Happy Thanksgiving! ~ November Update

My little sister was shocked to find out that we don't actually go out and hunt the turkey ourselves for thanksgiving dinner. We had never done that before but for some reason she thought it was tradition that everyone goes out and hunt a turkey for thanksgiving dinner haha.

On other news, I have been having SUCH a busy month! I've done a couple of events and presented my business to strangers. I've been inspired by Richard Paul Evans my new author mentor, (he is one of the nicest human beings ever!) And of course the everyday going to work, going to school, doing homework, spending time with my family and friends, and *trying* to accomplish my monthly writing goal of doing NaNoWriMo and posting weekly videos on my YouTube account!

Hint: I've been struggling...

I've sent my book back to my book editor for the copy edit stage so now I'm working on drafting my next book and so far I've written 13,074 words just this month which is good! ...But also not so good when my personal goal for the month of November is to write 40,000 words. The hardest part of drafting a whole new story is that I'm still trying to figure out the story for myself. My writing process includes some prep work but mainly pansting my way through the book (pantsing means I usually don't plot out my book expect for the major plot points and important bits of my story). And it's been a struggle because I am a perfectionist but Nation Writing Month is just getting words down on the page even if it feels like garbage. Which I believe it's not total trash, but it's FAR from what I hope from what I want this story to be.

A big struggle is figuring out my main character, his name is Louis and I'm trying something different with character flaws but I feel like that's not coming across in my writing... I'm sure you all know what I am going to be asking my author mentor in the next call.

But there are other aspects that are super fun about this project! Like it's a brand new magic system from my first book which is interesting to explore. Plus there are so many different kinds of creatures, settings, and world building to do that is MUCH different from my first novel that I wrote. Including creating a currency system that my first novel didn't have because it never was really needed in the story. Meanwhile in this book, money is everything.

It's still a young adult fantasy but it's so much different than from my first novel. My main characters are from our day and age, taken into another realm that is like the early 1900's but if magical creatures ruled the world instead of humans.

I know that with time, hard work, and dedication, I'll figure out this story and fall in love with like I did my first novel, and make it better and better with each draft. The first draft is just the first big hurdle in the writing process.

Aside from this book, earlier this year I also started drafting my sequel to my first novel that I'm currently editing. I feel confident that I want to write it and make it into a trilogy but there's a part of me that doubts if my first novel will flop and no one would care about a second book. And as much as I want to write it anyways, I also have to consider the time and money investment that this book will be for me. I am not sure how book 1 will do and so I'm slightly terrified at the thought of spend 100's of hours and 1000's of dollars to produce a sequel to my book if there aren't any readers interested in it. But for now, I'm going to be working on this new book. I got more than enough to worry about in the writing journey to start panicking about book 2 of my first novel.

I really want to be a professional author. This is my dream and I am so proud of all the hard work I've put into my dream so far even though I have so far to go. I still have many hurdles to overcome, and so much fear to conquer. At least I can have peace knowing I'm only 22 years old and I still have the rest of my life to make my dreams come true and maybe someday I will get to see my dreams come to reality. Maybe someday I won't be stuck cooking for old people or working a job that exhausts me but instead I can wake everyday and run my own business and have fun at my job. I look forward to the day that say 'I can't believe that this is my job' with a big old plastered grin on my face.

I feel it within my soul that I can do this. I have so many wonderful people supporting me and so many people believing in me I just know that I can make this work. I might be a broken record as I think I've said that in the past 3 blog posts but I truly believe that focus and hope are the greatest powers that we humans can have. I may not be able to move objects with my mind or run faster than the speed of light, but I do have determination, focus, hope, and faith. I know who I am, and that is more than enough to know that no matter what happens, at least I know that in the end, it will all work out.

Until next time,

~Erin

P.S. I post more frequent updates on my Instagram if you would like to follow me.

And I make funny videos on TikTok if you also would like to follow me on there. Wink. Wink.

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