2025 has been the eternal year hasn't it? And the fact it is both already October and only October should tell you quite a bit about just how long this year has felt. Due to... reasons, I've dealt a lot with feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. Lack of stable work makes things incredibly stressful, utter exhaustion and insomnia combine to make me irritable and while I have written quite a bit thus far in the year I still can't help but just feel drained.

90s babe oil pastel on paper © Narcissa Deville 2025

Does anyone care?Does it even matter?Am I ever going to achieve my dreams as a creative? Am I ever going to get published? Is it even worth trying? What if I'm not good enough? Not talented enough? What if I am just mediocre and not as skilled as I think I am? I can't tell you how many times I've woken up plagued with self doubt.

Part of the process of outlining (really part of the process of writing a story at all), arguably one of the most challenging aspects of the process is fleshing out your ideas. Taking a concept from a one or two sentence premise, and giving it substance is by no means an easy task. Even before you get to actually writing the book itself, you must ask yourself, what is this story really about?

Womanhood oil pastel on black paper 2025

I was thirteen or so years old the first time I heard about NaNoWriMo from Writer's Digest. There was something so exciting about trying to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I had already been writing for a bit at that point but I had never managed to quite write that many words, but that never stopped me from trying. …

There's an old saying that goes, "a failure to plan is a plan to fail", I'm not entirely sure how much I agree with this sentiment in terms of writing —but I will say this, having an outline makes the job a hell of a lot easier. In the beginning of my journey as a writer, I was definitely not…

Blood Queen; oil pastel © Narcissa Deville 2025

To say that 2025 has been a mentally taxing year would be something of an understatement. Actually, 2025 has been a mentally taxing decade and that we still have three months left of it is not especially helpful. Looking back thus far on my year it's hard to believe that this is the same year that I started challenging myself to read more books that I had in recent memory (I'm up to 13 and my ratio of good books to bad books hasn't improved very much).

Characters Despite what some on the internet would seemingly have you believe, the characters that a writer creates are not in fact direct 1-1 parallels of themselves. Even if the characters are similar to the author and even if they're somewhat based on the author. This isn't to say that characters never bear any resemblance to the author, in fact I would argue that most characters are to some degree a manifestation of aspects of authors fundamental beliefs, their fears, their insecurities, and perhaps even the worst parts of themselves.

Among my newfound love for oil pastels and night photography as well as my love of acrylic blowout art work, I've found that there is something about the sort of scrapbook style cut and paste art, using magazines to create something wholly original and different that just speaks to me. Being that yesterday was my 34th bidthday I decied to make a little birthday piece take from different pieces of a magazine, along with some stickers to really inspire what I want to be my 34th year.

Today officially marks my 34th birthday, and I decided that it might be fun to compile 34 things I've learned (mostly about writing) in honor of my 34th birthday. Some of these things will be just things I've learned generally about life and myself. Much of my 20s (and for that matter much of my teen years) were spent worrying about turning 30.

Ideas are like opinions, it seems like everybody has one. One of the most common arguments that I have heard recently when it comes to the use of genAI in writing (and why people argue it should be acceptable) is the idea that "oh well a real person had to come up with the idea in the first place" and tell it to the computer for it to then spit out this garbage you call writing.

Over the course of my life I have had a great deal of friends who were writers like myself. We all have different styles of writing, different preferred genres, and crucially, different styles of how we planned (or in my case at the time, didn't) our stories. One of my friends in particular in my youth was an in depth planner.

This might disappoint you to hear, but my first piece of advice actually has nothing to do with writing per se and everything to do with what you do before you start writing. Reading. Nearly every writer that you know would agree that reading is absolutely fundamental to becoming a writer. Now I'm not Stephen King I'm not going to suggest you should read something like a hundred pages for every one you write; however I do think it's a good idea to read as much as you can, as often as you can.

Day 2 9/10/25 Chapter 2 Start Time: 5:55PM End Time 6:24 Mood - Teeth gritting emoji Daily WC : 635 Total: 7,475 Remaining: 82,525 Days Remain: 42 Notes: Not off to a great start of consistency considering that I'm starting well after my original 9:40AM start time from the previous day. It's been a struggle and I can't help but feel without my usual outline I don't know the world and the story as well as I usually do.

For a long time now, routine has felt like a four letter word. Something to be avoided for me at all costs. I'm not someone who necessarily enjoys doing the same thing every single day, if I can help it, so I've sort of avoided the idea of having much of a writing routine for the majority of my writing life.

Trapped Oil Pastels on Canvas 2025 It's a feeling that sneaks up on you. A sensation that creeps upon you when you least expect it. Everything can be fine, normal even, and then it hits you. You're trapped. Backed into a corner like an animal stuck in a cage. No escape. No way out. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Stuck in the worst place imaginable.

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