myself (I dragged my feet on the reMarkable 2 for years!). But my husband gave it to me as a gift, and…

Wow.

I use it all the time now.

As with the Voice Dream Reader app, the initial aim was to help with my migraines. Screens become truly unbearable to look at when I get a migraine, but I can’t just miss a work day. I have too many migraines for that.

What I discovered with the reMarkable 2, though, was that I could handle the e-ink screen. No, the migraine didn’t miraculously go away (lol, if only), but at least I could keep working without exacerbating the problem.

What happened with the Boox Mira, though—again, just like with the Voice Dream Reader app—was that I found it useful way beyond migraine management.

Because it’s boring.

Like, looking at your desktop with e-ink makes the damned thing an absolute drag. I have zero desire to click on Safari and start surfing news or gaming sites. I have zero desire to check my email or pop onto Discord. There’s no color. There’s a delay (e-ink has a slow refresh rate). The screen isn’t very large. And on top of that, it’s such a pain in the ass to unplug the monitor just so I can get a dopamine hit…

So I don’t. I take the path of least resistance, and that happens to be the document I already have open in Scrivener. Next thing I know, I’ve spent hours with laser focus.

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7. Canva ($15/month or $120/year)

I did a lot of self-promo this year, and I did so with the guidance and help of a team. So not only was having a subscription to Canva Pro 100% worth it for the wider graphic options, it was worth it for the team functionality.

Canva has its quirks, but it’s more than enough for most authors. Plus, having it sync across my laptop and phone is great. If I’m stuck in a waiting room or at the airport, I can still pull together a graphic or finish one I’ve already started.

8. Desk ellipse ($179)

Ever since I read the book Exercised by Daniel Lieberman, I’ve known that being still all day is deadly. Even just a little movement can have major overall health impacts.

So I invested in a Desk Cycle Ellipse. It goes right under my desk, and I just let my feet spin. I keep it on a low resistance because I discovered I would stop pushing (and not realize I’d stopped) when the resistance was high. But at a low difficulty? Yeah, I just spin…and spin…and spin.

Who knows if it does anything for me, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. And at the very least, I definitely feel less blergh when I eventually rise for a meal or bathroom break.

9. Dumb Phone app ($9.99/year)

About a year ago, I discovered the Dumb Phone app for iPhone. It’s pretty straightforward to set up, and after create a few shortcuts to smooth out my workflow…

Well, I’m pleased to say I have the most boring phone out there. Like with the Boox Mira monitors, my phone is just unfun to use. I won’t say I never get distracted by it, but it certainly happens far less.6

I mean, look at this:

As you can see, there ain’t much here, and I’ve intentionally made it so freaking boring to look at. I have a brown shortcut for recording a voice memo (the microphone icon), a brown shortcut for opening Voice Dream Reader (the ear icon), and the rest is self-explanatory.

If I swipe right, I have access to my other apps, but there aren’t many installed on my phone. And the only one that can be a problem for me is Safari, which Dumb Phone allows you to BLOCK yourself from it.

So I do.

10. Freedom ($39.99/year)

Lastly, to ensure I’m truly blocked from distraction during my prime writing hours, I have Freedom installed across my laptop and phone.

This app blocks whatever you want it to block. For me, that’s specific websites (news, Discord, gaming sites, email, etc). And while I might not have social apps, you can certainly use Freedom to block those too!

What I love most about the premium plan for Freedom is the ability to set a schedule. My best work hours are as soon as I wake up, and the last thing I want is to be derailed by the siren call of “just real quick, I’ll check [insert website].” Because it’s never “just real quick,” and it inevitably fills my head with noise that I don’t want in there.

So I have the hours of 5AM - 7:45AM scheduled on Freedom to automatically block me, and everyday, I awaken to a phone and computer that are just ughhhhh, so boring!

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As you can see, my theme for the year was “ugh, boring.” But in a world built for distraction, boring is exactly what we all need. Being stuck with only your thoughts (gasp!) means you have the mental space to brainstorm, to daydream, to wander and drift exactly like our creative subconscious needs.

And I have clearly had a wildly productive year because of all that enforced boredom!

Now you tell me! What were your top tools in 2026? Share in the comments!

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I’d love to know what you’ve learned you can’t create without or what simply makes your life easier to navigate. Maybe I’ll try something out and discover it’s a game changer! Or maybe you’ll try something listed above and discover it’s exactly what you need…

Until next time!

💚 - Sooz

First off: I realize I’ve been quiet in recent months. The reason for this is multifold.

1. My thirteenth and fourteenth books come out this fall. Which meant I was traveling. A lot. And I also had so much self-promotion to hustle through…

   1. Now the travel and promo hustle is past! Thank goodness. I know I’m very lucky to get to do as many events as I do, but I was getting really tired of planes, hotel beds, DoorDash, and Lyfts. 🥲

   2. If you want to buy The Executioners Three1 or the Witchlands series, what better time to do so than the holidays? Also, get signed, personalized copies!

2. I sold four books to HarperCollins (yay!) and they will be released every six months (yay!) which means…oh yeah. Deadlines.

   1. Because two of those books are even under a crash schedule2, I had to get them done before 2025 was over. BUT I DID IT! 🥳

   2. Now I have more breathing room for the next two are due.

3. Cricket started kindergarten—and extracurricular activities.

   1. I am now That Mom driving her kid around and writing in her car while the kid does [insert class/sport here].

   2. On the one hand, I kind of like that there’s nothing for me to do for an hour other than work when I’m sitting in my car waiting for her to finish a class.

   3. On the other hand, all the driving around + “fighting with her to put on her dance clothes/taekwondo uniform/whatever” is a real time and energy suck. 😂

4. I had some personal tragedy this year that was quite prolonged and physically difficult, and that I am still grieving and processing.

   1. So I hope you can understand that writing newsletters was one thing I decided to cut from my plate to make life a little more manageable.

Now that I’ve made excuses explained myself, I do want to make clear that I feel bad about being so absent this year on the Misfits & Daydreamers.

So to make up for it, you can expect far more consistent content in the next few months.

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At least until I have to dive back into promo mode for my next release, Two for Joy, on May 5, 2025! (Pre-order the US edition here. Pre-order the UK edition here.)

So if there’s any topic you’d like covered, be sure to leave a comment on the latest AMA!

Or if you’re interested in maybe a live Q&A—you bring the Qs, I give the As—before the year is up, let me know below!

Goals Achieved for 2025

Or should I say “destinations reached for 2025” instead? Because earlier this year, way back in February, I wrote about setting goals as a fluid creator. I said:

Rather than set any kind of specific goal with my writing, I instead make a a number of Really Vague Destinations I’d like to get to within a Really Broad Timeframe.

I imagine it like I’m Frodo. Here I am, in the Shire, and waaaaaaaay over there is Mount Doom. I have to reach Mordor to deal with this ring, but the journey? Why, it’s fluid, baby! Maybe I’ll go through the Mines of Moria. Maybe I’ll head toward Isengard or Mines Tirith or the Dead Marshes or WHO KNOWS? That’s the whole point—I don’t know how I’ll get there.

I just know I will make it to Mount Doom.

I then proceeded to out the “destinations” I wanted to reach before 2025 ended. And now that the end of the year is closing in, I though it would be fun to check in and see how I did…

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My Destinations:

• Write a 9,000-word short story for an anthology (this is under contract—so I have to make sure it gets done by April)

• Finish The Executioners Three and Witchlight copy edits + pass pages (also under contract with attached deadlines—will wrap up in April)

• Get a new proposal to my publisher(s) — DONE

• Finish at least 2 books

• Stretch goal: Finish 3 books

How I did:

• Write a 9,000-word short story for an anthology (this is under contract—so I have to make sure it gets done by April)

  • Yep! I turned it in and have done a round of edits now too. And honestly, I think it might be one of the best things I’ve written. It’s definitely perfect for fans of the Witchlands.

• Finish The Executioners Three and Witchlight copy edits + pass pages (also under contract with attached deadlines—will wrap up in April)

  • Yep! Obviously I got this done since both books have now hit stores!

• Get a new proposal to my publisher(s)

  • I not only did this, but I wrote six proposals this year for six different books, went on submission to publishers for four of them, and sold the full Murder Quartet to HarperCollins and Daphne Press!

• Finish at least 2 books

  • Yep! I finished Two for Joy and Four and Twenty Blackbirds this year.

• Stretch goal: Finish 3 books

  • I haven’t finished three…but the year isn’t over yet!

  • And even if I don’t manage to finish before 2026, I still:

    • Wrote 55K in a new book: Three Mollys in the Well (Murder Quartet book 3)

    • Wrote 40K in a different new book: One Raven for a Dove (Murder Quartet book 4)

    • Wrote 65K in another different new book: Salt of my Enemy, book 1 in a planned post-apocalyptic duology (trilogy?)

    • Edited and pulled together an adult epic fantasy proposal that I’ve been noodling at for a few years (The Alchemist and the Nightsong).

      • I then ultimately decided not to sell it, but hey, now it’s ready to work on for another day—and the first 20K words are strong!

    • Edited and pulled together an adult detective fantasy proposal I’ve also been noodling at for a few years (The Hand That Feeds). I will do something with it eventually.

      • I love the ~30K I have written so far, but it’s such a weird, quirky genre mashing project. 😅 Classic Sooz.

    • Added 5K to an adult cozy cosmic horror WIP called An Unkindness of Mirrors. Also been poking at this one for a few years now.

      • This book is so slow-going for me. It’s just so plot-driven and I’m such a character writer. I can’t fall into flow like I normally would—I’m crafting such an intricate arrangement of sneaky plot beats…

    • Made about 85,000 reels and social media graphics. And posted them on Instagram.

    • Wrote about 85,000 fan-dedicated newsletters for .

    • And in a non-work accomplishment, I also got back into martial arts. Which has felt amazing.

      • I slipped a disc over the summer, and recovery has been excruciatingly slow. But martial arts have been the one thing that has truly helped.

What I Failed At

Over all, I’m pretty pleased with my output for the year. Especially when you consider that I had two books release this fall and had to travel a ton.

Leaning into my true nature has truly transformed my writing life. It has also made me a much happier and more resilient person. When the writing life is fulfilling and healthy, that ripples into all the rest of my world!

And oh yeah, quitting social media has also made such a massive difference in my baseline happiness.3 No social also means I have more time for writing, being with my family, reading, gaming—whatever!

Here are all the posts I’ve made on the subject of “finding my true writing nature” and also on quitting social media:

Okay, but if you feel so good about the year, Sooz, then what exactly did you fail at?

Well, for one, when tragedy struck back in the spring, I stopped tracking my progress in the way I described in this post.

To be honest, I wasn’t doing much work at that time anyway, beyond the bare minimum. There was nothing to track, in other words. Only after surgery in mid May did I slowly claw back into some Real Work. But by then, I was out of the habit of tracking progress—and frankly I’d forgotten I was even tracking it! Oops.

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I also fully failed to keep up here, with the Misfits & Daydreamers! Sorry. 😬

And lastly, I still haven’t finished my freaking Creative Life workshop over on the Academy. I have no excuse for this one, other than it’s a low priority so it just keeps getting punted to my “do later” list.

And…that’s it.

The list is honestly pretty small because overall, I’m really pleased by how the year went. Despite tragedy—or perhaps because of it—I feel very glass isn’t half full YET but there’s so much potential for it to get there!

Life was hard; I found solace in my work; and I will continue to write because it brings me true, reliable joy.

I also had such a wonderfully fulfilling fall with all my travel. Yes, the travel part gets exhausting, but not the events. Never the events! I love meeting readers more than any other part of my job, and I got to enjoy so much of that.

It was truly rewarding, and it filled me to the brim.4 Now I can use all that fuel from connecting with readers to feed my writing through winter.

What about you?

Did any of you change your approach to writing this year? Did you maybe let yourself be more fluid or perhaps you added more structure or…?

And if you did try a new approach, what did you learn from the experiment?

Leave a comment and let me know!

💚 - Sooz

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Pre-order Campaign!

First things first, before I get to the meat of this newsletter: the Witchlight pre-order campaign has kicked off! 🎉

So, if you want to join the fun and get access to the goodies, then make sure you’ve pre-ordered Witchlight—and English-language edition will do—and submitted your receipt.

Submit your receipt here!

Also, international orders qualify! Pre-order links are at the buttons below.

3 Tricks For Easily Jumping Between Projects

On tour for The Executioners Three a few weeks ago, one of the most common questions I got was some variation of:

Since you work on so many books at once, how do you keep them all separated in your head?

I love this question! Although, that said, my first instinct was to rebel against it. Oh, I don’t have any problem with that! It’s just natural.

However, as with many things in my writing process, once I actually sat down and considered it, I could tease out some tricks I rely on to keep so many distinctive stories and characters separated in my brain.

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1. Change the Font

This is by far the most important trick. Like, I can’t overstate how much I rely on this hack—and how much I cannot read one of my own books in Times New Roman ever again.

The standard font in publishing, when you turn it in to your editor/agent/pal, is 12pt Times New Roman (usually double spaced). For years, that was all I used.

Now I hate it.

And other than the font size and the spacing (I still use 12pt, but I set spacing to 1.5) nothing is ever the same between my books. Instead, I select a font that best fits the overall vibe of what I’m writing.

I’ll give you some examples. Below, I’ve got the opening chapter of Witchlight and another epic fantasy I’ve been chipping away at for a few years called The Alchemist and the Nightsong.

As you can see, I’ve chosen serif fonts for these books because a serif font just fits the vibe of “epic fantasy” in my mind. Witchlight is in Hoefler Text; Alchemist is in Georgia.

As you can guess, the characters in these books are completely different—not to mention the worlds and magics are nothing alike. Also, oh yeah! The tenses! I’ve got third past for Witghlight and third present for Alchemist.

But when I open up the documents? It only takes me a few sentences to slide right into one voice or the other.

Okay, but what about books that are even more different? Like, not just two epic fantasies with tense changes?

Well, here are two projects. You’ll see that I again picked serif fonts—but note how different the voices are. Also, the genres.

You’ll also likely have spotted that I’ve got first person present tense in one project and third person present in the other. The one titled Sector 26 is a WWII vibes post-apocalyptic with monsters. The other (titled The Hand That Feeds) is a 1920s vibe detective story set in a fantasy city where gods are at war.

(The fonts, by the way, are Averia Libre1 and Crimson Pro.)

Last example, for something more “modern.” These are two screenshots from my upcoming Murder Quartet series. Although each book in that series is a romantic mystery horror set in an alternate 90s with ghosts and murder, each book also stands alone.

Different heroine, different mystery, different setting and romance each time. So, yet again, I must have different fonts for every book.

For the second Murder Quartet book (Four & Twenty Blackbirds), which is set on a tiny, blustery island in the middle of winter, I wanted something that felt edgy. Wren is dealing with a haunted Cold War era airfield and horrifying visions—and it’s very Twin Peaks meets Stranger Things. So I wound up with Optima as the font.

For the fourth Murder Quartet book (One Raven for a Dove), set at a remote, forested campus for a writer’s workshop (during fall), I wanted something that reflected my heroine—an aspiring mystery writer. She loves writing about sleuths and reading about sleuths, so I wanted a font that captured the feel of the paperbacks she’s always devouring. That font, in turn, is PT Serif.

As I’m sure you can guess, I have so many more books I could share here. Some short stories too, all of which I am either working on currently or have finished this year.

I am not exaggerating when I say “I jump projects a lot.” Between Friday and Monday alone, I worked on three different books.

And no, I had zero problem just jumping from one voice + world to another.2

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2. Change the Playlist

This is a more obvious suggestion, since I feel like most writers make playlists for their books. I’m no different.

I’ve got a Witchlight playlist, filled with a lot of Two Steps from Hell and 2WEI.

I have an Alchemist playlist, which is mostly just the soundtracks from Baldurs Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 because I love Borislav Slavov. (This one and this one just gut me.)3

For the Murder Quartet, I have a weird playlist filled with present day hits like this, 80s classics like this, and 90s stuff I once loved like this.

I just pop on these assorted playlists, and bam! Vibes reclaimed.

I especially like listening to my playlists when I’m out for my runs. Because I tend to write a lot of action, I will literally (this is embarrassing to admit) pretend I’m my character running from a monster or blasting out magic or swinging a sword through battle.4

3. Refer to the Color-Coded Moodboard

Moodboards are also popular for writers to make, and I’m no different in this regard. (I talked about making moodboards here.)

However, one thing I do for my moodboards is give them a unified color scheme. This helps me really lock into the vibes—and I will tweak and adjust the colors a bajillion times until the moodboard is just right and accurately reflects what I feel inside my brain.

Here are some examples, and I think you can see with a glance just how different each of these books must feel.

You can see we’ve got a pink spring scheme, a red-and-white winter scheme, a purple epic fantasy scheme, a sunset-and-turquoise mystery scheme, a sepia war/apocalypse scheme, and lastly a green-and-yellow summer scheme.

I have all of these moodboards in my Scrivener files, and sometimes—if I’m really wanting to make sure I nail the vibes and the voice—I’ll paste the moodboard directly into the notes feature on the Inspector panel. Then I constantly see the images and colors as I’m drafting.

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A Note for the Non-Visual Creators

I realize not everyone uses visuals in the same way I do to create—and of course, some of you might be visually impaired. I get it! When my migraines are bad, I cannot look at screens or anything bright.

In fact, my migraines are why I turned to the Voice Dream Reader app after two of my friends (who are visually impaired themselves) recommended it.5

So on those days when I can’t rely on mixed-up fonts to help me out—specifically if I’m editing—I will instead let the robotic voices from Voice Dream Reader help me. You can use different accents, different styles, and that also helps me “click” into a new voice, world, and story.

Your turn! I’d love to know if YOU have any tricks for jumping between projects. Share them in the comments if you do—because I will 100% give them a try myself and see if they work for my brain.

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Now, off I go to get edits on Two For Joy turned in before Friday as well as edits on one of my other projects that is a totally different genre and voice (😉). And oh yeah, I have so much promo to do for Witchlight.

I love being busy, though, especially when my personal/family life is (mostly) steady and calm.6 So I would not have it any other way.

💚 - Sooz

I know I missed two questions from the last AMA a year ago, but they are on my list! I promise! And one more that’s even older than that.

Some questions are easier to answer than others—so I answer right in the comments, for example. Others are significantly more labor intensive, and with SO MUCH GOING ON in the last year…

Yeah, it’s a matter of just carving out the time.

In fact, I have:

• Two books due on October 15 (!)

• A short story that I’m expecting notes for any day now

• Edits for a different book I’m hoping to sell on proposal

• A ton of self-run Witchlight promo that I’m kicking off because HOLY SMOKES, I have another book releasing in mere weeks (!!)

• A number of exciting film/TV-related meetings in the next few weeks (!!!)

• More travel to promote The Executioners Three

• A ton of driving + dog-management because Junebug has double elbow dysplasia and hip dysplasia (this poor, poor puppy 😭), and the surgeon for it is three hours away—and all the surgeries are happening in the next few months (!!!!)

• Oh, and Cricket has started kindergarten! And is now doing taekwondo and ballet, which eats up so much more time than I anticipated…but is of course awesome and fully worth it.1

So you know, I’m basically in my Working Mom Era. 😅 But I’m doing the best I can, and I’ll keep trying to get quality content to you without too many gaps between!

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My thirteenth release is a week from today.

Given that I debuted in 2012, that math puts me at having released a book a year.1 For indie authors, that pace will seem slow. For traditional authors, it will look familiar—possibly even speedy.2

So what’s changed between now and 2012? A lot.

Social media, for one.

General media, for two.

Reader fatigue and pre-order behavior, for three.

My own anxiety and emotions surrounding a release, for four.

And perhaps most important of all: my life circumstances. I have a kid now. Back in 2012—when I was only twenty-eight years old (!)—I wasn’t even thinking about my future family. I had the Frenchman, my cats, my dogs, and my career. What more could I possibly want?3

Now here I am, forty-one and wondering why assorted body parts hurt with no warning and no obvious culprit. (Did I run into something and I just don’t remember it? 🤔 But really, where did this bruise come from?)

I’ve discussed this before: the lessons I wish I could go back and give my earlier self. And I stand by those points.

Yet as a new release rises on the horizon, I’m struck by a few other things that I wish I’d known sooner—or if not known, been able to make peace with sooner.

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1. I do not control the outcome.

No one likes this lesson. In fact, it’s the hardest to accept because no human ever wants to give up control.

I mean, I absolutely hate this lesson, yet every new book release is a slap-in-the-face reminder of it.

You do not and cannot control the outcome of your book’s release.

Any author or publisher or reader who tells you otherwise is wrong.

Not because anyone wants to mislead you! But because as humans, we really do not like the possibility that all our hard work might not pay off.

Or, as humans, we often take our own personal experiences and assume anyone can replicate.

However, just because I had success running a street team or making a viral video or running Amazon ads does not in any way guarantee that someone else will have the same success with the exact same actions.

At the end of the day, publishing is a speculative business subject to the whims of a capitalist market. The market decides what it wants. And in turn, publishers (indie and traditional) do their best to provide that product to the market.

Unfortunately, just because you give the market what you think it wants does not mean the market will ultimately show up and buy it. I mean, I cannot possibly count the number of incredible books that release and seem tailor-made for fans of XYZ or lovers of ABC, only for those books to never sell more than a handful of copies.

It doesn’t mean the produce is bad. Just that the market can’t be gamed or predicted.

Here are a few specific examples of what I mean:

1. I could not control if an agent wanted my book when I queried 15 years ago.

2. I cannot control now if a publisher wants to buy my book.

3. I cannot control if the publisher pushes or supports my book in-house.

4. I cannot control if retailers decide to sell my book.

5. I cannot control if the market purchases my book once released.

6. I cannot control if the market enjoys my books once read.

7. I cannot control if the readers who did enjoy go and leave a review.

That’s just a tiny fraction of the things outside of my control in the publishing world, of course. Because unfortunately, this business is not a simple equation. You can’t simply plug in the same variables for each book and get the same outcome.

Reading and publishing are massive, complex systems driven by a bajillion unmeasurable variables ranging from the current state of the world to a reader’s personal circumstances to where a random IG post lands on any given day thanks to an algorithm that is intentionally impossible to game.

And this is truly the hardest lesson to learn in publishing—but it’s also a transformative one if you can make peace with it. Because once you can accept that success is not 100% in your control, you can also absolve yourself of any shame that might come if all your efforts ultimately not pay off.

It’s not your fault; it’s the market; you did all you could do.

Of course, this lesson is easier said than accepting. I mean, hell, “letting go of the outcome” is something I have to actively work on with every new book release. I didn’t just learn that lesson after my debut series failed and wam-bam-thank-you-ma’am.

No, I have to remind myself of this lesson all the freaking time.

And in case it’s not obvious: just because I say “let go of the outcome” doesn’t mean I’m saying I also shouldn’t work hard or just toss up my hands in defeat.

Instead, it means I must…

2. Be selective about my resource allocation.

I can hear many of you shouting: If I can’t control anything, what’s the point, Sooz?!

But please remember: you still can work and you still should work. It’s that whole “I can’t win the lottery if I don’t play” thing.

The key is deciding where to place your time, effort, money, and emotion for the best return on investment.

I put in so much time, effort, money, and emotion for so many years. Did it pay off? Not particularly. My debut series is still my worst selling series of all, and I did everything I could back in 2011-2014 to move that needle.

I was so convinced that it was an equation I could hack. If I just put in the correct variables, I would eventually get the correct outcome. Except, why was I failing at this while my friends were having so much success and doing so much less?

At the time, I took it all personally. I decided it meant my book must suck and I, in turn, as a person must suck.

But that’s not true. It just isn’t. Instead, the market decided, and my books weren’t what the market wanted at that precise moment when the books released. No amount of push or promo was going to change that.

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In 2016, I did get the outcome I desired with Truthwitch. After a great deal of time, effort, money, and emotion, I had a title shock everyone and hit the New York Times List. But what happened with that book isn’t replicable.

Trust me: I know it isn’t. I tried for The Luminaries. And I made a very honest and bleak video about those failures here.

After that, I realized that I needed to be far more selective about where I put my resources.

Then the years of hell hit—just endless tragedy and emergencies for my family from 2023-2025—and the fact is that since then, I have had no choice. I have had to limit how I allocate my resources because my daughter and my family consume an enormous amount of my time, effort, money, and emotions.

But what I’ve seen is that being selective hasn’t set me up for failure. It means I’ve simply turned a critical eye onto where I’m currently focusing my time, effort, money, and emotions.

Then I have cut out what isn’t helping.

2A. Remember your values

I want to note that not all allocation of resources should be focused on the outcome. This is just with regards to book release (and also book creation—which I believe is the most important piece of the puzzle here).

Beyond that, however, the most “important” places we often put time, money, effort, and emotion are areas where we might not see results for a long, long time. Like raising a child! Or raising money for an ongoing crisis. Or supporting a political party.

For example. I feel strongly about allocating resources to giving back to the writing community. And while I might not see “tangible results” beyond X amount raised for Y charity or an author thanking me for my resources at an event, I think the longterm goal is a deeply important one regardless.

2B. Audit your resources

Now with regards to all this other stuff that is non value related (but not less important, per se! It’s your career after all), I want you to audit your time, effort, money, and emotions.

You can do this by looking at a recent release and trying to recall + infer input vs. output. And if you can’t remember specifics from your last book + release, then that’s okay. Do your best!

Alternatively, you can also start tracking now for a release that’s in the (possibly distant, if it’s not yet sold) future.

And remember: sales might not be your output metric. Most of us traditional authors can’t get our sales information, so we won’t know the direct impact our efforts have on book sales. We can only look at metrics like Goodreads adds or Amazon sales ranks, social media tags or weekly Bookscan numbers.

But you should still be able to gauge roughly how well a book is doing—certainly enough for this audit.

Note: if you’re still in the aspiring phase and not at the release phase yet, then you can instead look at how all of these inputs impact the most important piece: the actual writing.

Now onto the questions for your audit:

• Where did I spend my money? (e.g. ads, swag, travel, cover design, editorial services, etc)

  • How much money did I spend?

  • What was the measurable outcome, if any?

    • Again, this might not be sales. If I hired an editor, the result is (one hopes) a better book!

    • Or if I traveled to an event, I might have sold zero books, but I reached a huge number of new possible readers on a panel.

• Where did I spend my time? (e.g. content creation, ad management, graphic design, podcast interviews)

  • How much time did I spend?

  • What was the measurable outcome, if any?

• Where did I focus my effort?

  • i.e. Were some things significantly higher effort for me to accomplish than others?

    • Like, reels are such a challenge for me and I hate making them.

  • What was the return on investment for those efforts? Was it balanced between effort and results?

    • If I have low engagement or reach with my reels, then the ROI isn’t there.

• What was my emotional state throughout this book’s creation and release?

  • DID ANY OF THESE THINGS BRING ME JOY TO DO?

    • If so, GREAT. I’ll do more of that.

    • I love writing newsletters, e.g. And I love chatting with readers on the DenNerds Discord.

  • Did any of these things make me truly miserable?

    • If so, I don’t want to do those unless I really have to for my career.

    • I hate reels, eg, so I pretty much only make them if my publisher asks me to.

• How much writing am I getting done throughout this time?

  • Becca Syme has many insights into this, so I won’t step on her toes here. But one of the “archetypes” she talks about have to do with your author platform and where, based on that platform, you should be allocating your resources.

    • Unsurprisingly, time spent working on the manuscript is necessary and should be prioritized.

    • After all, you can only milk one product for so long, and for must of us, the best path forward for success = more books.

  • I love writing ever since I leaned into my fluid process, and I would rather spend the bulk of my time there.

    • And in the end, nothing helps you sell more books than releasing a new one. Each new release is a new chance to find readers and it a chance to boost your backlist.

Based on the results that have come out of my own audits, I have totally transformed where I put my time, money, effort, and emotions.

And I want you to also honestly evaluate each question, gauging if the return on investment is actually there. Because trust me: sometimes we lie to ourselves about it.

For me, as so many of you know, the ROI simply was not there for social media use. And the rewards I reaped by quitting have been so dramatic, I will never go back.

But you’ll notice, of course, I still post on Instagram. I still make content and put it out. I just don’t let the app live on my phone any longer. I install, post, delete every week (sometimes more than once a week) because Meta does not deserve my time, attention, or mental health.

However, there is some ROI to posting on IG for me, so that makes the install-post-delete rigamarole worth it each time.

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The main point I’m trying to make here, of course, is that we all need to take a serious look at our time, effort, money, and emotions and decide if our current allocation is having the payoff we desire.

If it’s not, it’s okay to let it go.

It’s also okay to experiment and see what comes.

What I want is for us to quit losing money, burning ourselves out, and/or missing out on all the other amazing things we could be doing with our time and attention.

We can’t control the outcome! We can control some elements of it, however, by “buying lottery tickets” the have higher odds of success for our unique circumstances.

3. Prioritize the things that I will look back on with pride.

This has just been an ongoing aim for me ever since I went through my near-death delivery in 2020. And it should have been my aim all along.

We all know this, of course: live life to the fullest yadayadayada. But it’s so hard to actually apply. We all have jobs, we all have responsibilities, we all have expectations placed upon us and dependents who need our time, money, effort, and emotions. Almost all of us are doing the best we can to simply exist each day.

Trust me: that has been the last three years of my life. Just one crisis after another that has required constant vigilance and focus.

But with the time that I do have to myself, I want to use it for the things that I will be proud of. I, personally (you might be different, of course), want to put good, meaningful work into the world. And I know that good, meaningful work looks like for me.

It is not, in fact, making more reels or trying to beat an algorithm intent on keeping me addicted. Like, I’m not going to sit on my deathbed one day and think, Golly, I wish I’d spent more time making promo videos!

No, I’ll wish I’d written more words. I’ll wish I’d touched more lives. And that matters to me.

And I’m not saying it should matter to you! Not at all. You have to sort out what would make you look back with pride and joy, and then you will know that that is where you should focus your spare resources.

I don’t always succeed at focusing only on “what will leave a positive mark in the world.” And I do think some promo is necessary and elements of social media can very much touch lives and impact readers. It’s just a matter of allocating my limited resources wisely—and always remembering what it is that I want to leave behind.

Don’t kill the baby bird

I’ll wrap this all up with a story.

When I was a very dorky 15-year-old (who still hadn’t hit puberty), I was on the high school golf team. I was pretty bad at the sport, but there were some moments every now and then where me and the swing would fully align. It was glorious. Except…always—and I mean ALWAYS—I’d then get in my own head and the self-talk would wind up choking me on the next swing.

Every. Time.

Over the years, I got tight with the golf pro. He was a chain smoking old guy named Lowell who really wanted me to just get out of my own damned way and hit the ball.

Bless that man. He spent hours trying to help me on the driving range. And while my golf swing never got there, I did at least learn one valuable lesson that I still live by today.

Lowell always said to me that I needed to imagine the golf club as a baby bird. Squeeze it too tightly, you kill it. Don’t squeeze it enough, and the bird will fly away.

Unsurprisingly, I was killing that thing with my grip. I would squeeze so, so, so tightly, my anxieties transferring into a physical manifestation that hurt my swing (and my hands).

There needed to be a balance. A midpoint between effort and trust.

And this lesson from Lowell applies to so much more than simply a golf swing. If I squeeze too tightly at my manuscript, then I kill the inspiration and lose sight of the story. If I don’t squeeze at all, I won’t write or ever produce new words.

If I squeeze too tightly at my book’s release, then I’ll exhaust myself (and my resources) with no guarantee of success at the end. If I don’t squeeze at all, then the book will float into the ether, never to be read by anyone.

If I squeeze too tightly at my daughter, then she’ll resent me and get angry at how much I control her. If I don’t squeeze tightly enough, she’ll literally run into traffic because apparently five year olds have zero survival instincts.

Find that balance, my friends.

Find that midpoint between effort and trust.

To future releases and beyond

Because it would be remiss not to, I’ll do just a wee bit of squeezing before I depart and direct you to some pre-order links for my cozy horror romance crammed full of 90s jokes.

The Executioners Three took me many, many years to write—I started it in 2011!—but I think it’s now entering the world at the perfect time to spread some much-needed joy and laughter into our hearts.4

So please, if you are able to support me, consider sliding a pre-order my way:

• Signed, personalized edition from Schuler Books

  • Comes with a TE3 bookmark!

  • Make sure to say TO WHOM you want the book personalized in the comments section at checkout.

  • And of course, you can order any other signed books you might want at the same time! I’ll sign them all at once.

• Standard Tor Teen US hardcover edition

  • Includes TAKE HEED printed on the edges!

  • Also includes the beautiful, full color endpapers!

• Tour stop edition

  • MEET ME!!

  • And also get one of the exclusive TE3 bookmarks.

  • And get as many of your books signed as your arms can carry.

• Standard Daphne Press UK edition

• Waterstones UK Edition

  • With sprayed edges!!

• Illumicrate edition!

  • Sprayed edges, end pages, custom cover, fancy hard casing…

  • THE WORKS!

• Audiobook, narrated by Caitlin Davis

  • From Macmillan in the US

  • From Bolinda worldwide

And then I of course have another book coming out in November, and it’s a book I could not be more proud of.

I mean, this beast of a book is a true culmination of every craft trick I’ve ever learned in my many years of doing this whole Author Thing, and I think this series conclusion is a genuine triumph that fans of the Witchlands are going to adore. (And you can start reading it early here!)

• US Buy Links for Witchlight

• UK Buy Links for Witchlight

Lastly, thank you for reading the Misfits & Daydreamers, dearest friends. I hope to see many of you on my tour, and I’ll be back in September once travel and release have calmed down.

💚 - Sooz

But I will do my best, friends! And to that end, I’ve un-paused paid subscriptions. Feel free to downgrade now, if you so desire.

Or you can also upgrade now, if you’re wanting to access all that educational content behind the paywalls. 👀

As always, with my audio posts, I’ve got a full (and edited so it actually matches what I say!) transcript below. And I’ve included links to any posts I mention, for easy perusal.

Up Next!

Lastly, very quickly while I have you here, please consider slinging a pre-order my way! The personal challenges of this year have been…well, they’re making self-promo tough, let me tell ya. 🥴

So any support you might want to offer me in the form of buying my books—I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. I have general preorder links at the buttons below:

Pre-Order TE3 (US, with printed edges!)

Pre-Order TE3 (UK)

Pre-order Witchlight (US)

Pre-order Witchlight (UK)

And here are links to purchase signed, personalized editions via Schuler Books & Media. (Just make sure you specify in the comments section at checkout to whom you want it signed!):

Order a signed, personalized TE3

Order a signed, personalized Witchlight

Or, in case you missed it, we announced the stunning Illumicrate edition of The Executioners Three, and you can learn more about that at the link below.

💚 - Sooz

Links Mentioned:

• My Books Ranked from Easiest to Hardest to Write — with more info on the Murder Quartet

• Crafting Character Arcs Over Series

• Pinterest

• Two for Joy moodboard!

• My Typical Work Day

• Goal Setting for the Fluid Creator

• Combining Two Books Into One — the Witchshadow backstory

• The Alchemist and the Nightsong prologue

• Illumicrate edition of The Executioners Three

Transcript:

Hello, friends. ‘Tis I, Susan Dennard. It’s been a bit, I know, and even longer since I did an audio message, or I guess you don’t call it that. A…an audio recording?

This isn’t a podcast. It’s me just chatting with you about a subject, as you all well know.

I’m not going to pretend that I am back to normal. What I went through in the spring was a lot. I will no doubt be talking more publicly about it when I start doing events later this month and touring and whatnot—mostly because I am very bad and keeping secrets, even terrible ones. And I don't want this to be a secret. I'm just not ready to talk about what I went through.

And I'm still processing. So there you go. Moving on.

I do want to dip my toe back into, you know, writing advice and the creative, writing life. What that’s like. And I was given an awesome question from a lovely reader (and fellow writer) named Lisa, who was asking about some books that I recently wrote.

I will link to a deeper description of those books below in the “show notes.” But these books are four…I shouldn’t say loosely connected because they are all overlapping on a Venn diagram, but they are standalone with different main characters, different settings. But all in the same…an alternate universe version of our 90s.

They’re kind of like The Executioners Three, in that they are very romance forward. There’s murder, there’s ghosts (or some sort of supernatural component). And again, the 90s—although it’s it’s less intense with the 90s vibes. And certainly no 90s jokes like you get in The Executioners Three. Mostly because Freddie is a one of a kind voice. I cannot be that cheeky with every character. (Everyone would be so sick of me.)

Additionally, I wrote the Murder Quartet in what is my favorite tense, which is present—but third person present. Whereas The Executioners Three is third person past.

All of this is to say, I wrote these books very quickly. They sort of poured out of me. The first one I started late last August, and I wrote most of that book in about two and a half weeks, if you can believe it.

And then I wrote another one, similar to it, but in a different season, so that one was set in sticky summer. I wrote another one set in cold winter during January. And that…I wrote about half the book. And then in spring (May) I wrote another one, set also in spring.

You might be noticing a pattern here!

And I wrote close to 60K in that one. It was past halfway, but not quite two-thirds.

And then I started…I have a third, or a fourth one, rather. And that one actually, (unsurprisingly) was the hardest to write because I set it in fall. And it is not fall! It is not fall yet. I am not feeling fall vibes.

So that one took me some more tries and more grinding through before I finally tapped into my main character and the dynamic between her and the mystery.

But that one is also, that one’s a fall vibes book. And I wrote 40,000 words in that one.

So yes, you can see none of them are finished. I have slowly added more to the others—the ones that were more substantially written than the fourth one. And so one of them is now almost finished. (The one I started last August). But still, none are completely done.

They have substantial amounts written, but unfinished. And they were each written, those substantial portions were each written very quickly. Faster than I typically write.

However, as I say that, I have to caveat that that’s not actually true. When I am writing first books in series—which up until now, other than The Executioners Three—is all I've ever done. Right? I have done long series or trilogies.

And so The Executioners Three was my first standalone. It took me a long time only because I just couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. Initially, it was a contemporary romance, and then I added murder, and then I murders weren’t selling, so I added ghosts, and then hilariously, murders became popular. And now I have a combination of the two, but I like supernatural elements.

It just jves for me best. And I kind of actually wanted to recreate the joy that I had writing The Executioners Three back in 2018, when I was first starting IVF. Which is what I set out to do with the first in my Murder Quartet, Two for Joy. The one I wrote last August.

And I realized as I was doing that that, “Oh my goodness! I'm really good at standalones! And I'm really good at first books in series!” The Luminaries came very quickly. Truthwitch came very quickly, even though it’s quite long.

What I’m not good at is sequels, and I shouldn't say I’m not good at them. I am just slower. They require…I can’t pants a sequel because I have set up things that I must follow through on. I have made promises to the reader and I cannot let the reader down. So that takes me longer.

I can…I move in fits and spurts as I crank my way forward following character—which I have talked about at length, my need to follow character (and I will link to that as well).

And on that note, I’ve also talked about why the sequels get harder and harder (when I was discussing how I have to follow the characters). And so when I actually say the word “pants,” I don't mean “pants” in the way that people typically think about it.

I don’t just sit down with no idea where I’m going and things pour out of me. I’m sure some writers do that. That’s not what I mean. I have to know the world I’m writing in. In fact, I start with three things.

For each of these Murder Quartet books, I’ve started with three things, and it worked so well for me that I plan to try to do this for everything I write moving forward.

I know my world. So I’ve made a map of the location. I know, and to be clear, the map often changes as I’m writing and I’m like, well, I don’t want that over there. That’s not helpful. I’m going to move it! And so I do.

The map will evolve as I’m writing. But I have a starting point so that I see where things are logistically. And that allows me to make decisions on where my character goes, how they get there, etc.

I know my characters. I know my main character, and I hear them in my head. I can hear their voice, whatever it might be.

To be clear, it takes me a few chapters. I might rewrite the first chapter a few times as I fully lock into their voice. And they may…I may not really sink into them completely and understand their particular quirks and nuances until I’m you know, three or four chapters in. Then I will smooth out the opening.

But I have to at least know their name and the general vibe around them.

And then the last thing I’ve discovered that has been working really well for me is that I make a mood board.

I have never done this before. I definitely would always make Pinterest boards. I mean, my Truthwitch Pinterest board is enormous and public, if you want to look it up. (I will link to that as well, I suppose.) But I have started making, like, just a dedicated mood board in Canva.

I use the same template every time. And I’ve shared one for Two for Joy, actually, in my fan newsletter. I can link to that as well. But what I like about making these mood boards is that I have a limited number of spots. And so I have to pick out sort of the key elements that I need for the vibe, right?

(I know vibes have become almost a pejorative term in writing these days because, you know, everyone complains, “Readers just want vibes. They don’t want plot!” I’m not going to totally argue with that, but I don’t know that having strong vibes is necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I would like to think that all of my books have very strong vibes in addition to strong plots.

You know, the Witchlands has a very, I think, bright, epic, sweeping, magical, vibe, and depending on where they are in the many books of that series, the vibes will change. And of course, which character’s head we’re in. The Executioners Three has full, fall, cozy-with-a-dash-of-horror-vibes. The Luminaries, I think, has very strong, spooky forest, what-might-be-lurking-around-the-next-dark-tree vibes.)

And so for the Murder Quartet, I knew because I was setting each in a different season. I wanted them to have very distinctive vibes.

So to go back to Two for Joy, the one about the one set in summer, I knew it was this hot, sticky lakeshore, dune, tourist-resort vibes. 90s. You know, hanging out with friends, summer vibes. But also there’s danger and murder.

So I made a moodboard and it went so well that I decided to do that with each Murder Quartet book that followed. And in the process of making the mood board, I found different parts of the story I wasn’t expecting.

When I was making the Four and Twenty Blackbirds moodboard, which is the winter book, I discovered there’s a lot of red. Red against snow, and that in turn led me to different things that I ended up putting in the book—and almost, it anchored me into some surprise things as I was drafting.

When I was making the spring mood board for the book Three Mollys in the Well: flowers, obviously, right? When you want to evoke spring vibes, you got to have lots of flowers—which helped me in turn develop the setting and the things that my character notices in all the places that she is.

But how do you offset such beauty, you know, the beauty of a field of wildflowers, so that it feels also horrifying and you can add some terror and murder to it?

(Oh! My kitty just showed up. Because we got a dog, which I have talked about, Junebug, he’s deeply unhappy. He hates her. And I don’t blame him. She’s a puppy. She wants to play. She does not understand that him scratching at her is not him inviting her to play. So we’re working on that.

She is not around right now because I needed quiet in order to record this. But the kitty—his meows are just like special seasoning to this. But back to where I was before.)

The three things I need—to list them again—are a map, the character (my main character, their voice, their desperate desire when the story opens), and then the mood board. And with those three things, I usually have enough juice, enough sort of of a sandbox that I can dive in and start going.

And then knowing who my character is and what they want, as the scene opens, and where they are as well (and the vibes of where they are), then things just sort of unfold.

It really feels like, and I think I’ve probably used this metaphor before, but it feels like I’ve found a piece of thread and here's the spool over here…And now I’ve just, I finally found where the thread is, and now I’m pulling. And it just comes. It just comes and it comes and it comes, and it comes and it comes and it comes, and it feels amazing.

And I can write 5,000 words a day—that is usually my goal. Bare minimum 3,000, but I can usually do (when I hit that grooving point) 5,000 words a day. Maybe more, maybe a little less, but around there. And that gets me pretty far into a book by two and a half weeks.

But it inevitably….Guys, every time, at about two and a half weeks, I peter out. I run out of steam. Either I no longer…like, I’m far enough in that now I have to make some story decisions, which is what happened with Two for Joy. It was like, okay, “We’re at act three now, lady. You got to pull all this stuff together to reveal the murder and set up your climax. So time to get serious, look back at what you’ve got. You can’t just keep doing your version of pantsing now.”

Or, um, in One Raven for a Dove (that’s my fall book—the one that I struggled with a bit to tap into my main character's voice and her desperate desire), I ran out of steam because…

For one, I really do think I need to wait until I’m in fall vibes for that one. (But it’ll come, it’ll come soon enough.) But also, because I just sort of lost sight of the romantic arc in that one. And rather than go back and read and then, from there, push on , I decided to just set it aside. I have so many other things to work on.

The beauty of trusting my own instincts and being a fluid writer, which of course, I will link to, as well, my two, quite popular, successful posts (in that people resonated with them on being very fluid and trusting, that fluidity) .

Because of that, I just now let myself stop. I might grind for a few days, hoping I can retap into it and get a little bit more eked out, a few more 5,000 word days. But usually, after two to three days of trying, I’m like, okay, you’re definitely at the bottom of this river. You’re out. Let the spring refill that basin and move over somewhere else.

And so that’s what happened with One Raven. And as I talked about, too, because I jump around so much, I do try to keep track of how much I produce each week. Just kind of track it weekly, if not daily—if I remember.

(I’m not the best at remembering. If you haven’t noticed, I’m not great with routines, guys. I just, you know, there are certain routines in life that one must do, such as getting my daughter dressed every day and fed and to school. But when it comes to my actual career and remembering, you know, to check things off the to-do list every single day…

I’m not great at that. And that’s okay. I have discovered, too, that you can be successful without relying on things like checklists and calendars and agendas—that work great for other people, but maybe not me.)

And what’s been really great, too, about this Murder Quartet and the fact that I was able to write so much so quickly is that it helped me lock into what the full story is before I was influenced by anyone on the outside.

And this is not…Like, let me make this very clear: I am not saying you should never brainstorm or share your ideas with someone else. No. Some people absolutely need to right from the get go. To shoot ideas off of someone. You know, bounce it off, see what comes back. Share.

I am just not that person. I need to sit in my little goop of map, voice and moodboard until I fully hear the character and I follow that character where they need to go. I can’t have the input of other people because it interferes with the character.

And that might be—to use, you know, strength language (thanks, Becca Syme! Again!)—my Empathy, which gets very overwhelmed by other people’s emotions.

I feel what everyone else in the world is feeling at all times. And so that’s another reason why I can’t write unless I’m by myself for the most part—because I can’t shut down what other people are feeling. I feel what they’re feeling. And if I’m going to tap into my character fully and pour their emotions onto the page, I cannot have any other external input.

My child certainly cannot be in the same room. Sometimes if she’s, like, got her headphones on and is watching a movie on her iPad, I can do it. It really depends on how locked into a character I am. But if I’m just maybe at the very beginning, or like with something as complicated as the last Witchlands boo…

No, Mama needs to be alone. Put Susan in her office, make everybody leave, then I can get it—then I can get into the right character space.

And so now that I know that about myself (again, thank you to Becca Syme) and have worked hard at that and creating sort of ideal conditions for my own writing and my own fluid flow, I know that I need to write as much as possible before I even tell anybody else that I have this idea.

Because the input of other people messes with my own certainty. My own sense…or connection, perhaps is a better word, to the story. I start to get…

It’s like radio interference. It’s like static comes crackling through and I no longer see the heart and character and voice—and even world and vibe—that I was so initially excited to write.

And so now, I know: write in secret as far as you can. And only when I am truly stuck, stuck, then stop, maybe ask for help. The farther I can get, though, before I do that, the better.

And the other thing, too, like what’s been really great about this Murder Quartet, is that writing so much of the books up front means I figured out the story. I know what the story is.

Yes, I may not know how it all wraps up at the end, but I know whodunit. The world is fully locked in, the characters, their arc—it’s well on its way. It’s just now a matter of committing. You know, sitting down and working through some of the crunchier planning, less pantsing stuff.

And there’s no…While I absolutely will take editorial feedback and critique partner feedback, there’s no worrying that I am… The book can’t be tainted because I have written enough now that my own certainty in the story is committed on the page.

I don’t have to worry that what someone else thinks is going to interfere with that and then disrupt the drafting process for me.

Which is another thing that made sequels hard for me, right? Because I’m already multiple books in. The reception of readers really impacted my ability to create or not create. And I’ve talked about that as well with like how difficult Witchlight…or yeah, Witchlight was because of the reception to Witchshadow—which wasn't even bad, but there was the one reader who didn’t like it. And that that just messed me up (which I will link to that as well).

And then the other thing that’s been really sort of eye-opening and helpful for me to learn with this Murder Quartet is the joy that I have taken from writing it. Because, guys, it is just so much joy! I can’t even convey it to you.

And that is me saying that when I was going through truly horrible personal experience during the months of February, March…I guess it was March, April, and May. Horrible, okay? Just rough. I will talk about it another time, not today.

And I yet, still, I was able to like eke out these moments. I'm actually getting emotional. When I was able to write the third book, the spring book Three Mollys in Well, that were for me—and that were separate.

You know, it’s these precious moments where I was locked in to my character and I was trying to figure out whodunit and following the romance, following the murders, following this really cool setting that I loved...Just sort of soaking in those vibes, the spring vibes of this world I built…

And those were precious. Those were precious hours. The two and a half, three weeks I spent working on that book were amazing and helped me get through some very, very tough personal times.

And so knowing how much that did for me—there’s no price you can put on that. If I never sell this Murder Quartet, if they never get published, fine. I’ll give them to readers for free, if I need to (if, you know, if there seems to be an interest out there). But no one can take those hours away from me. Those many hours I spent writing. And that is incredible.

So. There are many books, of course, that I have written that were due and I needed to turn in in order to get paid. I still need to get paid. I have a family. I have bills. I can’t just not…Like, I can’t just exist off freewriting for the rest of my life. Obviously, mama needs to pay her bills for her child. (My child also has, you know, medical concerns that are not cheap to manage. I have stuff that is not cheap to manage.) So these are all things that I have to take very seriously.

But to be able to additionally tap into a place of joy while I am drafting instead of existing in the soup of terror that was my life during the Witchlands. Because I felt so much stress, right? To get that right, I built such a complicated, long-reaching world with a payoff that really mattered to me and promises that I needed to keep because I wanted to get right for the readers.

That stress of wanting to perform and pull it off for the readers was immense. It really was. And it made some of the writing not fun. I can’t deny it. There were moments where the terror of getting words down fast enough was extreme. And getting money to get food on the table, to pay my mortgage, these were all things that absolutely weigh in.

So to be able to shift to this Murder Quartet—which, yes, I did write Two for Joy when I was still working on Witchlight, as well as Executioners Three. I just sort of stole a two and a half week period there where I hammered this out. And it was glorious and beautiful and it honestly…

All of that has restored my faith in my own ability to write and to write for joy (which maybe is appropriate, given the title Two for Joy). But I didn’t know I could do that still.

And that’s not to say, too, that there were no moments of joy writing Witchlight. I am proud of that book. I think it is—not to sound completely full of myself—but I think it is a craft effin’ masterpiece. I used every single thing I know and have learned in the last 15 years of publishing, which is…more years. How many years? 16 years of actually writing seriously.

I used everything. And I am so proud of what I pulled off—or what I think I’ve pulled off in that book (readers will decide, of course)—but I know that that is like tip top, maximum peak craft in a book. Everything I know. And I am fucking proud of it.

But to be able to then write these much easier, smaller standalone books —and just savor them and enjoy every minute that their characters, Magpie and Kitty, their voices poured out of me. Ah, it felt so good. And it restored my own faith in this career choice. And in my abilities.

Like, “Oh, okay, you do have this like built-in algorithm that’s going to guide you through how to write a book. And when you’re not doing sequels where you have to reckon with, you know, five previous enormous books filled with plot twists and character arcs—and all you’re doing is a single book…Oh, yeah, Sooz. Yoou actually actually do know what you’re doing. Not bad!”

And so whatever comes with this Murder Quartet, whether they sell, whether they don’t, I got so much out of them. I got so much out of them at a personal level that how can I regret that, you know?

And it’s taught me too, how I want to move forward. I don’t….I’m not going to write off sequels in like series. In fact, one of the books that I’ve been chipping away at for years now is definitely…I’m looking at it as like a three, a trilogy of novellas. So there you go. Another trilogy!

But now that I also understand how my brain works and how my writing brain specifically works, I don’t have to be frustrrated with myself when sequels take longer.

They just will take longer, Susan, and that’s okay because you don’t write them the same way. You write by character and when the character is locked into plot decisions that came in previous installments…GAH. Then it becomes problem solving—and that slows you down, versus a standalone or a first book, where I can just go where the characters take me.

So, yes, I have so many works in progress on my hard drive, so it’s been really fun, you know, since this sort of burst of confidence, burst of writing passion that has filled me, to pull those out and try to apply what I know.

Like one book that I actually shared the prologue to (and I will link to that as well). It went through a few iterations because (now I know this about myself) the original iteration, I tried to sell just based on proposal with a really detailed outline.

Yeah, I can’t do that. I can’t just write an outline because it steals all the joy for me. And when I sit down to write the scenes, what’s the fun in this? I've been here. I don’t care. Now, what? Now I just have to write them making the choice that I already figured out and that maybe, now that I’m in their head, they wouldn’t even make. Ugh.

So I have since learned I can’t write that way, which is another reason I wrote so much of the Murder Quartet up front—so that then the story is figured out. I don’t have to sell based on some tiny, little, you know, a chapter or two and then I’m locked into some outline. Instead, it's already figured out. “Here you go. You read it. You decide if you like it or not, editors.”

And so I, with this book, Alchemist in the Nightsong, I had done that years ago. It killed it. So I set aside for a long time until I was feeling the spark again, pulled it out. I wrote like 60,000 words in a flurry of inspiration.

They were terrible, though. And like, I don’t…Not all terrible words are unfixable. In fact, many are quite fixable, but this one I knew, even as I was writing it, I was like, “This isn’t going to work. None of this is going to work. This isn’t actually what I want the book to be, but I'm enjoying this, so I’m just going to keep going.”

And that’s fine. I got pretty far (like 60,000 words) and realized like, you know, “Everything I think I know about this book is wrong and now I’ve written a draft that is kind of incoherent because I’m figuring it as I go. And I like these new characters I’ve discovered, and okay, set it aside.”

So I set it aside again. And then, like, a year later, a year and a half later, I pulled it out one more time and I started over. And this time, it was the right version. It was the right story. But I was only able to write like 20,000 words before I hit a wall. And as mentioned before, when I hit a wall, I set it aside.

Plus I had many deadlines then. I was still working on The Hunting Moon, and I was still working on Witchlight, oh my gosh. So it was, it was not, it was fine. It was fine to set it aside and not work on it (and only sort of look at it every now and then when I was feeling it). But I couldn’t give it all my focus to figure out why things weren’t working and what I needed to do next to take my character where she needed to go next.

But now, now that I know all that know, I have pulled it out. And I have made sure that I have a map, which I do. (I actually already had a map.)

I already know my character, right? Because I've written 20,000 words in her voice and in another POV character. So I know them. But what's missing from my little trifecta? Oh yeah, mood board. So that’s my next thing I’m going to do. I’m going to make a mood board.

(I did actually send it to my wonderful, amazing beta reader, Rachel, and was like, what do you think? Can you tell me what you think would come next? Because I’ve written some stuff, but I’m not sure it’s working. And she read it. And actually what I had written to come next does work, but I could see…I saw why I was stuck.)

And so now, thanks to her help and trusting myself—like, what I had written before actually does work!—I am now once more churning forward on this book. Albeit slowly, but churning forward. And that’s exciting!

It’s much, it’s crunchy fantasy. It’s very different from the Murder Quartet. It’s more in the line with the Witchlands. We’ve got conflicts, world building. We've got gods, magic. It’s definitely nothing like Earth—not like our Earth, I should say. There’s, you know, actual earth and sky and animals. But, I mean, our world.

So, yeah, it’s, I am trying to take all of the lessons that I learned sort of by chance with the Murder Quartet and apply them. And continue to just trust that I do know what I’m doing. My algorithm is well defined and well built at this point. I don’t have to get feedback from anyone else (until I feel that I need it—or want it, I should say. Not that I need, but that I want it). I don’t have to tell anyone else about my ideas until I want to.

And I can write hard stuff, but enjoy the process. These two things are not mutually exclusive. We do not have to punish ourselves just because we want to write books and get paid.

In fact, there is no virtue in making yourself miserable. And that doesn’t mean you won’t make yourself miserable writing a book. Some of the hardest times in my life, which I talked about in that very, the very first thing I’m linking to below were when my books weren’t going well.

And yes, oftentimes when my books are going very, very badly, it’s because my life is also in upheaval. And the two—going back to my Empathy—they are inextricably linked. I cannot disconnect those. But just because I am feeling good also doesn’t mean what I’m doing is wrong.

Sometimes there will be punishing moments; it is the nature of deadlines; it is the nature of wanting to be paid for your art and working hard to be paid for your art.

It is the nature of having to write through tough times in your life because you do need to get paid and readers are expecting it.

There's no way you can escape that. No job is perfect. No job has only happy moments and in fact, I would say most jobs are majority challenging moments. But those moments of joy that I get from it—when I have these two and a half week bursts of glorious writing…Oh my gosh, they go so far to offset the hard parts.

Or the parts that I’m not very good at. You know, the administrative side, keeping up with emails, promoting myself, remembering to include pre-order links, blah, blahdyboo.

(Oh my gosh, I should probably put a pre-order link here as well. You know. Yeah.)

That stuff that is just not natural for me and not necessarily the fun part. There is reward to be had when I find those moments of like, “Oh my gosh, this book! I’m having so much fun writing this and discovering where they’re going! And I don’t know where they’re going. This is so exciting. And oooh, are they going to kiss?”

It feels amazing. It feels amazing. And as I continue to learn more about my own process and apply it, I can only hope that each book will get…I don’t think they will get easier. You know, I’m not going to pretend that Alchemist is easier to write because again, we’re talking high fantasy. It’s crunchy, it’s gritty, and it’s complicated. And so it takes me more stop, start, stop, start, think, pause, think, figure out, how do I make this all line up?

But that doesn’t mean there are no moments of enjoying it and leaning into those moments of enjoying it. And it doesn’t mean also that I can’t use what I know about myself—and following my characters and not talking about my ideas until I’ve reached a point of inner certainty. Those are all valid and useful for me to know, to make maybe not the book easy, but easier than it would have been for Susan of, you know, five years ago. 10 years ago, certainly.

So this was a very long answer to your question, Lisa, about sort of the creation of the Murder Quartet. But there was so much that I learned about myself along the way. And I don’t know. Wish me luck, guys. Let’s hope somebody buys it and that readers enjoy them if a publisher does in fact purchase them and decide to print them.

And yeah, thanks for being here. Thanks for supporting me and the list, the Misfits and Daydreamers. If you would be so kind as to sling a pre-order my way, you know, add Witchlight or The Executioners Three to your shopping cart, I would be beyond grateful.

It’s weird having two books come out so close together, especially because they are so completely different. The Executioners Three is very much in line with the Luminaries trilogy. And even my debut, Something Strange and Deadly, in that it’s firmly teen and, you know, it’s an alternate version of our universe.

Meanwhile, the Witchlands is the Witchlands. It is high fantasy, sweeping, epic, many books, many characters. It is everything that I love most in fantasy, you know, crammed into one enormous series. And I am really effing proud, if you didn't pick up on that earlier, of the conclusion—and I hope fans, Witchlanders out there, all enjoy it.

So if you're a fan and you’ve read the other books, please, I would really, greatly appreciate a Witchlight pre-order. And yeah, of course, with The Executioners Three as well.

If you pre-order in the U.S., you can get the hardcover, you automatically get the printed edges, which is pretty cool. And there might be something beautiful inside, too. I shall say nothing more.

And then the UK edition, of course, we have Waterstone Special edition, which is awesome. And, I mean, just gorgeous, like gorgeous, the printed edges (or sprayed edges, I guess they are over there). And then also the Illumicrate edition. So I will link to all of that.

And yeah, thank you again for listening. I will be back with more soon. À bientôt!

Some of you may have noticed I paused subscriptions a week ago. I have been through some incredibly difficult stuff in the past two months. I’m not ready to talk about what that stuff is. In fact, only a handful of people know what’s been going on for me.

Normally, I’m extremely transparent about the challenges I face—it’s my nature to overshare. Not to mention, I think it’s important people know that real life isn’t made of highlight reels. (Believe it or not, most of us aren’t drinking perfect lattes, eating avocado toast, or living in magazine-worthy houses! Gasp!)

But…this time around, I just don’t have it in me to share. It’s been an extremely long two and a half years of tragedy and challenge for our family, and these last two months were a real “kick her while she’s down” situation.

I need to remove stuff from my plate. The easiest thing to pause is this substack. (With two books releasing this fall, I can’t pause so you can still get updates and info over there from me.)

I apologize as well for being vague here, but I did want to give at least a little explanation for the why behind it. (Oversharer, remember?)

I’ll be back.

Hopefully sooner rather than later.

And hey, in good news, we adopted a puppy last week! She’s a mutt of adorable scruffiness and good nature, and it is such a joy to have a canine presence in the house again.

It took me over a year to heal from losing both my dogs last year, but I saw this girly and knew right away she had to come home with us. 🥹

Before I go, if you want more writing advice and content, I’ve got a 25% off coupon for you to use on the Susan Dennard Writing Academy.

Just plug in ACADEMY25 at checkout, and then you’ll get access to all of the courses, hundreds of essays and newsletters from the last…erm…15? years, and a guidebook on query letters too.

Plus, I do plan to finish up the “Facing Fears in Your Creative Life” workshop soon. (You’ll see that it already had a few lessons—and more are on the way as soon as I find the time to upload them.)

Thanks for your patience and understanding, friends.

And of course, because it’s my job, here are links to preorder my upcoming titles…if you feel like it. No pressure to support, of course.

I’m just glad you’re here.

Pre-Order TE3 (US, with printed edges!)

Pre-Order TE3 (UK)

Pre-order Witchlight (US)

Pre-order Witchlight (UK)

I’ll be back again soon, fellow writers. All the love to you.

💚 - Sooz

As you all know, if you’ve followed me for long, I am someone who firmly believes writer’s block is a thing, and I’m someone whose process even relies on it to produce anything of quality.

I hit blockage constantly.

If I’m really in a drafting zone, then I’ll hit it daily. I get stuck; what I planned to write no longer works; I can’t see what needs to happen; I freak out and stop writing.

Sometimes I stop writing for only a few hours before I “see” the path forward. Sometimes I stop for years. (Yes, years.)

What I have discovered, after writing millions of words and publishing fourteen novels (plus some short stories in there too), is that I tend to make the same mistakes every single time.

I get stuck for the same reasons every single time. And somehow, every single time, I forget that these are the reasons I always get stuck.

So the purpose of today’s post is twofold:

1. I want to share my “stuck points” in case they are an issue for you as well,

2. And I want to cement these “stuck points” in my own mind, so maybe in the future, I remember to turn to this list before I start spinning my wheels and freaking out.

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1. Personal stakes

One of my most common causes of “stuckery”—especially at the beginning of a book—is an absence of personal stakes.

In other words: what does the main character stand to lose if they don’t achieve their goal?

Sure, I might have some obvious world-ending stakes and a villain that’s clearly up to no good, but if there’s no personal investment for my main character, then it doesn’t matter how big the other stakes are.

Think about it: at end of the day, most people don’t save the world simply because it’s the right thing to do. They save the world to save the people they love.

And for me, if I can’t see what the personal stake is for my main character, then I simply can’t see/feel/connect with any reason for them to make the life-threatening (or maybe reputation-threatening) choices that will get the plot moving.

On top of that, including personal stakes allows the reader to form a connection with the character. We simply care more if we know that the characters stands to lose something personally important to them.

A recent example of this for me showed up in a detective mystery I’m writing.

My detective was assigned the case, and so she was going about her due diligence to catch the murderer. Find clue, follow clue, find new clue. It was fine, but there wasn’t any forward thrust. There was no reason beyond a general whodunit to keep reading.

And sure! Whodunits can be interesting all on their own, but if you layer in personal stakes, then, ah! It makes for a much more propulsive story.

So I ended up adding that my detective had been recently demoted after a case went badly. Now she has to solve this case in order to restore her reputation.

Which means now I have personal stakes. Now there’s more than just “trying to find the killer” that guides Claudia’s every decision; she also needs to find the killer to prove she’s the best at this gig and get her old job back.

2. A desperate desire

Desperate desires are an extension of personal stakes, but they are taking those personal stakes and making them desperate.

So desperate, in fact, that the character will make some bad—maybe even morally shady—choices to achieve what they desire.

E.g. the character’s little sister will die if my MC doesn’t achieve their goal, and as such, no choice is out of the question to save her.

To go back to my detective example: Claudia is now so desperate to prove she’s the best—because her screwup not only meant she lost her job, but it also dinged her entire self-image as the best detective in town—that she’s willing to cut corners to get there.

Is that the best for the whodunit? No! In fact, it’s actively bad… But that’s what desperation does: it adds conflict and tension to the tale.

I can always tell if a desire isn’t desperate enough because I lose track of what my character will do next. It feels like a bike tire that’s losing all its air. My character just goes pffffffft on the page. I lose sight of what they’d choose next and why.

But when the desire is DESPERATE. Oh, then it’s clear. They will do almost anything, no matter the risk, and that means there are myriad choices to pluck from.

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3. A clear motivation that the reader never questions

I have a rule I always try to follow in my fiction: if I have to use more than a sentence or two to explain why a character is making their current choice, then it’s the wrong choice.

Character motivation should always be obvious to the reader.

In other words, the reader should know—because of personal stakes + the desperate desire—why a character is doing what they are doing at any given time. And if it takes me paragraphs to explain that motivation, then that means the motivation is wrong.

It means, in fact, that I’m making my character do something they wouldn’t do.

This is one of my most frequent causes of stuckery in later parts of a draft! A character has behaved out of character somewhere, doing something for the sake of my outline instead of for the sake of their desire. Whenever this happens, I go back to the “bad” decision and start anew—even if that means cutting a lot of words. 🥲

Now this isn’t to say you should never explain a character’s reasons. Mysteries in particular will require some on-the-page explanation of how Clue X leads to Clue Y and why the character is opting to explore Clue Z right now instead of Clue W.

But, the pursuit of the case and the choices they make to pursue that case should always be obvious. The reader should understand from page one why the character is willing to take the risks they’re taking.

You don’t ever want a reader to say, Huh, why is she doing that?

Nor do you want to bog a reader down with six pages of explanation. If it’s the “right” choice, it’ll inherently make sense to the reader.

A really easy example of this from one of my own books is in The Luminaries: Winnie is desperate to restore her family to the society they’ve been cast out from. And it’s not just for her own sake, but for her brother’s and mom’s as well.

I establish the crappiness of their circumstances in chapter one + I state Winnie’s desperate desire openly (get back in the Luminaries). Therefore, every decision that follows—including some very bad and dangerous ones—has clear context and focus.

Because we know how shitty her life is (and how shitty it is for her brother and mom too), we understand why there is no cost too high. I never have to explain to the reader why she’s choosing what she chooses.

So there you have it! Those are the usual three culprits behind my drafting blockage.

The first two—personal stakes and a desperate desire—most frequently crop up early in a manuscript. I’ll hit the end of Act 1, and pfffffft. There goes all the bike tire’s air.

Meanwhile, muddy motivation and characters behaving out of character are more often a culprit later in the draft. I have clear desires and stakes, but now my character is acting in opposition to those simply because I liked the look of it on my outline.

So if you find yourself stuck, maybe look at your own characters and see what you’re working with. Perhaps the stakes aren’t personal enough or the desire isn’t desperate enough, or maybe your protagonist zigged left when they definitely should have zagged right.

And don’t be afraid to cut words!

I often cut as many words from my manuscripts as I actually commit to the page. This no longer bothers me; every word—kept or cut—is a necessary stepping stone to reach the Right Story.

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Now you tell me: what are the most frequent culprits for blockage in your own stories?

💚 - Sooz

It’s been almost a year since the last critique partner meetup, and as social media subsumes more and more social networks, I feel like it’s getting harder and harder to find early readers + connect with fellow writers.

So, if you’re in need of a secondary reader, share the following in a comment:

• Title (or working title, code name! Just something for easy reference)

• Genre (e.g. fantasy, mystery, romance—get specific, if you can, with subgeneres too)

• Reading level (e.g. adult, YA, MG)

• Word count

• What you’re looking for in a reader (e.g. a quick gut check, a thorough editorial pass, a cheerleader to read as you write)

If you see someone’s project that interests you, leave a reply and figure out how to get in touch outside the comments section. ☺️

Oh, and I highly recommend that no one share their ENTIRE manuscript right away. Treat this like dating! Only share a few chapters initially, so you can get a feeling for how your writing and critiquing styles align. If the connection is there, keep sharing! If the connection ain’t there…then no hard feelings. Better to be honest that your styles don’t match than to keep reading when neither of you is enjoying it.

Now, happy reading and connecting, friends! 😘

P.S. It’s the last few days to enter the sweepstakes for an advanced reader copy of The Executioners Three!

The Worlds of Susan Dennard

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