My Writing Process
Happy 2025! I hope your new year has been off to a wonderful start and that you’re staying warm in this weather. I’m snowed in at the moment, which is fine by me since I am typing away in my cave working on my next book baby. January is a bit of a quieter month, so I thought I’d share a little about my writing process.
✨Behind the Scenes: How does a book begin?✨
Let me add in a little disclaimer first. All authors write differently and use different methods during their writing process. There is no right or wrong way. I simply know what works for me as my method was developed and adjusted with each book I published.
So before I start writing a first draft, I have to go through what I call the “brewing stage”. This is when I let the story “cook” in my mind for at least a year if not more. When I have released a new book, I am already cooking the next one. In this stage I am brainstorming, gathering inspiration, jotting down scenes, quotes, and important plot details. My ideas come to me at random times throughout the day, and I’ll add them to an ongoing file in my phone’s Notes app.
When it’s time to begin drafting, I put together three important files:
Scene Notes: Those notes I mentioned above? They become the compilation of scenes I must sort through when piecing together the story. Not everything will make it into the book though. I recently put all of my notes for King’s Kiss together into one Word document, and it came out to…174,000 words! That’s an entire book! 😆 (Yes, I have a notes file for all three remaining books in the Guardians series, and I opened them when I started writing Divine Blood, so you can imagine how long those are.)
This helps me build the…
Story Spine: In other words, an Outline. Mine are a couple pages with a general summary about the story. For my longer books, I will extend it to a couple paragraphs per chapter. Outlines serve to guide me through my writing, but most of the time the story completely evolves from the original outline as it takes a life of its own. And that’s completely ok!
Next comes…
Story Bones: The bones refer to the characters and their world. I write down everything from who each character is, what do they look like, how do they behave, what are their names, beliefs. Most importantly, what is their arc through the story? What is their lie and how do they grow/change from that, either in a good or bad way. Then I move on to describing the world, the land, the magical laws, the governments, religion, ect. (If writing a series, I highly recommend a Series Bible; a reference document with all the important details of your world to help establish continuity.)
Once I have those three files ready, it’s time to write my first draft! That’s a whole another process.
If I have any writers or aspiring authors following this newsletter, I hope you found this little behind the scenes helpful. If there is interest, I can share more on how to create a quick and easy Story Spine and how to draft a book.
Giveaway
I am so excited to be partnering with 7 other authors for this wonderful adult fantasy book giveaway on Instagram! One lucky winner will receive a paperback copy of all 8 of these books. The giveaway is open from January 13-17. Good luck, Guardians!!
✨Available Now: 👑💋King’s Kiss Exclusive Edition 👑💋available for preorder from Bookish Signs (as well as a second drop of the King’s Bride Exclusive Edition!) Regular edition can be pre-ordered from my website. For those who asked, I have 1 exclusive edition of Rising Dawn and 1 Twilight and Secrets box left!
✨March 19: Annual 30% off birthday shop sale
✨April 18: Chronicles Mini Box pre-order
✨Summer 2025: King’s Kiss estimated release date
✨October 14: Rising Dawn audiobook release date
Chronicles Mini Boxes
I am sure you are in suspense about what will be included in the minis! At the moment, we are making plans and contacting artists. Next month I will share a sneak peek and list the goodies that will be featured in this enchanting box.
What I can say now is that there will be TWO minis, one for King’s Bride and one for King’s Kiss. We are deviating away from adding another special edition since there are so many for the Chronicles series all ready. Each box will be curated with premium merch based on the main characters and their fairytales. Some of the merch will also be new items we haven’t carried in the shop!
How is that for a prologue? 👀
With February and Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I’m over here dreaming about the newest book boyfriend to join the land of Urn–our morally grey, burn the world for her, shadow daddy Rune. He’s deliciously wicked and I hope you are ready for him to utterly devour the bride once stolen from him.
As always, stay safe and read good books.
xoxo ❤
