Breaking news: writing is hard

WRITING IS HAPPENING.

And that calls for lots of caffeine. I’m almost through the first third of my WIP, and the characters are finally starting to feel like real people. It takes a while for their personalities to set whenever I start writing a new book.

To steal an analogy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, they’re like cookie dough for the first few chapters. The ingredients are all there, but they’re still mushy and unformed. But somewhere along the way, I realize they’ve turned into cookies. I know exactly who they are and what they’d do in any given situation. That’s when they feel real. And then I have to go back and reevaluate those early chapters I wrote, because sometimes who I thought they were isn’t who they turned out to be.

​Writing is hard. Thank goodness for coffee.