Funny story! I’m writing this from a cafe, on an old MacBook that desperately needs updates, because my usual computer has decided to turn its battery into a fire hazard.
What a way to cap off an eventful month.
To start things off, I went into May not really feeling it. Mood down, impostor syndrome at its peak, real “can I really do this” vibes going on.
And then, towards the end of QuestPit, it happened: my very first industry like.
For those of you who don’t know, pitch events used to be these grand events you got into because you wanted to court agents and smaller publishers. You put your best foot forward with a polished pitch, an eye-grabbing graphic, the whole works, and you waited while scores of agents swept through and told you they wanted your work. BOOM, a handy list of agents to query, dropped right into your lap. There were tales of debut authors getting their starts from pitch events. It was a whole thing.
But Twitter took a turn for the worse, and slightly related, agents and small pubs got burned out by pitch events. So between both of those, you stopped seeing industry participation. But pitch events continued. They just turned into writing events for us.
Bsky is still very active and rife with writing events, but whenever a pitch event swings around, it’s like everyone comes out in droves, in one giant block party for writing. You get to see what everyone else is doing, you get to see people root for you, and you get to pick up tips that help you refine the pitch you’ll eventually stick into query packages. To me, it’s not super serious. It’s just an opportunity to practice and connect. That’s all.
So I was not at all expecting enthusiastic feedback for The Nameless Song from an industry pro, let alone a Big 5 editor. I’m still filled with nervous energy, nearly a month later, and I’m impatient for getting this draft over and done with so I can move on to the next draft and then back to the betas.
Downside is life keeps happening. In some ways, it’s good. I’m going out more often and meeting people I hadn’t seen in forever seemingly every other weekend. Work is still keeping me busy, but it’s getting easier, and the overtime’s welcome. It’s just that I haven’t had as much time to write, but the summer’s young.
Either way . . .
Writing Update
. . . we’re going to finish this draft by November. That I’m going to promise. I mean, hopefully sooner, but we’re currently about halfway through this draft. I realize I write slow as molasses, but going into the summer, I’m not really planning on anything as wild as everything that’s happened this month, as you’ll likely see in the next session. Hence, I’d like to devote as much time as I can to getting as far as I can, so that November, I can begin the arduous process of transcribing (I’m writing this draft by hand in a growing collection of Midori MD notebooks), filling in the details, and editing all at once. Hopefully by next year, we’ll be ready for our next and final (I’m putting my foot down this time) round of betas.
In terms of the actual story, it’s actually taken a hard left from anything I was doing in the last draft. A little pun intended, given, uh.
Have a skeet that summarizes what’s going on in this arc:
[Skeet by Jax that reads:
Miryam: “And how will you feed the dragons, when we only have farmland set up for only us?”
Mick: “We’ll introduce a social program.”
Minister: “Ah, you’re proposing to use the newcomers’ extra magic to expand the farmland.”
Mick: “I was proposing to use communism, but sure, that too.”]
P.S. Follow me on Bluesky.
Anyway, the main point is, probably as an extension to the last letter, I had yet another breakthrough with Mick’s character. And honestly, I’m not mad. The longer I work on this draft, the more this feels like his story: a cohesive thing that traces a journey that was supposed to be his from the beginning. Yes, yes, Eleanor is excellent too, and absolutely, I’m a little wary that she’s getting so little screentime this time around (we’ve yet to place all the internal monologue, so she feels less important right now than she probably will end up being, I say to assure myself), but let’s be honest with each other. The Nameless Song was always centered around Mick’s transformation. Any other book in the series can be about someone else, but this book is supposed to be Mick’s.
Which is to say I was wary about redoing the plot from the ground up, but not gonna lie . . . it’s turning into this stronger piece because of it. I think the betas were right about this, and I’m delighted to watch it happen.
That said, the Hard Left Turn is actually making Mick a lot more fun to write, because as it turns out, he’s responsible, level-headed, and very keen on returning to the shadows of obscurity whence he came, sure, but he’s also sly as hell when it comes to getting people to do what he wants. Probably from years of herding customers, but hey. Take a look at this excerpt, for example, which is from the moment Mick lowkey nudges the queen of the dragons into agreeing with him:
Mick: “Not trying to antagonize you. Just making an observation.” [glances back to the refugees] “Look, it wouldn’t be right of me to tell you how to run your people; I’m an outsider. But where will you send them if they’re not staying here?”
Miryam: “We will find a safe place.”
Mick: “Where? Not in Eldana. You heard them. You’ll be sending them back out to be slaughtered.”
Miryam: “If we give the wandering dragons a hint that Sanctuary will welcome them back, then each dragon who demands a return portal risks exposing our location. It is for our protection.”
Mick: “Every living being has a right to safety. What if it was you out there?”
Miryam: “What would you do, then? Expose us?”
Mick: “I told you. Outsider. Can’t solve this for you.”
Miryam: “Yet you seem keen on meddling anyway.”
[Mick tilts his head. Then paces.]
Mick: “We’d organize.”
Like I said. Hard Left Turn.
Also like I said, this is the middle of the book. Right now, we’re still operating on a five-act structure, but it’s a lot stronger. At the moment, it looks a little like this:
Pre-transformation
Post-transformation/Faelen Woods
Sanctuary ← We are here.
Meadowlark
[Spoiler]/final battle
Right now, Sanctuary’s all about getting the worldbuilding out of the way and establishing Mick as a leader of the dragons, hence all of the posts focused on him. It still feels a little slow, but we’re almost out of the Sanctuary arc, which means we’re going into a more action-heavy part of the book. At that point, I’m sure it’ll be a fast run towards the ending. Or we end up over 125k again. We’ll see!
That all said, a final update: I’ll go into this in a bit more detail under Looking Forward, but the long of it is that AO3 had gotten scraped by bots again. This was inevitable, but what makes me hesitate to leave anything there is that included on the list was a bunch of old fics of mine that were locked to members only to avoid being scraped. This tells me there are security issues, and honestly, it’s not a great place to leave anything original that you want to keep.
This is relevant because the 90s AU of TNS is there, and that’s something I do want to keep. Yes, it’s old and a first draft (meaning things that would be important to characters—the death of Mick’s father and Eleanor’s status as a noble even here, for example—didn’t get figured out until halfway through), but there’s still a lot that it did right. So right, in fact, that I think it was a stronger story than the last draft of TNS. As such, I’ve decided that during the summer, I’ll be cleaning up that story and posting it to Beehiiv, partly for posterity, partly to get it off a platform where it’s not safe, and partly to study it so I can put the spirit of its best parts into TNS. I’m not sure when the first chapter will drop just yet, but when it does, we’re looking at a post rate of once a week.
Looking Forward
June
True to form, Bsky is doing something for Pride! #LGBTQWriteAThon, hosted by @amaralynn, is making its grand return, and you bet I’ll be there for the entire month. Additionally, if the stars align (read: my computer comes back from the shop in time), I’ll also be hitting up JoyPit with my little hopepunk spin on ace romantasy on June 6.
As far as I know, these are Bsky’s only major writing events (that I fit into) going on in June, but in any case, I’d like to focus a little more on writing this coming month anyway. We’re aiming to hit the Meadowlark arc by the end of the month.
July
Drafting continues. In order to keep up momentum, I’m very likely to bring back 30 Days, 30 Lines as well, but again, this is still tentative. If it happens, you’ll very likely hear from me mid-month.
Additionally, I’d like to begin cleaning up the 90s AU as an occasional break, with the first chapter dropping mid-month.
August–Septembeer
Drafting continues. We’re aiming to hit the [SPOILERS] arc by the end of August, with the final arc in full swing for Jax’s Birthday Month. 90s AU will also continue dropping chapters, coincidentally through its own second birthday and onward towards Halloween.
Pic of the Month
If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading! Before you go, I’ve decided to introduce one last section of the newsletter: a pic from whatever adventures I’d had the month before.
Okay, this might be an excuse to show off the new writing partner, if only because it was funny on Bsky. And also, apparently, cute things are a motivator and a writing inspiration. (Remind me to talk about the new bee people next month.)
[A plush honeybee sits on an open notebook with its front legs wrapped around a pen. The page it’s sitting on is full of writing; the one it’s poking a pen onto is blank.]
His name is Beenjamin. Yes, this is vital to understanding the vibe we’re giving off here. Yes, that is Notebook #2 out of ??? for this draft of TNS. Yes, this is how I live my life.
As always, thanks for reading! Don’t forget to keep an eye on Bluesky for minor updates between the hefty monthly ones.