Hey guys, welcome back! Hope everyone out there is doing well! Just here for a quick post to say hello and give a fast update on my progress. So far? It’s been a trainwreck.

It seems that cutting words from the manuscript is proving to be a vicious challenge. I am having so much trouble trying to figure out where cuts should take place! I had to cut the book into two sections so I could fit the entire thing into the app to work on. In the first section, I cut over 3000 words…ok good start. This week in the second section? At one point I added words! It was unintentional of course. I was trying to reword a paragraph and ended up with a higher word count. As I get closer to the last chapters, I’m having trouble with where to make cuts in them.

The one light at the end of this twisted tunnel is that I think I’ve figured out a sideways solution to this situation. Rearrange the chapters, the dialogue, the story and then doing major cuts with the old work. I believe that by possibly making the book into a sort of jigsaw puzzle, my problem may be resolved. In the meantime, I’m finding myself getting distracted and getting off track during the process and that is a red flag for me. I do have a bit of ADD but while I’ve been working on this book, I’ve been laser focused on it. To suddenly be distracted? That worries me that it will take me much longer to get this finished than I had hoped. Of course, it could just be the panicking of the cuts that has my mind going in different directions.

The one thing that will always ground me of course is reading. As I said in my last post, I had been rereading a series to gear up for the newest addition to it and now that it finally arrived? I’m diving in all the way. So far this book is exactly what I’ve been waiting for and I’m excited to keep going with it. The one thing about this series is that it has kept me grounded with my own writing, both this reading and the previous one and right now, I’m holding onto that. I have absolutely no idea if that makes any sense, but then again, my brain is currently mush right now.

Anyway, I can’t recommend doing something like reading for yourself to escape more. Escaping, even mentally, can help in so many other ways. It’s how we reset our minds for other things like the dreaded word…responsibility. So whatever your escape of choice is: listening to music, crafting something, picking up a book, going for a walk, it all helps you reset to be your best self. Now that Fall is here, maybe going pumpkin or apple picking, watching something scary, or decorating for Halloween is the way to go! 

And that is where I will leave you for today. Short, sweet and a little off course, but as always, I hope you’ve gotten something out of this post.

Until next time folks…Cheers!!!

– 

– 

To follow me on social including my increasingly growing Booktok: linktr.ee/promosocially

– 

To check out the series I’m reading, hit the 2025 On the Bookshelf tab up above on the site to see what I’ve been reading this year. The series is under the author Laurie Gilmore, just click her name to find the books!

–

Need something new to read? I’m a proud PangoBooks ambassador! Click on my link to get $5 off of your first order. PangoBooks is a great way to buy used books super cheap and you can sell them as well: https://pangobooks.com/NEWCHAPTERCOVE

– 

To find some fun Halloween and Fall themed designs (that I’ve designed) on stickers, tshirts, mugs and so much more, you can check out my shops: linktr.ee/stuffwemade

–

If you’ve gotten this far, I thank you! Thanks for being here and I’ll see you real soon. 🎃