Wherein the Writer Eats Her Words
State of the Library #26
What you are getting in this issue:
An explanation, an apology, and a poll.
The usual link round-up. I was on a podcast!
What to maybe expect in January.
I am going to open this newsletter with an uncomfortable truth: you are not getting a short story this month because I could not write it and did not want to force it.
Most of you may already know this, but to refresh your memory, I decided to try an experiment. The idea was that, for three months at a time, my stories would all be about the same characters/place. I thought it would take the load off me because I would know what I was going to write every month. It also felt more professional and less chaotic.
To start, I chose Bramblerest, which is the cozy urban fantasy world I accidentally created and posted the first story of the season in November.
And then December happened.
The first two weeks consisted of rushing to finish the story for that month, getting sick, pushing through to meet other deadlines, running errands, and surviving online and IRL dramas. One fine morning, I looked at the calendar and realized I only had slightly more than two weeks to pull something together. Honestly, less than that when you factor in Christmas celebrations.
I wasn’t worried. Until I tried to write it. My entire brain froze.1
Friends, I tried. I really did. And it wasn’t until after I had finally gotten out the very first scene that I realized my twofold problem:
The characters no longer made sense to me, and I could not identify with them. Therefore, I had no idea where to take them next in their journeys.
I was too burned out, and too close to Christmas, to pull a story out of thin air.2
All love to Jack London for his advice about chasing inspiration with a club,3 but I didn’t have it in me to go hunting. I wanted eggnog, a good book, and a cat snoring in my lap. And this is why, my dear friend, you will not have a short story this month.
I really don’t know when or if I will ever return to Bramblerest. I apologize for not delivering what I said I would deliver. But this is the reality of the situation. This whole thing, in fact, has me wondering if my brain is simply too chaotic for a seasonal model as I proposed it.
And this long-winded explanation leads me to ask you a question:
The answer to this poll will help me decide whether or not to continue with the seasons experiment. I know in a previous post, I said I would re-evaluate at the end of April, but this whole newsletter has been one long “eating my words” session, so why stop now?
ICYMI: December 2025
Second Chances for Christmas
Things are unsettled between Reggie and Emma after the Missing Goat Incident. Their attempt to clear the air, however, is complicated by a protective sheriff and the arrival of a surprise guest with wings.
I was also on Blasters and Blades again! You can watch it on YouTube or listen on Spotify.
Coming in January 2026
As I said in my long intro, there won’t be a short story for January. As regards my non-fiction post, it’s a toss-up between my thoughts on The Mummy (1999) or I dive into my process of re-writing an epic fantasy series while also not knowing what I’m doing. Feel free to leave a comment on what you would like me to natter on about!
While I’m pretty sure this was because I had no idea where to go next in the adventures of Emma and Reggie, I also wonder if Robin McKinley cursed me because I made a snide remark about her Story Council in the footnotes of my 2025 in Review post.
“Second Chances for Christmas” felt very much pulled out of thin air. I took my personal rule of “if you don’t know what happens next, then introduce the worst thing that could possibly happen in that moment” and changed it to “if you don’t know what happens next, introduce a dragon.” Unfortunately, this rule was of no help for the January story.
“Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.” — Jack London, “Getting Into Print”
Seconding the fantasy rewrite. Am deep in edits myself so am always curious about how others are going about it.
It's okay to rest. The world's idea of how we have to "maintain productivity" tries to turn us into machines, and we are not. We are not.
My creative writing professor said once, "You cannot create if the well is empty." Regardless of your chosen discipline (I find it true in art as much as I do with writing), it stands that the work you produce when you try to shoehorn it isn't ever as good as the stuff that comes out when the inspiration is flowing.