K.M. Allan's Blog: K.M. Allan

Regardless of whether you love them or loathe them, flashbacks are a great tool to use when writing your novel. Among other things, they allow you to get info to your readers that can be relatable, quick, and merge well with the story you’re telling, and help to solidify character actions.

While that might sound like some heavy lifting for a writing element that is sometimes only a single line, flashbacks can be that powerful, and here are some dos and don’ts for using them to their best advantage.

Flashbacks: Dos and Don’tsDo Trigger Them Correctly

Flashbacks work when they’re triggered in the right way. If your character’s flashback comes out of thin air because you just want the info of the flashback in a particular part of the story, you’re doing yourself, your characters, and your readers a disservice.

To get it right, use something in the current moment of your character’s life as a trigger. For example, let’s say you need your readers to know that your MC was in a terrible car accident. One day, when working at their office job, they flash back to that moment. For the reader, this may seem odd since the character isn’t doing anything but tapping away on their keyboard. But what if they’re in the office kitchen, someone drops a glass, and the sound of the shattering shards triggers the flashback?

That distinct noise takes the MC back to the moment the windshield of their car broke, shards raining down on them. Now it’s not so odd for them to think of that moment during their mundane office job.

Triggers help the flashbacks ring true for the character and reader, so work them in using the five senses or a past memory sparked by a present moment to keep the flashback relevant to the story and to make it feel natural.

Don’t Info-dump

The fastest way to fail with a flashback is to use it to info-dump your character’s entire history.

Flashback info-dumps do nothing but slow the pace and frustrate readers. Like all good character info/history, anything a flashback brings to the story should be drip-fed.

Let that history come out in well-placed, small flashbacks that impart the info in bits and pieces at the right moment. That way, the reader can gather the picture over time, not be hit with it all at once.

If you info-dump everything during a flashback, it can make the right info too hard to remember.

As another example, say your flashback needs to establish that the MC is allergic to honey because it will be relevant in the final chapter. To build the character, you also want readers to know the MC loved visiting farmers’ markets because they went to them as a kid with their father on visitation weekends during a messy divorce.

Any of these details: the honey allergen, the farmer’s market love, the farmer’s market visits, visitation rights, and the messy divorce can be drip-fed throughout the story in different flashbacks. A sentence here and there and a paragraph in a different chapter will do it. Where it gets messy is when all of it is info-dumped at the same time.

Suddenly, the most important nugget of information—the honey allergen—is lost in a flashback info-dump. The childhood memories and the messy divorce may be what readers remember, making a later allergic reaction to honey something that comes out of nowhere for anyone who missed the mention in the flashback.

To avoid the important part of a flashback getting lost in details, use one flashback to highlight the info you need remembered, and drip-feed everything else in other chapters.

Do Make Them Puzzle Pieces

Just like giving flashbacks only when necessary, keeping them as puzzle pieces is a great way to up reader interest.

Instead of readers rolling their eyes that yet another flashback is happening, make your flashbacks so intriguing that they’re clues the reader will want to collect until everything comes together.

They should create mystery and add tension, not just explain why your character likes bikes because you like bikes and wanted to show off your knowledge.

Puzzle-piece flashbacks can give your readers a satisfying finish when each flashback slots into place to give them the overall picture by the last page.

Don’t Make Them Feel like a Boring Side-Quest

Flashbacks are supposed to add mystery and give “Ah, huh!” moments to the main story, not distract from it.

If you find your flashbacks are bigger than the main story, or are something that takes the reader on a boring side-quest, as half of chapter six is spent revealing your MC once raced go-carts and it has nothing to do with anything else in the book, remove that flashback.

Remember, flashbacks should hint at an event in the past to give a present event more weight, not take the reader on a multi-page journey that keeps them in the past instead of current events.

While you can get away with a longer flashback if it’s super relevant to the plot, flashbacks work best when kept short. A simple line in chapter five or a paragraph in chapter eleven that relates, shows reasons, or builds on your character or their history with others is all a flashback needs to do, and you don’t need multiple chapters to do that.

Do Use Them as Sparks

While a flashback is great for revealing a character’s past and letting a reader know who they are and why they are the way they are in the present, a flashback can also be the spark to a bigger fire.

Using brief flashbacks to show a truth or a partial truth that changes things when fully revealed in the main plot can keep your readers turning pages. These tiny flashback breadcrumbs can also change where readers thought the story was going, so spark away!

When using these dos and don’ts to shape your flashbacks, you’re adding an element to your story that will encourage readers to seek what happens next, while also creating a character that feels real as each flashback gives insight into their personality, past, and motivation.

It’s a win-win, and one that can be established with a rightly placed flashback.

— K.M. Allan

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Welcome to the September 2025 roundup!

As we’re now free-falling toward the end of the year, this month was the same for me as the last few months have been: trying to write as much of my new WIP as possible, working on blog posts that don’t feel like a rehash of what I’ve already written in the last 8 years, posting content on social media that isn’t met with crickets (although thank you to everyone who regularly interacts with my posts, I appreciate it!), and watching the horror and nonsense of world “leaders” and events while trying to stay creative in yet another year of unprecedented events. It makes it hard to be human, let alone creative, some days. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way, but all we can do is keep going, appreciate the good in our lives, and get lost in family, friends, writing, reading, and entertainment, which are also things I did this September.

As for what those things were, read on…

As mentioned above, I’m falling back in love with writing again as I work on my new WIP, which is now just shy of 15,000 words. The only time I’m not working on it is when I stop to write blog posts; however, inspiration for content I feel like I haven’t covered yet, and an internal voice of doubt every time I start drafting a new blog post, continues to plague me. I’m not sure if this is a creative funk I’ll eventually break out of, or a sign I need to take a decent blogging break, but that’ll be something I’ll keep mulling over as we head into the final months of this year.

Dexter: Resurrection

I wasn’t a huge fan of Dexter: New Blood, and although Dexter: Original Sin was a step up, it still wasn’t “Dexter” enough for me, so I wasn’t exactly counting down the days for Dexter: Resurrection to start and waited until all the episodes had dropped to check it out. I was glad I did, though. With Michael C. Hall back to his Dexter best, Harry Morgan back as his conscience, drop ins from Angel and Quinn, a running joke about a new serial killer called The Dark Passenger, and a slew of serial killers played by a host of known actors (I won’t spoil it here if you haven’t watched yet), it was a step in the right direction. While I doubt Dexter will ever get back to Trinity-level best, this latest installment is worth watching if you were ever a fan of the serial-killer-who-kills-serial-killers series.

Ballard

Never one to pass up a TV series with Maggie Q at the helm (Nikita and Stalker), Ballard is based on the series of Renée Ballard detective novels by Michael Connelly.

Ousted by her former colleagues after some professional challenges, Ballard takes over the cold case squad, working with volunteers to solve forgotten crimes. While there are episodes that resolve single cases, there is an overall case running throughout based on a serial killer that is ramped up in the final episodes, and thankfully, is resolved without leaving you on a cliffhanger. This still sets things up nicely for the already green-lit season 2, so if you’re looking for a series that completes a decent story and has a great set of characters and actors, definitely check this one out.

The Woman In The Waves by Camille Booker

Set in 1921, Missy Green is a 19-year-old fisherman’s daughter who not only believes she sees mermaids in the water, but one night, when walking the beach, she finds the body of a young woman. As a witness to what may be a murder, she’s brought into the investigation by Detective Shaw, a man whom she finds herself increasingly drawn to.

After finding the body, Missy’s need to ask questions about the mysterious death of her own mother increases. She believes her father and grandfather are keeping the real truth from her, and she strikes a deal with her grandfather for answers. What Missy then uncovers spirals her into a devastating truth, while drawing the detective into a series of events that could cost him everything.

While this book is beautifully written and I did enjoy the characters, it was a little light on the murder investigation and too much into the historical and psychological aspects for my tastes. If you’re a fan of historical fiction that delves into mental health, however, it might be just what you’re looking for.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

If you’ve read this book, you’ll know that “amaze, amaze, amaze,” is the only way to describe it—and also get the reference!

I absolutely loved this story from start to finish and highly recommend getting the audiobook if you can, as the voice actor/narrator does a fantastic job.

When the sun becomes infected by an alien species and starts to die off, the only hope is school science teacher, Ryland Grace. The first person on earth to crack how the sun-sucking invader works, he’s sent on a mission to the only planet in the solar system that seems to be immune to figure out why. The book opens with him waking up on the Hail Mary spaceship with temporary amnesia. As his memory returns, we learn along with him the events that led to his present moment, and what happens when he gets to the immune planet. I won’t spoil it here, but it’s why this book is well worth the read, and why I’m also very much looking forward to the movie adaptation that’ll be released next year.

Once a Villain (Only a Monster 3) by Vanessa Len

An entertaining conclusion to the Only a Monster series, Once a Villain takes place directly after the events of book 2 (Never a Hero) with Joan, Aaron, Nick, and their friends in Eleanor’s changed timeline. Here, monsters rule over humans, and the world is falling apart.

To save it, Joan and co. need to find the right solution, and this brilliantly brings together story threads from the other books and some nice twists, all of which lead to an action-packed final chapter and an emotionally-charged ending. Highly recommended for fans of fantasy, romance, time-travel, monsters with a difference, and found family.

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

The latest book in The Hunger Games series focuses on the 50th Games, won by fan favorite Haymitch Abernathy. But just because you know that he wins the games, it doesn’t make the story and the events in the arena any less exciting—or devastating.

The book follows a similar format to The Hunger Games, where it opens on the day of reaping, which happens to be Haymitch’s 16th birthday. He is reaped, leaving behind his mother, brother, and the love of his life, Lenore Dove, and is taken to the Capitol with his fellow district 12 tributes, which are doubled as it’s an anniversary year.

What it delivers is everything a fan of this series loves: great characters, training, pageantry, and the games themselves, with alliances, mutts, twists, devastating deaths, Snow being his villainous self, and the introduction of Plutarch Heavensbee and Effie Trinket. There are also nods to the other books in the series, and an all-the-feels ending. Highly recommended for fans of the series, and this is yet another book I’m looking forward to seeing the movie adaptation of.

Let’s Be Book Friends!

If you’ve got any good book recommendations, let me know in the comments, or be my friend on Goodreads and share your faves! You can also find and follow my book reviews on Amazon and BookBub.

This month, I’ve been taking photos of… Spring, and around here that means pretty blooms and magpies.

In case you missed any of my posts or want to reread them, here are the latest blogs.

August 2025 RoundupHow to Eliminate Confusion from Your StoryThe Benefits of Ugly Drafting

And I’d like to add a shoutout to writer and photographer, Maria Antonia, who tried out the very tongue-in-cheek suggestions from my Author Photo Checklist and blogged about the results in her post, School Picture Day!. Your post and photos made my day, Maria!

And that’s it for this month. I hope you’ve enjoyed my September Roundup. Let me know what you got up to in the comments!

— K.M. Allan

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When starting a new manuscript, everyone knows the first draft just needs to be written.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the whole plot, every single character, or the ending, just as long as you know something to get the words flowing.

But what happens when you can write the first chapter, but just can’t keep the momentum going?

I had this happen to me when I started my current work in progress. No matter how much of the plot was already in my head, how well I already knew my characters, and that I actually had notes for the final chapter, I just couldn’t get that first draft moving.

Normally, I write a story from start to finish, pantsing or discovery writing my way through it, but for this first draft, that process wasn’t working for me. For once, I had so many ideas about where to take the story that all the options were tripping me up.

Trying to write a linear first draft clearly would not happen, and I realized I needed to switch to ugly drafting.

The Benefits of Ugly Drafting

Ugly drafting involves writing a scene you have in your head, no matter where it falls in the story, and going from there.

This might be something you already do as your writing process, but for me, a writer who is all about organization, routines, and writing from the first chapter to the last, it was a strange new way to do things that had me creatively stumped for a few days.

After deciding to lean into ugly drafting, though, the words flowed, ideas came thick and fast, and I even came up with a rough outline.

So, if you’re stuck getting your first draft off the ground and your usual start-to-finish method isn’t working, ugly drafting just might be for you, too, and here are the benefits of it.

You Don’t Have to Stay with Ideas That Don’t Work

If your usual drafting mode is to start and stick with the idea that inspired your story, but you’re finding that idea isn’t working now that you’re putting it on the page, don’t worry about it!

You may have tried to make it work no matter what in the past, but with ugly drafting, you’re free to try out all ideas.

I ran through three different opening chapters for my latest WIP before I got one I hadn’t even planned by ugly drafting to see what came out.

Past-Kate might have never entertained such a thing, but Present-Kate was pleasantly surprised with this new unplanned scene and the words and ideas that flowed from there.

So yes, your initial idea sparked the basis of this book, and maybe with previous manuscripts you’ve had no trouble taking initial ideas and running with them, but if your initial idea isn’t going anywhere this time, don’t force it.

Keep it for another project and go with the ideas that are working. That might seem like the right/logical/obvious advice, but you’d be surprised how much your writer brain tries to force you to stick with your initial idea. Leave Past-You behind for this draft, and ugly it up to get your creativity flowing.

You Can Go Bite-Sized

With ugly drafting, you don’t need to overwhelm yourself.

If you don’t know every character yet, write down the ones you do. If you don’t have every plot point nailed, note down the ones you have. If all you have is a character name and nothing else, that’s fine for now.

Banish the mentality that you must have it all figured out before you even put a word on a page, because with ugly drafting, you don’t.

Go bite-sized with your writing elements and just work on what you know right now to get the words on the page.

At one point, my current ugly draft had 23 random scenes, most of which were literally titles or one sentence that summed up what I wanted the scene to be. I’ve never done this when writing a first draft before.

For this WIP, I had ideas for scenes, no idea where any of them would fit, and some ideas that were barely more than notes, such as “these two characters in a room talking about this event.” I didn’t even know the full details of what that event was. I just knew they needed to talk about it, so I added a scene to my ugly draft to write it later, and you can do that, too.

Write down every scrap of sentence, note, and part of dialogue you already have in your head, and sort them into their own scene/note/page so you can move on to the next scene without feeling the need to fill/write everything first.

You Can Break All the Writing Rules

Just as a first draft doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be written, ugly drafting is the same.

Don’t get hung up on the writing rules. With ugly drafting, you can…

Info-dump.Go into “And Then…”.Play with What Ifs?.Use placeholder staging notes.Embrace nonsense.

The ugly draft is the place to info-dump, bridge ideas by writing “and then this happens” instead of having the exact details written/worked out before moving on.

Go with What Ifs? and brainstorm/write a paragraph about three different ways to end the chapter, and pick which one you’ll use later. Don’t agonize about describing the room perfectly, or where everyone is standing in the action scene as you’re ugly drafting. “Hero is by a cliff edge,” or “MC sat on a couch in the living room” is enough in the ugly draft. Specifics can be filled in on the second draft.

Embrace the nonsense and write whatever you need to or think of in the moment, and shape it to perfection later.

You Can Be Just a Little Organized

Now, just because I’m writing chaos in an ugly draft doesn’t mean I’ve completely abandoned my organized writing side. Once you’ve established most, if not all, of your ugly draft, an element of structure does come into play—and it goes a little something like this…

A Notes File

One thing I found when ugly drafting was that I had to make a lot of notes. Some about later scenes, plot developments that would need to be added at earlier points, and just general backgrounds about characters or anything that needed to be included or explored further, but I didn’t yet have a scene or place for.

That led to the creation of a “Notes” file. This became the place I dumped all these little tidbits. If I decided my MC needed to have a childhood injury impact him later in life, I added that note to this file. If I was writing a scene, and the idea for a scene relating to it needed to be included later in the book, the note for that went into this file.

A notes file allows you to get the ideas recorded so you don’t forget them and allows you to put them away for later, so you keep writing while the momentum is happening. Will you use every single one of these notes in the story? Probably not, but capturing them is important, and it also gives you something to sort through/use when you get stuck on what to write next or where to take the plot.

So, add a “Notes” file to your WIP and keep it updated as you ugly draft. Then, thank Past-You when you use those notes to put together the puzzle pieces of your story.

A Rough Outline

When it comes to outlining, my usual go-to is to reverse outline after I’ve written the first draft. For ugly drafting, I find that making a rough outline when I have enough half-drafted scenes and notes for future scenes to cobble together a plot is the way to go.

This helped me see what I already had and work out where I was going.

You can do this too by creating a new file and writing a bullet point list of what you have so far, for example…

OpeningAssignmentAfter PartyDinerDate FlashbackMissingFootball GameRumorsVigilScoopArrestedSecretsTruthStory Swap

It probably won’t make sense to anyone but you, but each bullet point represents a scene that makes up the roadmap for your story.

Like your ugly draft, this outline should be something that can be quickly sorted so you don’t waste writing time working on a process that is likely to change multiple times with subsequent drafts.

With your rough outline and each scene arranged in its order, you’ve achieved the final benefit of ugly drafting—a (semi-put-together) plan.

From here, you can try writing from start to finish until you’ve completed your first draft.

After that, reverse outline and get to work on your second draft with a clearer idea of what your overall story is, all thanks to the chaos and beauty of ugly drafting.

— K.M. Allan

What’s your drafting process like? Are you a start-to-finish, planner, plotter, pantser, plantser, discovery writer, or ugly drafter? Let’s talk about it in the comments!

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How many times have you started a book and wondered what was going on, or reached the climax of the big battle only to be hopelessly lost?

And what about when the big reveal happens, the characters are acting like the entire world changed, and you’re just scratching your head, pondering if you misread something or skipped an important page?

Confusion is not a feeling readers like, and it’s not an outcome any writer wants. But just as it happens in the books we read, it can also happen in the books we write. Trouble is, we might not notice it as we’re crafting our story.

Thankfully, there are a few items to keep an eye out for as you edit that can help kill any confusion that sneaks into your story, and they’re listed right here!

How to Eliminate Confusion from Your StoryWeed Out the Excessive Vague Mystery

Any kind of story can benefit from a little mystery, but where the mystery tips into confusion territory is when you’re excessively vague about it.

It’s understandable. You’re only in the first half of the book, and you don’t want to give away all the secrets yet. So, you vaguely mention a glowing orb being important. Then, a few chapters later, you touch on it again, but you don’t build on it. You keep things too vague right until the big reveal. By this point, the reader knows barely anything about the mysterious orb, so when it becomes the savior of the story, they’re just confused about why something only vaguely hinted at is the one thing that turns everything around.

Don’t keep your readers in the dark. Instead, use vague mystery once, followed by more hints and solid info, and then the reveal. It makes for a better reading experience, and you won’t confuse anyone.

Replace Sparse Details with Specifics

As a writer who has spent endless hours working out the story details in your head, and then countless months writing and editing the words to bring those details to life, you might find it hard to believe that anything is confusing.

But as the person who has thought through and thought up all those details, you’d be surprised how many of the little details get lost on the way from your brain to the page.

In your head, you see an intriguing back and forth amongst fully realized characters in a fancy hotel room, but the page says…

Sparse example:

The man looked out the window at the trees below before turning back into the hotel room and addressing his visitor.
“Did you bring the device with you?”
He patted his pocket, leaning forward in the chair as he retrieved it and put it on the table between them.
“It’s good to go.”

It’s not exactly confusing, but it’s not great either. The sparse details fail to inform the reader about the characters or where they are, giving them little reason to care about what’s happening.

If a reader doesn’t care about what is happening, attention lags. If the reader then needs to know that the device is important, or that it’s a big deal that “Man” and “Visitor” met, but have forgotten them because of sparse details, it’s only going to lead to confusion.

Let’s try the same passage with specific details….

Specific example:

Jack looked through the smudged pane of the window to the black birch trees swaying in the paved courtyard below. Turning back into the neat hotel room, he focused away from the gaudy gold trim embellishing the walls and narrowed his gaze on Carl.
“Did you bring the device with you?”
Carl patted the right breast pocket of his soft blue overcoat with a gloved hand, leaning forward in the wingback chair as he retrieved the square box and placed it on the glass top of the grand table between them.
“It’s good to go.”

Just by adding the specific details of character names, what they’re wearing, and more info about their surroundings, the small section is already more interesting and memorable.

While you might think you’d never have a sparse paragraph like the first example in a final draft, never bet against months of writing and rereading making you blind to a lack of details. Ensure you’re on top of it by double-checking your chapters and replacing sparseness with specifics to cut out any potential confusion.

Journey Into the Character’s Head

While no rule says you have to use internal thoughts when writing a story, it can really keep confusion at bay.

After all, if you don’t include the thought process of your MC driving his car across a flooded road, he’s going to look like an idiot, and your reader is going to be confused about why your previously smart, play-it-safe MC is now being an idiot. But, if you let the reader in on the character’s inner thoughts about knowing the right side of the road is raised enough to get him across safely, his decision makes sense.

Allowing readers into your character’s head regarding what they’re doing, saying, and why they’re interacting with the world in the way they are helps to explain things, which is only going to eliminate confusion, not cause it.

Combine those internal thoughts with specific details and no excessive mystery, and you should be able to cut as much confusion from your story as you can. It’s a win for you as a writer and a win-win for your readers.

— K.M. Allan

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Welcome to the August 2025 roundup!

Please tell me I am not the only one who blinked at the start of August and now it’s suddenly the end! Eight months down already for 2025, and I feel like I’ve only just struck the right balance of getting things done .

For me, this month was a whirlwind of bookish events, reading, blogging, authoring—and amongst the usual responsibilities of life—adding words to my WIP.

Now that I’m spending the majority of my writing time working on this new manuscript, I’ve set myself a very loose deadline to complete the first draft by the end of the year. Originally, I thought I could do it by October, using a booked holiday away as the deadline, but then I realised that’s now only 6 weeks away, and I doubt I’ll be able to draft that fast.

As for what else I got up to in August, read on…

After planning and plotting in July and then rewriting the opening three times, I finally hit a creative flow with my new WIP. It’s still untitled at the moment, but I’m hoping that as I go, the right title will emerge. As of the end of August, I’m just over 6,000 words deep and eager to write when I sit at my desk, so I’ll keep going with the enthusiasm while it lasts!

Freakier Friday

The sequel to Freaky Friday, which saw Tess Coleman and her daughter, Anna Coleman, switch bodies for the day. In Freakier Friday, a grown-up Anna switches places with her daughter, Harper, while Tess switches places with Anna’s soon-to-be stepdaughter, Lily. This is to teach the four a lesson about finding where they belong. While the plot doesn’t stray too far from the original, it packs it with so many nods and nostalgia, it can get away with it. It also helps that Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis, and the newcomers Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons are all so great in the roles they play and during the switch-ups. The soundtrack is also great. If you’re a fan of Freaky Friday, this sequel is worth seeing.

The Thursday Murder Club

Based on the best-selling book, The Thursday Murder Club is packed with star actors and a great plot.

When Joyce (Celia Imrie) moves into a very fancy retirement home after the death of her husband, her goal is to make new friends. That comes about when her background as a nurse gets her invited to The Thursday Murder Club. Run by Elizabeth (Helen Mirren), Ron (Pierce Brosnan), and Ibrahim (Ben Kingsley), they solve the cold cases left by a former member and police detective, Penny.

When one of the owners of their retirement home is murdered, not only do they have the chance to solve a current case, but they can also stop their home from being sold. Full of red herrings, twists, and cake, it’s just a delightful movie all around.

Never a Hero (Only a Monster book 2) by Vanessa Len

It’s taken me a while to get to this sequel, but with the trilogy wrapping up with the release of the third and final book, I thought I’d get back into the series.

Never a Hero picks up with Joan in the new timeline she created after the events of the first book. While she remembers what happened, her family and friends do not, and she’s trying to move on. That’s hard to do when the new boy at her school turns out to be former monster slayer, Nick—the boy she kissed and betrayed. He doesn’t remember her, but is caught up in Joan’s mess when monsters from the future time-travel to kidnap her.

Before she knows it, she and Nick are on the run again, and she needs to let him know what she did to him without losing his trust. Flung into the future, they have to rely on other monsters, each other, and the other boy from Joan’s past—Aaron. When the enemy behind the current events plans for a more devastating timeline, Joan, Nick, and Aaron have to work together to prevent a future where they’re all doomed. There are some great twists in this one, and some banging final chapters to lead into what looks to be an epic conclusion to this YA fantasy trilogy.

Eleanor Jones is Playing with Fire by Amy Doak

Another excellent Eleanor adventure. When a fire destroys a property near Eleanor, she thinks she sees something suspicious. That hunch gets stronger as a series of fires breaks out in Cooinda. Despite promising to stay out of it, a threatening note gets her involved, and you know she won’t let up until it’s solved.

As usual, it’s the sarcastic wittiness of Eleanor and the good nature of her friends that anchors this series. The new romance between Eleanor and Troy is also a highlight and brings the right amount of sweetness to the story. If you have preteen readers looking to get into mystery stories that aren’t full of gore and horror, this series is the one for them, and is also enjoyable for any reader who likes lighthearted sleuth stories with good characters and solid writing.

The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Another book set in the Inheritance Games world, but this one moves away from the main characters and brings in the new characters introduced in the spin-off books. They’re there to be part of The Grandest Game, an annual scavenger hunt run by Avery and the Hawthorne brothers.

Hawthorne Island, once the place of a deadly fire, is now the setting for the second annual Grandest Game, and every player wants to win, not just for the riches, but also to uncover each other’s secrets.

I really enjoyed this book as the games were back, and they allowed you to get to know the newer characters better. While the book ends on a cliffhanger to lead to the next release, what it serves up in the rest of the story is plenty of mystery, double-crosses, puzzles, and romance amongst the various teammates. If you enjoyed the original trilogy, this new trilogy is one to add to your TBR list.

Of Flame and Fury by Mikayla Bridge

When Kel Varra and her team of phoenix racers, The Howlers, are given the opportunity to train at a high-tech facility, they jump at the chance. Not only will it help them win races, but it’ll allow Kel to provide a better home for her phoenix, Savita. The only catch is they have to team up with Coup, a rider who pushes boundaries—and all of Kel’s buttons. But when not everything is a good as it seems under the guidance of their billionaire benefactor, Coup may be the only one Kel can trust.

Given that this story takes place in a world full of tech, magic, fantastical creatures, and racing, there is a lot of action. It’s fast-paced when the races happen, which creates tension and edge-of-your-seat chapters. Combined with found family, enemies-to-lovers, and a greatly foreshadowed twist leading to a satisfying finale, this is a read worth adding to your TBR pile if you’re a YA fantasy adventure fan.

Let’s Be Book Friends!

If you’ve got any good book recommendations, let me know in the comments, or be my friend on Goodreads and share your faves! You can also find and follow my book reviews on Amazon and BookBub.

This month, I’ve been taking photos of… bookish events and out-of-the-house writing sessions! In August, I attended the launch for Once A Villain by Vanessa Len, and met up with my fellow #6amAusWriters member, Belinda Grant, to work on our current WIPs while eating yummy food and drinking delicious hot chocolates.

In case you missed any of my posts or want to reread them, here are the latest blogs.

July 2025 RoundupQuestions to Create a Non-Plotter’s First Draft OutlineCuring a Case of the Authoring Mondays

And that’s it for this month. I hope you’ve enjoyed my August Roundup. Let me know what you got up to in the comments!

— K.M. Allan

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, Threads, and sign up for my Newsletter to get my blog posts delivered directly to your inbox!

Anyone who works a nine-to-five job knows about Mondays and how the thought of them creeps into your mind on a Sunday night.

Just the dread of starting another week of monotony brings your whole mood down, but it’s not exclusive to office life. Experiencing it when working on your art also happens.

I’ve been there. When burnout hits, the thought of sitting at my writing desk gives me the same anxiety as the night before a new working week.

It was silly because any writing day is an escape from the daily grind, at least they’re supposed to be. At some point, however, when you go from casually writing on a weekend to seriously pursuing your publishing dreams, it morphs into a “job.”

That job then turns your first writing day of the week into a Monday, especially the kind of Monday that involves more authoring tasks than writing itself.

Curing a Case of the Authoring Mondays

In my situation, that dreaded Monday feeling stemmed from knowing that what I’d be doing the first writing session of a new week wasn’t working on my current WIP, but everything else a modern writer has to do to be a modern writer.

It was coming up with and creating social media posts for the week ahead, working on blogging content, and designing graphics for marketing.

Some months, I have blogs drafted and ready to be edited and polished, or weeks’ worth of graphics ready to post. Other weeks, I’d have no content or clue what to post. Those are the Mondays that are the Mondayest of Mondays, and a definite source of Sunday night anxiety.

Such worries about upcoming authoring tasks, and grappling with the guilt of doing them over progress on any latest WIP, started making the first writing session/day of my week something I dreaded rather than looked forward to, and I knew that meant I needed to change things up.

Create a Planning and Catch-All Day

I know that I’m more productive with a plan, and I love planning things, so by taking my Monday from a try-to-do-everything-day to a plan-the-rest-of-my-week-day, I now look forward to it because it’s all about organizing the week ahead, doing the parts of authoring that I like, and there’s no pressure.

I find that keeping on top of these things also sets me up for the rest of the week. I know what I’m doing on the other early mornings when I sit at my desk instead of wasting precious time trying to remember what I wanted to work on or what kind of posts I need to add to social media that day. Working these things out in advance also gives me a ready-to-go to-do list for the rest of the week!

With this planning day, I also give myself permission not to worry about those things any day other than on a Monday.

On a Monday, I can take my time to decide and capture social media photos, write any captions, schedule posts, and work out that I can write a new chapter on a Wednesday, or that this week getting the notes and timeline of my new WIP is the priority.

After that planning, any time left then becomes a catch-all day, and that catch-all is…

Reading the blogs I follow.Commenting on blogs/social media posts.Replying to comments left on my blog/social media.Clearing my inbox and notifications (which currently involves marking those ridiculous AI-written “Marketing” posts that are clogging up every writer’s inbox and DMs as Spam).

While I do little bits of these catch-all tasks throughout the week, if I’m prioritizing writing or have other responsibilities going on and can’t do these tasks daily, having time during my planning day to stay on top of these authoring tasks helps.

So, if you can, give yourself a planning day or session to get on top of everything at the start of your writing week (whatever day that may be) and see if it helps you avoid the pressure of a dreaded Authoring Monday.

Take Back Your Downtime

When you’re spending as much of your free time writing as you can, and dealing with other responsibilities like a day job and/or taking care of kids, that means squeezing authoring in at other times. Often, that leaks into what used to be your downtime, and contributes to that flat Authoring Monday feel.

Suddenly, at-home Saturday movie nights are packed with scrolling your screen as you keep up with your notifications, and you don’t even know what happened in the movie you just spent 2 hours “watching.”

Replying to comments and emails now also overtakes the real-life conversations going on around you, and that time to relax, read for pleasure, or remember to call a friend has been eaten by the time-suck of reposting your weekly content on Threads.

It’s very damned if you do and damned if you don’t, but to throw in another cliche, you can’t pour from an empty cup.

You need to take back your downtime, or at least some of it, to get to a place where it doesn’t feel like authoring is all that you do.

One thing I learned when I took a month off at the end of last year was that the world doesn’t stop if you don’t check social media, and it doesn’t really care either. If you can be away for a month, you can be away for 2 days over the weekend.

Missing out on your Facebook memories for a Saturday and Sunday won’t kill you, and neither will replying to that comment as part of your Monday catch-all day instead of during the days when you should be able to recharge your creativity.

If possible, keep your authoring to weekdays and reclaim weekend time for yourself. If you can’t, at least put a limit on it and only check social media/messages/emails/notifications once instead of multiple times. It’ll be worth it to avoid burnout and a bigger case of the Authoring Mondays.

Turn off Your Computer

My final tip for making Authoring Mondays more palatable is something I also started doing this year. I work from a laptop in a home office, and I usually leave that laptop on. During the week, it makes sense because the first thing I do on a weekday morning is get up at 6 a.m. to write with author friends on Threads.

With my computer left on, it’s easy to wake it up after I’ve woken up and get straight into my writing and authoring tasks, but that habit also started extending to the weekend.

Even though I now rarely write on a weekend thanks to the lessons learned during past burnout experiences, I would still leave the computer on to go into sleep mode so it was ready to go on Monday. Now, that’s probably not great for the battery, but it’s also not great for signaling to your writing brain that it’s time to turn off.

By not going through the ritual of turning off my computer, I was missing out on a finality to my creative week, and if you’re in the same boat, give it a try. It could be all you need to help your mindset and release any unconscious pressure, giving you that last step for curing any case of the Authoring Mondays.

— K.M. Allan

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When it comes to writing, I’m not a plotter, and despite my love of organization, I don’t plan.

When starting a WIP, I usually have little knowledge of how things will end. I may have a few ideas for the start, some characters who are louder than others, a few sentences of dialogue, or a scene in my head that needs to be translated to the page.

I’m also usually still working this out when I sit down to start the first draft, and that’s fine. I am a pantser/discovery writer and thrive on piecing together a few notes to craft something.

That was until I started my current work in progress.

This is my first new manuscript in almost two years, and my first attempt at a standalone book. When I sat down to create it, all I did for weeks at a time was start, stop, start.

My go-to trick of writing my way into the story was only leading to random paragraphs that I’d abandon the next day to try something else. For the first time, I was a non-plotter who needed some semblance of a plot to get things moving.

That meant planning an actual outline first and not going with my usual routine of reverse outlining after the first draft.

Because I didn’t know how to do that, I started asking myself questions about the plot and characters to see what shook loose. Now, I have a better idea of what I’m going to write, so if you’re in a similar situation and would like the same help, read on…

Questions to Create a Non-Plotter’s First Draft OutlineGrab a pen and notebook or create a new digital file.Write/type these questions out.Answer them.Use the answers to help create your first draft outline.What Is the Kicker?

The kicker—or exciting incident—is what starts the story off. You may know this already; you may not. You might start it in a certain place for your initial draft, and then realize it has to change, or it’s not working.

For my WIP, one of the start, stop, start moments was the kicker. Six months ago, my exciting incident was a paragraph of the main character talking about another character. Recently, it was a note about the opening chapter being set at the scene of a fire. It may be neither of these options once the final draft rolls around, but I know there needs to be an exciting incident to kick off the story, and by asking the question and brainstorming the ideas, I have the first part of my outline.

Try it yourself and see what kickers you can come up with in your answers, and what ideas they may spark for your manuscript.

Who Are the Characters?

These can be strictly your main/core characters or every character you want to include if you already know enough detail.

Add their names (if you know them) to an individual note page/file and whatever else about them you’d like.

Ask if you know their hair color? If they’re rich? Poor? Do they have a family? What’s their job? Are they in school? Are they smart, stupid, or a liar? How do they know the other characters? Are any of them family, friends, or romantically involved?

You might know the answers to your questions and more. You might know nothing past a first name. Create the files anyway and then add to them as you go. This not only gets your brain thinking about who these characters are, but the notes will help you shape them as you write.

A file like this can even serve as the start of your story bible, so keep track of those character details, and they’ll serve you beyond the outline and through every stage of the writing process.

Whose Point of View?

All books need to come from the POV of someone, and you may already know whose POV you’d like to tell this specific WIP from. If you do, pop it under this heading. If it’s just one character, your job is done.

If, like me, you thought it would be at least two characters, then you can write those two names down. If also, like me, when filling in these outline questions, you realize the story would be better served involving a third POV, make that note.

If you then change your mind again (still me) and decide a combo of two different characters is the right way to go, write that down too.

What Happens at the Start, Middle, End?

When I created the document for my WIP, I added one sentence that had been repeating in my head for several years, expanded it into a couple of paragraphs of internal character monologuing, and then got stuck.

I didn’t know the start of the story or the middle, and I had an end that I’m half convinced is actually for another story altogether (the joys of writing, right?). Still, asking myself these questions for the outline helped focus the ideas that were floating around in my head, and dismiss and settle on others.

It’s okay if you don’t know your own yet, just ask yourself the questions, rule things in and out, and update the start, middle, and end as they come to you.

What Are the Character Arcs?

Character arcs are usually something that evolves as the story evolves. Surprisingly, for my WIP, I had two characters with an arc I could see after answering these outline questions.

If you can also answer how a character changes from start to finish, use this section of your outline to fill in those details. If you don’t yet, leave a space to brainstorm or map it out once you do know.

What Are the Feels?

What emotions do you want your readers to feel, and what emotions do you want your characters to express? If you know the answers, put them here. If you don’t, have a think about it.

Even though I’ve written virtually nothing for my WIP, as it involves a murder, I do know grief will be part of it. I also know from outlining my core characters that one has pressure from outside sources, another is lonely, and another is extremely ambitious. These will all involve certain emotions being a part of the characters, and working out the best way to get those feelings to translate to the readers. It’s another layer to add to your book, and another thing to outline before you write.

Now, with the questions asked and brainstormed/answered, finish your outline with a notes section.

The Notes Section

This is where you will put any scene ideas or notes that you have that don’t fit in with the questions asked and answered.

Create a file/page titled…

Scene ideas.Notes.

And put down those very things.

If/when you have enough scene ideas, you can also split them into their own files/pages. At the start, those files may only contain a vague note or a sentence, but eventually, they’ll become the scenes that make up your chapters. Before that, they’ll be the skeleton of your outline and help you get the story out of your head so it can be written.

And just like that, we non-plotters can create a first draft outline with a few questions. Hopefully, the answers will unleash your creativity and give you clarity. Think of it like a roadmap where you don’t have to know the exact way to the destination, but you now have some direction to find it.

— K.M. Allan

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Welcome to the July 2025 roundup!

Just to prove how fast the year is flying by (and how bad my memory is ), I totally missed that my blog has now been around for 8 years! The milestone happened last month in June, and I forgot to celebrate it, let alone even think about writing a post. In the past, I’ve penned a ‘Lessons Learned‘ or ‘Blogiversary’ type post, but just didn’t get the chance to this time, so instead I’d like to take the opportunity now to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who reads, comments, and shares my posts, especially those who have been around for the majority of those 8 years. I keep blogging because of you guys, and I hope you’re still enjoying reading my content as much as I am writing it.

Another reason I missed my blogiversary was due to a nasty cold that started in June but took me down for a week in July, and the only good thing about it was getting ahead on my reading goals by listening to two audiobooks while I rested in bed surrounded by the cats. That week off threw out my routine, and I’m still playing catch-up now, so if you’ve noticed that I haven’t read or commented on your July blogs and substack posts, please know I am getting around to all my notifications as soon as I can.

This month, I was also a bit of an introverted social butterfly, meeting up with various members of the Australian writing community at two different bookish events (pics below!).

As for what else I got up to in July, read on…

Despite everything, I did make some progress on my new WIP. I’m still not at the stage of writing pages, let alone chapters, but I have a much better idea of what the story will be about and who the main characters are after a lot of note-taking, planning, and plotting. I have roughly 23 scene ideas too, which right now are little more than a sentence or two, but it’s the start of this manuscript, and I’m very much enjoying being back in a creative space.

I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)

Technically, the third entry in the movie franchise (ignoring the awful 2021 TV series) it’s named the same as the original but serves as a reboot with new characters and a new hit-and-run murder that sparks a killing spree scenario. It also brings back the two survivors of the original movie (Jennifer Love Hewitt as Julie and Freddie Prinze Jr. as Ray).

The best thing about this movie is the nostalgia it mines from the original cast and movies, peppering this one with references, cameos, call-backs to infamous lines/quotes, and invoking 90s slasher movies when it gets the pacing and scariness of the kills right. What it gets wrong is a muddled middle where scenes jump from one place to another, rapidly moving the plot along but leaving no depth to give the end payoffs and reveals the impact they could have had. There’s also a pretty big twist in this movie that I did not like.

The ending hints at a sequel, which I’m sure will be made if the movie is a big enough hit, and a mid-credit scene is one worth sticking around for if you’re a fan of the original sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Following on from Thunderbolts, which was the best Marvel movie in a long time, The Fantastic Four: First Steps dives right in, skipping the origin story of how the Four got their powers and catching viewers up with a quick TV intro instead. Having watched the 2005, 2007, and 2015 versions, I liked the fact that they didn’t spend a whole movie rehashing and went straight into a problem.

That problem is Galactus, a cosmic entity who eats planets and has decided the world the Fantastic Four live on is next on the menu. This doesn’t sit well with Mister Fantastic and Sue Storm, who are about to have their first child. All the actors do a great job in their roles, and there’s plenty of action, heart, and emotion in the story. As usual, there is a mid-credit scene to lead to the next movie you’ll see the characters in (Avengers: Doomsday), and a fun easter egg at the very end.

Games Untold by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

This is a collection of stories revolving around the characters of The Inheritance Games books. While they are stand-alone, it helps if you have read the previous books, as these stories fill in gaps and work better when you already know the characters and some of the circumstances the stories highlight.

As a fan of the original trilogy, I did enjoy visiting the characters again and having some events filled in, especially the full story of Hannah and Toby that was touched on in The Hawthorne Legacy. At the same time, stories revolving around smaller characters, like Zander Hawthorne, highlighted why he’s more of a background character and not someone who should have a whole book dedicated to them.

Definitely one for big fans of The Inheritance Games world, especially those reading the spin-off books, as some stories feature a character who will appear in those volumes.

The Wolf Tree by Laura McCluskey

After a tragic policing incident that’s slowly revealed throughout the story, DI Georgina and her partner, DI Richie, are sent to a small island off the coast of Scotland to investigate a shocking suicide.

Steeped in old folklore and with an attitude of taking care of their own problems, not everyone on the island is happy to see the investigators, and neither, it seems, is the island itself.

It does its best to mess with Georgina’s fragile mental state, and when she begins hearing the impossibility of wolves howling at night, and sees someone in a mask prowling outside her window, she wonders who—or what—wants her to drop the case. The truth won’t be what you expect, and that’s what makes this such a gripping read.

Full of great characters, voice, and an intriguing storyline, The Wolf Tree is the ideal book for fans of slow-burn mystery thrillers.

Family of Liars by E. Lockhart

Having recently watched the TV adaptation of We Were Liars, which hinted at events from this prequel story, I didn’t want to wait a few years for a second series to find out what happened and grabbed the audiobook.

Written from Carrie Sinclair’s point of view, this story involves her early teen years at Beechwood, the private Island where her family spends their summers, and the family secrets she unearths, as well as battles with grief, addiction, a scandalous death, and a cover-up. Despite these heavy topics, it’s an entertaining read where you get to know the characters better and understand what drove some of their actions in We Were Liars.

Whether you’re a fan of that book or the TV adaptation, or just like stories with secrets, this is a book worth adding to your TBR list.

Everyone In the Group Chat Dies by L.M. Chilton

When journalist Kirby gets roped into helping her new roommate, Esme, track down the story behind their town’s long-dead serial killer, she figures the interest might help save the local paper she writes for from going under. But as they sleuth in all the wrong places, a tragedy happens. Esme ends up dead, and their other housemates stop talking to Kirby, forcing her to leave town. A year later, their old group chat pings, and Kirby is horrified to receive a message from Esme, warning that anyone who leaves the group chat will die. Forced back home, Kirby tries to get to the bottom of the mystery and find out who is stalking them before the body count gets even higher.

Although this book sounds heavy, the voice and character of Kirby are so well done that it’s actually darkly humorous. Frankly, Kirby’s a mess, but the kind of mess you want to see succeed. There are also some thrilling chase scenes, numerous mysteries to solve, and a satisfying ending that should entertain any reader who is a fan of thrillers with a touch of fun.

Let’s Be Book Friends!

If you’ve got any good book recommendations, let me know in the comments, or be my friend on Goodreads and share your faves! You can also find and follow my book reviews on Amazon and BookBub.

This month, I’ve been taking photos of… bookish events and release milestones! In July, I attended the launch for Of Flame and Fury by debut YA author Mikayla Bridge, and then the Penguin Fantasy Fest 2025, where YA authors Keshe Chow, Lyndall Clipstone, and Lily Crozier talked about their upcoming books and other industry tidbits. I also celebrated the 1-month anniversary of Writing and Editing Checklists.

In case you missed any of my posts or want to reread them, here are the latest blogs.

June 2025 Roundup5 Ways to Curb Procrastination and Finally Start Your Work in ProgressThe Author Photo Checklist

Other blogs…

Eternal thanks to the following bloggers for reviewing/spotlighting Writing and Editing Checklists on their blogs this month. Please visit the following links to read the content, and follow these great blogs if you aren’t already.

Smorgasbord New Book Spotlight – #Writing and #Editing #Checklists: Everything You Need to Take Your Book from First Draft to Publication by K.M. Allan – Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Sally Cronin. Review: Writing and Editing Checklists: Everything You Need to Take Your Book from First Draft to Publication – Written by K.M. Allan – Rambles, writing and amusing musings – Laurie Bell

And that’s it for this month. I hope you’ve enjoyed my July Roundup. Let me know what you got up to in the comments!

— K.M. Allan

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, Threads, and sign up for my Newsletter to get my blog posts delivered directly to your inbox!

Taking an author photo could be the mark of a dream come true if it’s for your debut novel’s book jacket, or it could be the start of your nervous entry into the writing community, where you need a profile picture to add to your social media accounts.

In both and all cases, an author photo is a must, and you can achieve one using the tips from this checklist.

Get the Equipment

You can, of course, go to a professional for your author photo, and if that’s in your budget and the option that makes you the most comfortable, go for it.

For a do-it-yourself option, you don’t need a studio. Make use of your backyard or a well-lit room in your house and snap away. What you’ll need…

A camera or a phone that can take decent photos.To find some color that’ll look great in the background.To use good lighting (get a ring light or go with natural light).Decide on Your Vision

Do you want a photo that represents your love of books? If so, what can you wear/pose with to demonstrate that? Do you just want a nice photo where you look like a more presentable version of the writer who sits at their desk all day in well-worn tracksuit pants?

Whether you’re happy with something eye-catching or just good enough, decide on the vision of the photo you want, and take steps to gather what you’ll need to achieve it.

Plot Your Poses

Here are some classic tips, and interesting pose suggestions to help inspire you.

Smile—either nicely, awkwardly, or like a serial killer—your choice!Pose with an animal—either yours or borrow the neighbor’s.Holding your book—there’s an awkward way to do it, and an even more awkward way, but you’ll figure it out.Go for a plain, timeless outfit, and color choices—remembering that power suits and neon orange are as out of fashion now as they were thirty years ago and still will be in thirty years’ time.Add in writing paraphernalia—you’ll finally get to break out the typewriters, ink pens, ornate unused notebooks, and the jar of rejection tears you’ve been hoarding.Sit or pose around your desk—make sure you look like you’re writing so everyone knows you’re a writer.Pose in front of a bookshelf—don’t forget to blur the books so it looks arty.Get out in nature—natural sunlight and colorful trees/flowers can provide pretty backgrounds, and you’ll get some of that fresh air and sunshine that people who work daylight hours at a writing desk are always talking about!

Once you have your author photo, add it to all the book covers, social media channels, guest posts, promo opportunities, and book swag you can!

— K.M. Allan

If you’re a fan of checklists, don’t forget to check out my Writing and Editing Checklists, and the free companion, Authoring Checklists, which features this checklist plus others covering everything from writing habits, handover notes, style sheets, series bibles, procrastination, staying motivated, writing query letters, blurbs, a synopsis, putting together an ARC, beta reader questions, sorting and handing bad feedback, dealing with rejections, branding, what to blog about, creating author bios, press packs, marketing essentials, book launch tips, and preparing for podcast interviews!

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, Threads, and sign up for my Newsletter to get my blog posts delivered directly to your inbox!

It’s been 20 months since I last worked on a fictional manuscript, and over 20 years since I worked on a book that didn’t involve characters from my series, Blackbirch.

So, naturally, I’ve been very eager to sit down at my writing desk, start a work in progress, and get creative with a new story. Also, naturally, I’ve been trying to start this process for a few months now and procrastinating all the way.

Why authors do this to themselves, I don’t know. What I do know is that spending a few hours on a Tuesday in April making notes for an untitled Scrivener project, and then using a Thursday morning in June to add 84 words to a paragraph I penned back in January does not a book make.

I’ve been procrastinating hard, and if you’ve been doing the same, here are 5 tips to get you started on actually starting your WIP, and to help you curb your procrastination habits!

5 Ways to Curb Procrastination and Finally Start Your Work in Progress1. Identify Your Self-Sabotage

Did I create, edit, and release two writing craft books during the time I had to start my new WIP? Yes, I did. Did I keep blogging, creating social media content, and posting said content to multiple accounts regularly? Yes, I did. Did I use those things as a reason to delay starting and continuing to work on my WIP? Yes. Yes, I did.

I’ve had the time in the last 20 months to work on this new WIP and my regular writing content/commitments, and most of the time, I did my utmost best to self-sabotage any decent progress.

I convinced myself I had to have the other books completed and released and all of my blogs for the rest of this year drafted before I could work solidly on my WIP—and that’s just not true. I can, and should have been doing both.

If you have a similar self-sabotage story, or know in your writer heart-of-hearts what you do to delay writing your own WIP, the time to get over that mindset is now.

Identify your self-sabotage, banish it, and commit to making your new WIP your priority, and then get to work. It’s the only way your WIP will get written.

2. Reset Your Writing Brain

If you’re really struggling to get into things, sometimes your writing brain needs a creative reset.

This happened to me recently, by accident. The only progress I was making on my WIP was writing down notes every few days and telling myself that was enough. Then I got an awful cold.

It was so bad; I spent the best part of the week in bed doing nothing but listening to audiobooks and living on cold relief meds to ease the sinus pain and headaches.

The time away from thinking about my work in progress, from blogging, and from checking and posting on social media gave me a brief break, and the reset was something I didn’t know I needed until it happened.

The time away from all things creative allowed me to feel more creative when I came back, so take an actual break, for a week or a weekend.

Don’t take down notes or check social media. Just do things that aren’t writing/authoring and see if it also helps you come back to your words refreshed and ready to get some proper work done.

3. Get Back To/Create a Writing Routine

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know I love a writing routine almost as much as I love a checklist and a to-do list.

All three things keep me on track, and while I had one to stay on top of my blogging and social media content, I didn’t have one for my WIP.

Because I was keeping myself in the “planning” stage, I hadn’t actually created a routine to accomplish any writing.

Vaguely telling myself to “write” when I had the chance to get to my desk wasn’t really cutting it, and I was still prioritizing my procrasta-writing of blogs and content, so I knew it was time to set up an actual routine to follow through on. This led me back to my Time Blocking Routine, where I alternate writing and authoring tasks over two different weeks.

This kind of routine helps simplify tasks, gives equal time to them, and ensures I’m not struggling to do everything and not making progress on anything.

If you’d like to do the same, check out my writing routine blogs here, and see if there’s one or a combination that you can use to create your own routine and get your WIP on track.

4. Set a Deadline and Firm Goal

Just like a vague goal to “write” often results in very little specific progress, not setting a deadline doesn’t help either.

I know this well after starting this year with a generic New Year goal of “writing my WIP” and then only working on it for a few hours across random days in the last 6 months. If I had given myself a deadline of completing the first draft in 6 months (as I have now), I’m sure I would have achieved it, or at the very least, drafted a sizeable chunk of it.

The deadline of a specific period and the firm goal of a first draft are more tangible—and therefore doable—so never underestimate the strength of a goal and a deadline. Sometimes, they’re all you need to get started.

5. Start Small

So now that you’ve made plans to identify your self-sabotaging ways, reset your writing brain, created a writing routine that works for you, and given yourself a deadline and goal to strive for, it’s time to do what everything has been building to—write!

Yes, it’s true. To create a book, you have to write it. But if you’ve been having the trouble I’ve been having when it comes to making progress on your WIP, diving right into things can be overwhelming and send you right back to your procrastinating ways.

To get around it, go small and just write 200-500 words a day for the first few weeks. It’s a small amount, basically a few paragraphs, but it should be enough to get you back into writing. It can also be done first thing in the morning, last thing before bed, during your lunch hour, on the commute to or from work, or while in between school activities and drop-offs.

A small start should also make you more eager to work on your WIP. Then, once you’re regularly making progress, up the count.

Keep going until you’ve found that writing flow that gets you to your writing sessions in the mood to create and replace your procrastinating ways with genuine progress to get that WIP started and then finished. You’ve got this!

— K.M. Allan

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