Libby's Forums & Updates

21-Oct-2023 | Spark

So it's been a while, hasn't it?

I absolutely didn't intend for it to be this long. I opened up Wattpad today, and I saw the dates of the last time that I uploaded anything, and it was a year ago. ONE YEAR. And I was just shocked, I knew it had been a while but I couldn't fathom that I actually hadn't written anything in one year. 

That I hadn't been on Wattpad in one year - I was only just starting to upload Luna Eclipse, Greta's story, and I stopped when a website started stealing the book, and it took all the motivation to keep going with LE from me. 

I also have had a rubbish year at my job - it was incredibly stressful, and though I'd been at that place for 2 years, as soon as I finished my studies they dropped me quicker than a hot potato. I've been unemployed since, but the first few weeks after I was let go? I was so burned out from everything. 

I'd been on holiday as well for three weeks and as soon as I got back I hit the ground running with work, only to be let go, and I put so much effort and assessments and exams and time and energy into it, at the detriment to my health, and when I was finished and let go all I could feel was relief. I was done. 

But I didn't feel happiness or excitement - I was so, so drained. 

Even now, two months on from that, I'm still not at 100% again. It's difficult, I've been going back to the things that give me energy, all the mini creative outlets that make me thrive, and it's like a car back-firing. I've thought about writing again, but only recently. I've been painting, re-organising my life a little, and trying to recover my health as best I can. I, ideally, want to take the rest of the year off to make sure I'm in the best health that I can be for the next phase of my life. 

But writing? It hit a gridlock for me. 

I'm most likely going to continue writing Luna Eclipse outside of Wattpad until I can figure out how to stop the other website from stealing it - it's a computer-generated site so the algorithm they use copies each upload from that book that I do. At the moment I'm tempted to see if uploading a brand new book and putting those same chapters and continuing there will stop them copying it but I'm not certain. 

I'm also not certain that uploading anything else isn't going to be stolen too. 

I write for me - I write because I enjoy it, because I'm overflowing with worlds that need to be written down, for the stories that I needed to hear when I was younger, when I needed a reminder that anything was possible. 

I don't write for my stuff to be stolen. 

So, I'm going to dip my toes back in carefully, very carefully. I haven't written in a year so I know I I am capable of writing these beautiful stories, but it's going to take a few goes before I reach my own standards again, where I feel my quality of writing was back with T&T. 

I'm signing up to do National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this year, and I have a story in mind. A standalone, something easy and sweet, so I can focus on character building and arcs and a story I don't have to think of a sequel for - it's going to be a contemporary romance, a genre I haven't done before. 

I'm also going back to past tense with the NaNo novel, writing Siren Bay in first was such a stress, third is my preference so I'll use that to go easy on myself. 

I'll keep you all updated on my progress, and if I finish NaNo with a complete story, and I like it, I'll go through and edit it and upload it to Wattpad - chapter by chapter, week by week, just like I used to. 

I miss this. I miss creating. And now I'm finally getting my energy back, my spark back, and I want to just dive back into the worlds I've been developing outside of Wattpad. 

I also missed you all. I'm desperate to come back - and I've been promising it for the past two years, since working in that job that drained all my creativity completely, and for the first time in a long time, there's nothing holding me back. 

So, hello again, and welcome back to my stories. 

It's time to get back to work. 

With love, 

Libby x