With kitten season in full swing, I was gifted with some very sweet fosters who entered my life about a month ago! Sugar, Ganache, and Nibsy have already found homes! It won’t be long before Cocoa and Meringue are scooped up. I will be sad to see them go, but I know there are others out there waiting.

I’ve been toying with starting another anthology – possibly one for children. I haven’t talked with my international friends yet. I know we all have so little time lately!

After nearly 6 years I have returned to dance. I thought I was done. I didn’t want the “stress” of dancing in front of people. Yet, in my heart, I always missed dancing with other women. There’s something so amazing about dancing alongside others. So, I have joined a new troupe and have been attending regular practices again. It’s been wonderful! I’m glad I did it.

Work on my own WIP has been insanely slow. I’ve put a hold on edits of the trilogy to work on nailing down the world building and rearranging notes. I have a tendency of letting my info documents become unruly. With all 3 books drafted and the first nearly done in revisions, strong organization is required. It is nearly comical how often I forget I’ve already answered a question that pops into my revising brain… Wasting time finding an answer, only to discover later I’ve already had that same thought and pieced together how to solve it and written it down in one of my chaotic note files. So, here I am, spending weeks on fixing my files and notes and forcing myself to make some decisions.

To my pantser writer friends not far into a series, may I suggest to you the following to avoid my mistakes:

1. Make notes AS YOU GO. Make it a rule. To make it easier on yourself, open a notepad (paper or computer/phone program) whenever you sit down to write. Jot stuff down as you are writing. At the end of your session, move those items into their intended documents (see below). If for whatever reason you run out of time to move them at the end, make sure it is the first thing you do upon your next writing session!

2. Make documents for:
(1) chapter summaries/notes by chapter (each document should be one book and all its chapters)
(2) characters (as big as yours MCs and as small as a briefly mentioned servant who was given a name)
(3) places (as big as an entire continent, down to the description of a room)
(4) general planning, ideas, and notes – these will be for the big overall encompassing ideas. If it’s chapter or book specific, move it to that spot!
(5) an encyclopedia of fauna, flora, in-world items, in-world terms, food, religions/philosophies, and so forth
(6) Magic systems& magical items (if needed)

3. Do not, for the love of all the gods and goddesses, DO NOT believe yourself when you say you’ll do it later. When you are pantsing – things get crazy and fast! Future you will love current you if you keep the mess of your brain organized!

And that’s all I got for today. Have anything to add? Tips or tricks? Let me know!

Remember: adopt don’t shop, dance whenever you feel like it, and write with reckless abandon.

Love ya’ll!
-Holly