Summer Is Ending, Completed Drafts, and Writing Fanfiction Again
Hello, readers! It’s getting very close to the end of the summer season. To be honest, I felt like summer ended the moment that it passed mid-August...
Hello, readers!
It’s getting very close to the end of the summer season. To be honest, I felt like summer ended the moment that it passed mid-August. This is mainly because I started seeing significantly more back-to-school ads everywhere I went. (And yes, I also indulged in making some types of those ads of my own for my books, especially “Bloody Fantasia” given that it takes place at a music school.)
Given how this summer went, I think this was one of the most peaceful summers I’ve had. Yes, I had to figure out where to take my writing journey next post-Harlow Mystery series, and there were some ups and downs in working that out. However, I think spending the summer doing exactly that was worth it. I look forward to sharing my full Fall 2024 plans with you in my September 2024 Writing Update blog post!
What Am I Writing Lately?
I finally finished writing Draft 1 of the 7th book in my cozy urban fantasy series!
To be honest, writing this one was…semi-painful, close to the end. I know that it’s far from a great draft, and something I would call a “skeleton” draft. A “skeleton” draft for me is a bare-bones draft that fleshes out what I had outlined for the story, but is very far from its final form. Book 7 will definitely need several rounds of revisions, but I’m glad to complete the draft done.
After I finished drafting Book 7, I decided to start writing Book 4 in the series! Books 4 and 5 still need to have their first drafts written, so those will be a priority for the rest of the month. Again, I’ll give more details on my full Fall 2024 plans in my September 2024 writing update blog post, so keep an eye out for that!
What Have I Done Other Than Writing Lately?
Okay, technically what I’m about to discuss next should technically be under the ‘writing lately’ section. However, since this is something for myself, it’s this:
Writing fanfiction again.
If you’ve followed me for long enough, you probably know that I used to post and share fanfiction often. This came to an abrupt end in 2023, just after celebrating my 10-year anniversary of writing fanfics and reflecting on that achievement back in 2022. I stopped posting fanfics regularly for two main reasons:
I wanted to focus more on original fiction and felt more called to writing more of it. Also, you can’t profit off fanfics for legal reasons (and before you ask about cosplay, fanart, etc., I’m not an expert on that and I’d rather not dive into the complications around that today).
The rise of AI (including AI scraping data from Archive Of Our Own a while ago, which was one of the sites I posted fanfics on) was too big of a risk for me to bear at the time.
I’ve just been writing a bit of fanfiction for myself now. It’s not for the sake of sharing with anyone, but as writing practice.
Writing fanfics also acts as a way to ‘take a break’ from writing original fiction if I can’t get many words down, but still keep up the act of writing.
Every fanfic I wrote was writing practice. The more fanfics I posted online back then, the more feedback I got. The more feedback I got, the more I grew as a writer. I’m grateful for how much that ignited my love of writing and the support those readers and commenters gave me.
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In the past few weeks, I also have:
Prepared social media content beforehand for the Fall season
Made a few adjustments to my Carrd to make it easier to read!
Finalized the cover of “Refilling The Well,” my upcoming poetry chapbook
Newsletter Rec Time!
Looking for another writer-related newsletter to read, fellow writers? Check out Worldsmyths, who recently started their own newsletter! Worldsmyths Publishing’s mission is to empower and uplift writers from all backgrounds, with a special fcus on speculative fiction writers.
You can subscribe at this link - and when you sign up for the newsletter, you’ll also get a free book!
Also, for those who subscribed to my newsletter after seeing Worldsmyths give me a shout-out recently: Hello! I hope you enjoy reading what I have in store.
What Have I Heard Lately?
The audiobook and/or podcast I’d like to recommend, this time, is “How to Ikigai: Lessons for Finding Happiness and Living Your Life's Purpose,” written and narrated by Tim Tamashiro.
Tamashiro is a clear speaker, which makes it really easy to hear all the words and follow along. I do think that the content of hte audiobook could use slightly less personal stories and focus more on the actual lessons learned in the book. However, it’s still a nice easy read.
A personal sidenote I have when listening to audiobooks in general is this: Sometimes I wish there was a transcript to follow for the audiobooks, like how regular podcasts might have some. I’m a strong visual and audio learner, and it’s easier for me to follow along with the books when I have both words in front of me at the same time as the audio.
I recognize that I could always just, well, read the physical book’s words instead of listening to the audio and wishing for a transcript instead. However, the convenience of having both at once would be nice.
What Have I Been Reading Lately?
I am constantly in awe of reading the Geronimo Stilton series and most if not all of its related series and spinoff series (examples: Thea Stilton, Kingdom of Fantasy, the Special Editions for both Thea and Geronimo, etc.). One of my recent library trips involved me borrowing several books from that series and the related series because there are so many books involved and I want to keep reading about the characters.
Yes, I get absolutely exasperated by Geronimo constantly dealing with the rest of his family being annoying and him not sticking up for himself and his boundaries. But the adventures he gets into as a result are often entertaining (and educational).
Other recent reads include:
“Thea Stilton And The American Dream” by Thea Stilton
“Twilight Hauntings” by Angie Sage
“Valley Of The Giant Skeletons” by Geronimo Stilton
“Treasures Of The Maya” by Geronimo Stilton
Thank you for following my writing journey!
I hope you look forward to seeing more of my writing process and work. I also look forward to giving all of you more frequent updates as well, so stay tuned for more!
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at clarislamauthor@gmail.com! I’ll respond within 48 hours (except on weekends and holidays).