Things I've Learned While Writing a Novel, Part II
Who knew writing sprints would be my best friend?!
In case you’ve missed it, I’ve spent a good portion of my (limited) free time working on a novel. I’ve been posting some word count updates as I go over on Notes, like this:
In February, I wrote a post about a few things I’ve learned while working on this novel, and here I am, three months later, doing it again. Quoting myself to bring you up to speed:
I’m taking a different approach to writing this particular idea, and this approach has been truly revolutionary for my writing. I feel as though I’m an archeologist excavating ruins from the dirt—except instead of ruins, I’m excavating a story.
And it is thrilling. A story is unfolding that I didn’t expect to write. In many ways, it’s so out of left field for me, yet still draws from material I’m so deeply familiar with through life experience. I asked God to give me a story to write, and boy, is He delivering on that prayer.
I thought it might be fun to document a little bit of the process along the way, so here we are, a month and a half into 2026, and here’s my first update. Fair warning: I’ll be keeping a substantial amount of this behind a paywall, partly for privacy reasons! But there will be some basic updates before the paywall for all those who want to casually come along for the ride.
So yeah! Three months later and here we are with part II of my documentation.
The Basic Stats
Genre: Mystery
Word count: 37,278 out of 80,000 (that’s almost twice the word count from part I!)
Chapter count: 12 finished, 8 incomplete (some of these will likely be combined during revisions)
Plot breakthroughs: So many I can’t even count lollll
Storyline coherency: Around 67%.1 As I said last time, the earlier chapters need MAJOR revision. However, I’m gaining coherency as I go along. A win is a win!
Cups of tea consumed: I’m guessing somewhere around a hundred at this point?
Favorite writing tea: It’s been a tie between green tea and chamomile. I did have a stint where I was favoring hibiscus for a hot second, but my enthusiasm for hibiscus seems to have faded. Alas.
Favorite writing snack: I’ve been snacking less while writing because I’ve been doing a lot of writing in bed, and I hate getting crumbs in my bed. But when I’m working elsewhere… as much as I want to say veggies & tzatziki dip because it (1) sounds healthy and (2) is a snack I definitely eat, it’s honestly not much of a writing snack. We will have to go with popcorn again, followed by blueberry muffins. I guess I like carbs. Who doesn’t?
Lesson #1: Having a kid is wildly motivating to my writing.
I mean this in multiple ways.
