I met him at a cat café. I'd only been to it a couple of times, usually not as long as I'd like. This time, however, I had the time. After I finished a sandwich and my tea, I washed my hands and went into the cat play area. There were a bunch of kittens … Continue reading I Had My Heart Broken
Trying to Keep Going
When everything changes, you have to keep going anyway. That's what we're learning from these last few months, I think. It's what I'm trying to apply to my novel, too. When I first started writing SC, I had no expectations of myself or my novel. Those were the days. I remember reaching Chapter 6 and … Continue reading Trying to Keep Going
Staying Motivated in a Pandemic
Like many others, I've struggled to find the motivation to do any work deemed unnecessary while in quarantine. In the beginning, I sort of depended on the work left over from Super Roommates to get myself out of bed and feel productive. When that ran out, I started working on my novel, although that was … Continue reading Staying Motivated in a Pandemic
Writing Fiction in a Pandemic
Writing about characters who aren't social distancing is actually a bit difficult. This is a side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic that I must admit I did not expect. I just wrote about a boy who comes up to stand next to a girl and I hesitated because alarms went off in my brain. It's … Continue reading Writing Fiction in a Pandemic
The Decadal Book
This blog started off has a way to document my daily adventures abroad in university, but it was also very much a place where I wrote about writing. It was such a part of this blog in fact that I didn't even have a category for all the posts about my book and instead I … Continue reading The Decadal Book
Lake Minnewanka
As I worked on the pitch for my web series, I realized that even though I'd put my novel writing on hold, I didn't want to give up the story entirely. It wasn't going to be as easy to pick my novel back up as it was to put down. A story has peaks and … Continue reading Lake Minnewanka
Writer Burnout
I didn't really consider it my resolution, but around January 1st, I got fed up with how long SC, my big bad book, was taking to finish. My—well, my resolution, to this issue was to write 500 words before bed every day so I'd finish it faster. And for the first week, with the help of … Continue reading Writer Burnout
Nearly Nine Years
When I approached the counter of the Starbucks I'm currently writing this from, the barista, Michelle, greeted me by name. This Starbucks is across the city from where I live, so this was slightly concerning. However, it's five minutes from Heritage Park where I've been going to rehearsal five times a week for the last … Continue reading Nearly Nine Years
A Writing Update
After I plotted two books beginning to end, I thought I'd write them a lot faster. Instead, I seem to be writing at the same pace as I've always written, and due to my limited time, my word count has grown at an even slower pace than it did when I wrote the first draft … Continue reading A Writing Update
I Plotted Two Novels Today
I was supposed to be editing after I got home from some meetings last night, but instead I looked up a few articles about plotting—and, more specifically, about plotting an ending—and then the end of SC (my big bad book) popped into my head. “But Ivy,” you might say, “didn’t you finish the first draft … Continue reading I Plotted Two Novels Today
Precarious Writer 