draft, finished.

So, I finally finished the first draft of my new writing project this summer.  My first serious writing project since TeaNovel.

Let me back up for a second. TeaNovel had been my beloved writing project ever since I was thirteen, when I wrote an awful draft of something that I dearly loved and polished it, slowly but surely, into something that I could make others love as well. I can't keep track of the nights I'd spent brainstorming ideas and wrapping myself around one plot pretzel after another (which, remarkably, led to me spilling my entire plot to the stranger sitting next to me on the plane one time in hopes that someone I'd met 5 minutes before could fix my book already). With that book I learned how to tell a story; not only how to convey across the beats of a plot and the actions of characters, but how to infuse a scene with atmosphere; how to convey emotion; how to make storylines resonate. At that point, TeaNovel was the best thing I'd ever worked on, which made it even harder to let go. At that point, I thought that the story and writing of TeaNovel was going to be the only thing that would bring me joy and purpose in writing. (I was wrong.)

It took a long time to refocus and to start brainstorming again, especially sandwiched within the most chaotic and stressful years of high school. A lot of things have happened since I wrote TeaNovel, and I've since begun to realize that, despite the messiness, I needed the in-between: to grow, to balance out my life, and to gain the maturity that made this second go-around slightly more doable.

So, yes. this new book. It's still a total work in progress at this time and it's an entirely different book from TeaNovel. But what matters is that it's about things I'm fascinated with and characters I can't stop thinking about. It gives me the same enamored thrill, that same kind of excitement and joy, and I'm so glad I get to do this thing again.