when you FINALLYfind a solution for the thing that’s been blocking your wip progressing for ages:

A lot of the writing advice I’ve heard either assumes you will only work on one project at a time or tells you that you should. However, I have never found this very doable. At any given time, I have three or more writing projects going. My brain just doesn’t let me focus on one for an extended period of time.

And you know what? It does take me longer to finish a project, but I prefer that with the chance to write everyday than going spans where I don’t have the motivation to work on one single project. 

So, I’d like to give some advice on how to juggle more than one WIP.

Stagger Them

If you can, stagger when you start them. Or, if you are starting with outlining one and pantsing the other, that works, too. The goal here is that you’re in different phases for each one. If you’re drafting three or outlining four or editing two at the same time, you might drain your creative well with the monotony. Having one in the editing phases, one in drafting, and one in outlining gives you room to bounce between activities. 

Diversify Your Mediums

This might not be everyone’s path, especially if you’re already settled on the mediums of your projects, but I like to mix up exactly how I’m formatting them. Full novels, short stories, scripts, poetry, flash fiction, and everything in between and otherwise can be tossed together like a WIP salad. And again, you may be married to working on three full length novels which is fine. But if not, maybe try to switch it up. 

Set Your Genre, Aesthetics, Motive, and Themes

My projects all come from different motives. They all have vastly different genres, themes, and aesthetics. You don’t need to have them ALL be WILDLY separate from each other, but it helps if you set their separate identities. When I find inspiration for sci-fi, I work on my sci-fi project. When I find inspiration for my family, I work on my project focused on family. When I watch a Coen Brothers movie, I work on my script that was motivated by their work. So on and so forth. This way, you can funnel the right inspiration and energy into the proper channels of your work. 

Still Allow Yourself to Relax and Take Breaks

More projects doesn’t and shouldn’t mean that you sacrifice free time. Your pace can remain the same as someone working on one project. And it probably should. You don’t want to strain yourself and lose interest in 4 projects all at once. It’s a marathon and you can take time to relax and wander.

And don’t be afraid or feel bad to pause on project for a while or indefinitely. Just like any other process, sometimes you realize a certain project isn’t meant for right now. 

Organize!

Whether you use Docs, paper and pen, or something else or a mix of everything, use your organizational skills! Google Docs, Word, and Pages will all allow you to save your documents to folders specific to a project. Physical folders and files do the same. This way, you can get started quickly and easily without digging through multiple projects-worth of documents or getting distracted by another project. 

Have any other tips for managing multiple projects? Drop them below!

it is day 71 and i am truly starting to believe that he single most difficult part of writing a book is naming it

Page de présentation

Il n’y a rien de pire que de se réveiller et se rendre compte que son cauchemar est devenu réalité. Pourtant, Esben devrait y être habitué. Survivant d’une première guerre dans laquelle il avait joué les médecins-soldats, il est maintenant forcé de retourner à ses anciennes habitudes afin de retrouver les êtres qui lui sont le plus chers.

Marié depuis moins de cinq cycles de saisons entières avec les deux âmes qu’il apprécie le plus, Esben était heureux. Avec sa petite maison au bord de la colline, surplombant légèrement l’océan, rien n’aurait pu le faire changer d’idée. Retrouver le calme suite à la guerre avait été difficile, maintenant, c’est redevenir un soldat qui lui pose problème. Et Kova, son lien -une panthère qui lui sert d’aide supposé spirituel- ne l’aide en aucun cas. Entre ses phrases cryptiques et ses crises de silence lorsqu’il s'offusque, Esben ne peut qu’être perdu. Est-ce que les dieux les ont abandonnés à leur sorts? Y en a-t-il seulement?

Et puis, est-ce que Mirza et Priya sont encore en vie, à cette heure?

Explications:

Et si on rêvait encore est une histoire que je peaufine depuis maintenant cinq ans, et que je continue de travailler afin de perfectionner. Maintenant qu’il ne reste qu’une fin concluante à trouver, je me suis rendue compte d’une grave erreur: la majorité de mes personnages n’ont aucune identité personnelle. Donc, suite à un grand débat avec moi-même à savoir si je devais tout supprimer et recommencer, j’ai fait le choix de seulement recommencer mon travail de révision pour peaufiner (encore) mes textes.

Ainsi donc ce blog sera dédié à la présentation, et avec un peu de chance, l’évolution de mes personnages et l’histoire qui les entoure en même temps, et peut-être trouverais-je quelques âmes intéresser à connaître la suite en chemin.

Chansons thèmes:

Far from home -Sam Tinnesz

‘I’m so far from home
So far from home’

'Cause out here in the darkness
And out of the light
If you get to me too late
Just know that I tried’

Tout oublié- Angèle feat. Roméo Elvis

'Tout, il faudrait tout oublier
Pour y croire, il faudrait tout oublier
On joue, mais là j'ai trop joué
Ce bonheur, si je le veux je l'aurai’

Extraits:

La lumière dorée du rare soleil d’automne rentrait par les quelques trous dans les rideaux des fenêtres. La journée parfaite pour célébrer la fête des morts. Il n’y avait plus aucun doute maintenant que les feuilles avaient commencé à tomber que l’automne était présent au village. Dans la maison, le calme régnait.

Esben se retourna sur le futon qui servait, à lui et à ses deux époux de lit. À ses côtés, Mirza dormait encore. Son corps nu pressé contre son épaule maintenant, Esben pouvait sentir chaque souffle chaud frôler son dos. L’ancien médecin passa une main dans les mèches détachées de son mari avant de tourner la tête de vers l’entrée. Mirza avait dû rouler pendant la nuit pour se coller contre Esben car le jeune homme se rappelait Priya, endormie entre eux la veille.

Sa présence dans la maison manquait, l’air frais qui se frappait contre le nez d’Esben en était la preuve. Sans doute que le brasier qu’elle avait allumé plus tôt à son réveil s’était éteint, refroidissant les alentours. Il pouvait sentir l’odeur du savon qui embaumait leur demeure, il devina qu’elle devait en préparer à l’extérieur. Une brise écarta la tapisserie qui leur avait servi de porte pour la nuit, laissant quelques feuilles rougies entrer, accompagnant le froid. Il devait vraiment réparer la porte avant que l’hiver n’arrive.

Les yeux fermés, Esben s’imagina plus tard de quelques mois, glissant ses mains sur le ventre de Priya doucement. Son pouce glissa doucement sur le tissu du vêtement de sa femme et il inspira longuement.

-Comment il va ? Questionna-t-il à mi-voix, tournant la tête vers Mirza qui observait l’horizon, ou l’océan, une tasse de thé fumante en main. Priya soupira doucement, déposant son autre main sur celles d’Esben sur son ventre.

-Hm… Grommela-t-elle dans un souffle, haussant les épaules. « Tu devrais aller le voir, peut-être que tu réussiras à le faire sourire… »

Esben embrassa la tempe de Priya avant de se détacher d’elle pour aller aux côtés de Mirza. La colline sur laquelle ils habitaient donnait directement sur la plage et le récif. C’était là que son mari s’était assis, le dos tourné à la maison, un épaule posée contre le mur de pierre à regarder l’océan dans ses allées et venues.

Here’s the third POV character in my novel-in-progress — Leon Aolin!

I’ll be doing an outfits post for him as well like I did with Cara Marie and Inés. And as I’ve said before, while Leon is a POV character, he’s not a protagonist like the girls! Though he’s extremely important to the story and is even the reason why I’m contemplating a sequel

Some fun facts about Leon that I can reveal without spoilers:

- He doesn’t like birds

- He’s a big fan of nature though, especially really tall trees he can climb

- He’s really good with directions and never gets lost

- He’s ambidextrous!

That does it for the three main characters of my novel, and I hope you all enjoy them! I can’t wait to share more of these characters, and their story, as time goes on. I’ll of course be doing more art of the world itself, some scenes, and especially the other characters in the story! Keep an eye out for them ✨

As I did with Cara Marie, here’s some more outfits Inés wears!

I added a sixth outfit (the white jumpsuit) because it’s what she wears at the beginning of the novel, and she can’t wait to get rid of it.

Like I’ve said before, Inés likes to wear baggy, loose clothes (for a reason!)

Which outfit is your favorite? I’m partial to her signature overalls and that tropical shirt ;)

If you don’t know, Inés is one of the main characters of my novel in progress, currently under the project name: Project Tropical Dream. I’ll have a guide set up where you can find all my art of the characters from Project TD, and I can’t wait for you to meet Leon and to draw some environments and scenes from the book!

Some more (non-spoiler) information about it:

- It’s a sci-fi fantasy

- There are griffins!! And sirens!! And faerie sprites!! And a couple other smaller creatures :)

- The continent it all takes place on draws influences from Hispanic and Latino culture, like language and foods and such

- If the characters were in our world, Inés and Cara Marie would both be Puerto Rican, and Leon (the third POV character) would be half Hawaiian, half Puerto Rican

Feel free to ask anything else you’d like to know about the story! If it’s non-spoilery, I’ll answer it ✨

More outfits for one of my two MCs, Cara Marie!

Look at her, I’m in love with her. She’s gorgeous, isn’t she?

All jokes aside, I’m really happy with how these all came out! Which is your favorite? I’ll definitely be making one of these for Inés, and maybe I’ll come back to these some day and render them ✨

And some more fun facts about Cara Marie:

- She prefers to wear black, or dark colors in general

- Her favorite color is green!

- She always wears loose clothing made of thin materials — she lives in a hot environment, so she won’t let her preference of black attire make her uncomfortable

Here’s the second main character from my novel in progress, Inés Ortega!

She’s another of the three POV characters, but again, only her and Cara Marie are protagonists ✨

Some fun facts I can give about Inés without spoilers below the cut:

- She loves animals

- Her clothing style is ultimate bagginess — but there’s a reason why ;)

- She wears her heart out on her sleeve, oftentimes thinking with her heart rather than her mind

- She has no memory of her past! Her life from birth to about 6-8 years old is a blank spot in her mind

That’s it for now! I’ll definitely do an outfits lineup for Inés like I have for Cara Marie (to be posted soon!), and I can’t wait for you guys to learn more about the two of them! Stay tuned for the third POV character, the deuteragonist, Leon :)

Everyone, meet Cara Marie Juarez

This may be news to some of you, but I’m currently working on my very first novel! I’m writing my second draft now, and I’m super excited with how it’s going so far.

Cara Marie is one of two protagonists in my book — in total, there’s three POV characters: Cara Marie, Inés (protag #2), and Leon (deuteragonist).

I’ve honestly been scared to tackle art of these characters so far because I was worried I wouldn’t be able to “perfectly” capture how they look in my head, but I hit a breakthrough with Cara Marie, and now I’m excited to finally draw the others! I am 100% going to draw some mock ups of more Cara Marie outfits, this post here was just testing how I’ll draw her!

Read below the cut for some fun facts about Cara Marie and a synopsis for the story!

Here are some fun facts about Cara Marie that I can share (without spoilers):

- She’s a black market hustler

- She likes taking things apart and putting them back together, figure out what makes them work

- She never goes anywhere without a suitable amount of weapons to defend herself

- She flies an airship she made from scratch ✨

That’s all I’ll say for now about her, but I can’t wait to share more about her and the story in the future!

“Cara Marie sighed, shifting her position to the other side of the trunk. Situating her feet in secure enough footholds and wrapping her left arm around the width of the tree, she leaned forward to inspect the transmitter. If she could disable it or disconnect it from any receiver it might have, then the kingdom could transmit all they wanted without receiving an ounce of feedback, visual or auditory.

And maybe, if she disabled it, it could be just the distraction her and Inés needed to get out of there. Small enough that the kingdom didn’t get too suspicious.”

Here’s 2/3 of the pieces I created for my digital art final, a scene from the beginning of Act 2 in my book! This is again painted in the styles of Arcane and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.

I was most proud of this piece honestly, I’m super happy with how it turned out. Also, the character looking up at Cara Marie is one I haven’t introduced yet ;)

musingofaninsignificantwriter:

Some WIP asks:

Reblog and I’ll send you asks! Or ask me any number of these I’d love to answer!

1: What tropes does your WIP feature?

2: Who is your favorite OC in your WIP?

3: Who is your least favorite OC in your WIP?

4: What song best describes your WIP?

5: What line best describes your WIP?

6: What emoji best captures the essence of your WIP

7: What genre(s) is your WIP?

8: What inspired your WIP?

9: How far into your WIP are you?

10: Scene/idea you’re most proud of in your WIP

11: Scene/idea (or former scene/idea) you’re most ashamed of in your WIP 

12: Does your story take place on Earth or in another world?

13: Is there magic in your world? If so, to what degree?

14: Does your world have a conlang? 

15: What caused you to go into writing? 

“Inés’ heart plummeted into the depths of her stomach.

She saw color. So much color. Glimpses of a vibrant green jungle, of white cliffsides that bordered either side of the shimmering green-blue body of water they fell towards, which was much closer than stomach. thought.

She folded her arms over her face, the ship disappearing in the distance toward the open sea, where the rocky borders ended.”

Sigh.

So this is part one of the final project I worked on for my digital art class for a few weeks straight resulting in no time for any other art, headaches, and staring at a screen for hours at a time.

This is a scene from Act 1 of my Project TD, in which my characters Inés and Cara Marie escape… from a place :) This was meant to be painted in the style of ArcaneandSpider-Man: Into the Spiderverse with their mix of 2D and 3D animation, so the style is a bit different from what I usually do.

Because of time restraints I wasn’t able to render the foliage as best as I wanted to, so maybe sometime this summer I’ll rework it. But for now, here it is! What do you think?

Iven: Who did it?

Clyde: Did what?

Iven: Who stole our last batch of strawberries?

Zoë:

Iris: Hey Atlas?

Atlas: Yes Iris?

Iris, fiddling with her WEDDING ring: Do you love me?

Atlas: *stares* Iris, we’re married

Iris: I mean yeah but do you love me?

Atlas, sighing: Yes of course I love you

Iris: *grins* Nice

Atlas: You’re an idiot, but you’re MY idiot

Iris: That’s somehow very comforting

Iris: I am many things. A dissapointment, a burden, a failure, a reckless idiot.

Atlas:But?

Iris, trying not to cry: That’s it

I’m not really amazing with graphics, but I tried my best.

These are the aesthetics of the fictional kingdoms I created in my fantasy WIP Wayfarer. I’ll be posting an introduction of it soon, along with a link to track it on Inkitt. (It’s there, but in draft.)

Anyways, any opinions?

Scorching heat glazed his tongue, leaving the taste of ashes on his breath. “They make us into hungry dogs down here,” he pointed down the line of cages, all the creatures pacing their tombs. “They bleed us and starve us and pick at our instincts until we are wound so tight we snap at everything. But they forget,” he seethed, his voice saturated in some foreign entity shaking with power, “theyforget that a hungry dog is never loyal.”

–Thief of Sins and Secrets

Everytime when I’m about to start writing

Me putting trauma into my character:

Im not sure everyone but my ability to write only appear once in the blue moon