I’m just starting my writing journey at 30years old. I have no experience with writing and never went to school for it. I’ve always done different art things and I’m (not to brag) but pretty dang good at crafting, painting, clay, drawing. I’ve always known I wanted to create my own thing but never knew what that meant until a few weeks ago. I decided I want to be an author and create my own world. I want to create something that other people want to collect and learn more about. And actually, your channel was one of the things that really inspired me. So thank you 🙏

Your videos have a very certain vibe- a positive, hopeful, artistic vibe. Sometimes I just need that feeling, so thanks for the videos.

Oooh love the color coding with the shades of green!! I feel like that’d be so satisfying lol

I highly recommend not working on book 2 or 3 of DE until you sell the first one because you will make so many more changes to the first one with an agent and editor. Also, there is no guarantee you will be able to sell 2 and 3 as many publishers are hesitant to pay for a series until there is proof the first one will sell copies, especially for a debut, so I would recommend querying the first book as tho it can stand alone but that it could become a series and then brainstorm how it would look as just a duology and also as a trilogy as sometimes publishers will only buy a second book but not the third. I’m not sure how much research you have done about the inside of traditional publishing but I HIGHLY recommend finding traditionally published authors on TikTok and KZfaq to hear how it goes so you’re going into it with the right mindset to set you up for success. I don’t say this to be annoying, but because I have many many friends that are traditionally published authors and there is so much to know besides how to write a book if you want traditional publishing success. If you aren’t already following Liselle Sambury and Lindsay Puckett and Michelle Schusterman here on KZfaq, please do. Even some of Alexa Donnes old videos are a great start.

Ahhh, so happy to hear your progress! ♡ Even though you weren't able to write every day, it's still impressive how much you got done 🥹 All the best for the rest of the year!

I feel like I've accomplished something huge, I finished draft 6 of my second novel and it is currently with my editor, which is so exciting! I started working on a pretty fun side project, but very dark (I write horror). I'm an indie author, so I am on my own timeline, not worried about querying, but the deadline for book 2 is coming up soon and I am so excited and nervous to send out ARCs once it is ready. I love the color coding you do, I wish I was that organized but not yet, you've sparked my brain though!

Honestly thank you for this, as someone in the worst writing slump she's ever been the first 6 months of the year I need to hear someone else's really good editing and drafting numbers to motivate me 😅2023 I spit out a first draft in 6 months and then I started uni and it's all gone downhill- within the next 6 months I hope to get the first draft of my project HTWWE close to being complete

That's a great idea, to track your writing/editing time and on which projects. Nice to have a visual snapshot of your progress. Congrats and well done! On my end, I'm six chapters, 23 pages, and 8,407 words into my WIP, Project LB. Between journalling, drafting a personal essay, blogging, and starting Project LB, 2024 is shaping up to be my year of writing :)

You're so organized! I don't use a lot of spreadsheets, so this is impressive to me haha. It's so exciting that you're so close to querying. I need to start writing all of my ideas down. I have a bad habit of keeping them in my head (saying I'll circle back to them) and then forget. 😅

That is really cool that you track your work in such an organized way. I traveled a lot also in May and June and can see my progress slowed because of it. I'm very excited to get back into long spurts of deep dive working in July. All the best as you wrap up draft seven! Your other projects sound really cool as well!

I've spending the last 6 months planning my fantasy project between classes. Im almost done writing my latest short story/novella.

Your progress has been so inspiring to watch! As for me, I'm still working on editing draft 4 of my fantasy novel. I did fall off the wagon in May & June due to illness, trying to submit a short story somewhere, and other stuff, but I'm diving back into the editing trenches during July! I'm hoping to query sometime in August, but if need be, I can push that back to September or October. Fingers crossed for us both!

Morning from Hawaii wow you did good in your writing for 6 month and love your goal for 2024

Omg I was about to watch one of your older uploads while I put away groceries, but you updated while I was gone!! What a lovely surprise 😂

I should start tracking time too. I track word count (I always put each draft in a new doc so I can still see the word count climb as I go) but some days I have to brainstorm or do research or whatever so then the word count doesn't change much. I'm curious to know how much time I spend doing it though

Oooooooh a palate cleanser! Happy time!

I'm excited to see how the plotting for the next two books go. I'm not a plotter either though I've done more and more the more books I write.

Good morning, Sara and happy 1st day of July. I've missed seeing you and watching your vlogs, so I was happy to see this new one and hear about what you've been up to lately with draft 7 of DE, not to mention another project that you've started brainstorming. I guess great minds think alike because I have to with a children's book about a fox and his adventures in the meadows. Have a lovely day and happy editing or hiking today. ❤

I liked hearing about where you are on your writing journey and how you track your work. Draft seven is impressive. I do not think I have ever done a piece of writing where I put in more than two or possibly three drafts. I do not think I have the patience for that. I am sure that your careful drafting and rewriting will pay off for you.

It's always nice to have a pallet cleanser between books. Have you ever thought about writing the first draft for books 2 & 3 back to back?

Beta reader read the first 19 chapters** the first day she had it (not pages, oops)

I’ve never wrote 3000 words or more a day. I’m lucky to get 1000.

i thought you're writing every single day, every single awake hours lol im not a writer but i love watching authortube. so im confused lol. do you have a full time day job? is that why tou had like 15 minutes of writing for some days?

Gadzooks. You are gorgeous! AND smart too!