What I wrote this week

Spoiler alert: this didn't go as planned

As an author, I spend an awful lot of time thinking about *~*cOnTeNt*~*!!! Like yes, I would love to exclusively have to think about the book I’m drafting or revising, but unfortunately, that’s not how things work as an author in 2026. I have a Canva Pro subscription and I’m only a little bit afraid to use it!!!

I’m not great at stockpiling Instagram drafts or planning ahead about posts. There’s a reason most of mine are kind of chaotic (50% because I have no clue what I’m doing/50% because I make them while on the treadmill). So anyway, I got my development edits from my lovely editors on book 2, and I’ve been starting to chip away at them. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be fun if I did a what I wrote this week post, and break down my word count day by day?”

Reader, it was not fun.

When I got my dev edits for NTWDT, they were substantial. I think I rewrote about 25% of the book. But most of that chunk encompassed one large section of the story, where the framework already existed. For book 2, I’m weaving a lot of different threads throughout this revision, but it’s a lot harder to sort through where those changes or new beats need to go. That makes this part of the process very slow-moving.

When I started tracking word count for this “fun” post, my husband was acting as the primary parent to our toddler. I was clocking 1,100-1,400 words a day thanks to a combination of writing sprints (shout out to the discord pals suffering together), body doubling (hi Haley ily), and some moments of peace and quiet. But then my husband picked up some freelance work (which is good!!), and two out of three days, I wrote zero words. The middle day I got some work done, but that was mostly thanks to my child taking a two-hour nap when she’s been Going Through It lately (which thus means that I too am Going Through It).

I first drafted NTWDT, book 2, and a potential book 3 that will hopefully see the light of day, in a complete vacuum before I had an agent, a book deal, or a child. I used to sit down and force myself to write at least 2,000 words a day, and would often be able to do quite a bit more than that. So it’s a challenge to look at my 735 word day and not be a little disappointed in myself. But writing while parenting is hard. Picking back up a hard-to-sift-through thread after my child has been screaming because she refuses to let me change her gigantic diaper before her nap is kind of a mind-fuck. And this isn’t straightforward drafting anyway. I’m trying to figure out how to write before she wakes up or after she goes to bed, but it’s all a work in progress. I have to find my new normal as an author who is also a mom. And I also need to give myself grace. I’m not the writer I was two or three years ago, and maybe that’s a good thing.

Some updates I can’t quite tell you about yet

I have a launch event scheduled in Los Angeles with a conversation partner who I’ve adored from her debut, and whose work empowered me to write NTWDT! More soon.

I will also have a preorder campaign with an indie bookstore! More soon.

There’s going to be a really fun giveaway where you can enter to win a signed ARC of NTWDT, along with some other absolute bangers! It’ll be happening on Instagram next week, I think, so stay tuned!

Apologies, this feels like it’s getting embarrassingly long, so I’ll stop here and get into…

What I’m reading

I have three summer book recs for you today, so come travel the world with me this summer (literarily, of course)! I have been a longstanding Alicia Thompson fan, and her latest, IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY (out Tuesday!!) is pure magic. Maybe my favorite of hers yet?? A lush setting, a beautiful two-hander, I didn’t want it to eeeend! Madge Maril’s THE PADDOCK CLUB (out 7/14) made me cackle diabolically and cry reflectively. Faust is one of the GOATs in the story world and in my own book boyfriend ranking. And finally, Stephanie Parente’s gorgeous debut, RETURN TO SENDER (out 7/28). Steph writes tension unbelievably well—emotional tension, sexual tension, longing. Violet, Dex, and Phoebe are characters I want to live inside forever. I love romance!!!

More soon!

xo R