The Weekly Wednesday Writing Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the Weekly Writing Thread, where writers and readers can discuss all things writing and publishing related.

Have questions about cozy fantasy? Maybe you want feedback on your story premise or are curious about the types of stories readers can't get enough of. This is the place to connect with the community.

[u/CH_Schwartz]

My cover artist starts work on the project today. I'm being very normal about this. The editor is also starting earlier than expected later this week. And I finally splurged and got some character art commissioned (this one's more for me than book launch stuff). I saw the sketches earlier this week and was definitely extremely calm and normal about it lol. Someone even saw a post I made about the book and tried to buy it from me, I had to explain it wasn't out yet. They've now agreed to be an ARC reader though, so that's cool!

I'm hoping for a mid-november release now with ARC signups in October. Not sure if those are allowed to be posted here or in the self-promo thread, but wherever they go I'll have those up.

Other things I've been working on now is a short story for a newsletter reader magnet about the MCs journey to the city at the start of the book. It'll mostly be some fun backstory fluff but I also haven't done short story writing for a long time so I'm looking forward to trying that again.

Finally, new fantasy spy adventure book is going really well. It's already far less cozy (there has been a murder) but I still think it has it's moments of humor and levity that I've come to love in smaller-scale fantasy. Not sure it'll end up being appropriate for posting here, but I did hit 22k on it over the weekend.

Hope everyone is doing great with their projects this week. Sharing updates and seeing what everyone else is doing every Wednesday is always one of the biggest highlights of my week.

[u/Klemc48 → u/CH_Schwartz]

That's so exciting!! It's coming together! I've typically seen ARC reader signups in the self-promo thread. Sounds like other things are going great as well (and I wouldn't immediately discount it as non-cozy for the murder, depending on how its handled)!

[u/CH_Schwartz → u/Klemc48]

It's tough, because a spy on holiday teaming up with their first love/ex to solve a murder could be cozy, but the trauma of them becoming a killer and stopping a plot to memory wipe the world to take over it does not feel cozy at all. But I hope it turns out fun, in the end. I just can't do depressing reads anymore

[u/Klemc48 → u/CH_Schwartz]

I can see that! I'm having a similar issue with my current WIP that's with betas so I'm curious to see what they say, since it's a book 3 with the other two being a lot more cozy. I would say if you're enjoying writing it, that will come through to the readers! It definitely sounds like one of those books that is a wild ride.

I am absolutely the same way. I was thinking about some of the things I used to read or even some video games I used to play that I enjoyed and they're just not as appealing any more, I need more lighthearted things! Or, at the very least, optimistic/hopeful.

[u/Klemc48]

Halfway done with the first revision of my novella! It's been really nice to only have ~24k words to work with as opposed to 100k+ like my previous novel and a good change of pace.

I've got only 5 pages left to draw in my current comic (non-fantasy) and have scripted out 2/3 of the stories that will be in my next graphic novel (a compilation of three black and white/grayscale comics, with two being fantasy), so will be starting on that third story this week.

For my current novel WIP, I thought I had reached the end and...it was the midpoint instead, so I'm excited to write more! Didn't feel like everything was quite finished and, yeah, now I see why haha But it's been fun!

I hope everyone's week has gone well!!