Fresh Beginnings Without AI

3/3/2026

I’ve been writing a lot lately, about 16.5k words of Mangoes in the last week or so. I’ve been trying to develop my process of writing, to pin down how I write well enough that I can force myself to do it even when I don’t want to. I really want a finished first draft. I find the revision process much more enjoyable, having a structure already built up enough that I know what story beats have to happen when, but having the freedom to add or take out as much as I need to. May Leitz, who I mentioned in my last blog post, calls her first drafts “vomit drafts,” and I think that’s a good way of describing what I’ve been doing, just getting anything on the paper to move the plot forward, not worrying too much about details. I have an idea of where I want the plot to go now, and I feel like I’m at a crossroads where I can either continue discovery writing or begin to properly plan out the rest of the book. It seems like, since I prefer revision to first-time drafts, I should give myself some more of a framework to write from. This is kind of strange because I hate revising nonfiction. Odd to have the exact opposite feelings about revising fiction.

I am feeling uninspired, however. I’m on chapter 10, and I feel like the last really interesting chapter I wrote was maybe 5 or 6. I’ve reread the entire thing a couple of times, and it seems cohesive enough, but I’m just not feeling as proud of the recent chapters. I’m at almost 20,000 words, making this my longest ever single writing project. The only other one that comes close is a novella I wrote and self-published on Amazon as a teenager. I wish I could find it. I want to see how bad it was.

Well, I’m going to try to keep writing. Or maybe I need a break. I’ve been watching a lot of videos on the process of writing, even though I know it really stifles my creativity. Something about trying to balance my own instincts with advice from established authors just kills my ability to write. I really shouldn’t watch that stuff if I want to get words onto paper. It’s almost paralyzing. Anyways, I’m going to go rewatch the Stephen King/George R. R. Martin talk.