Book Update: Finding My Way Through the Forest

Book Update

Book update! It’s been a daunting journey, but I’m excited to share that I’m about 80% finished with a major developmental edit of my novel! This stage of the process has been one of the most challenging and most rewarding parts of writing so far. Every chapter, every scene has asked for more care, more honesty, and more patience than I expected. There have been days it felt overwhelming, like wandering through a thicket without a clear path, but slowly, step by step, the story is becoming stronger. I’ve been focusing on these areas during this revision: In the midst…

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Popular Fantasy Tropes: Why These Classics Never Get Old

Popular Fantasy Tropes

A nostalgic look at the popular fantasy tropes that define the genre and why they still seize our imagination. You ever hear a story and think, I’ve heard this before? The farm boy who turns out to be the lost prince. The scrappy orphan who, surprise, is the key to saving the world. The reluctant hero, the wise old mentor, the ancient prophecy that may or may not be nonsense—fantasy is full of these. And yet, no matter how many times we read them, we keep coming back for more. It’s not because we don’t know better. We do. We…

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Exploring The Metamorphosis: A Perspective Beyond Gregor

Exploring The Metamorphosis

Transformation is often imagined as something poetic, something endowed with purpose. But what of the changes that bring only ruin? What about the slow unraveling, the spaces left behind, and the silence that settles like dust? For a recent humanities course, I was assigned to write a passage from Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis—not through Gregor’s eyes, but from the perspective of someone left in the wake of his transformation. I chose to give a voice to his sister, Grete, who has watched a beloved brother slip into something unrecognizable in form and in spirit. This passage explores grief as a…

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Shaping a Stronger Story in A Developmental Editing Process

Shaping a Stronger Story

There comes a time in every writer’s journey when the story we imagined, the one we poured our blood, sweat, and sleepless nights into, meets the cold scrutiny of an editor’s eye. And in that moment, we see it for what it truly is. Not a failure, not a mess, but something unfinished, something waiting to be molded into its final shape. You can read about my novel here. I recently had an editorial assessment done on my manuscript, and it was a revelation. A thorough, insightful look into the bones of my story, peeling back layers I had not…

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