In which I write about not writing...

...because I can't decide what to write.

I’m currently dealing with a sort of writer-specific analysis paralysis, and I’m hoping that typing it out here will help me make a decision. Failing that, perhaps one of you wise readers will leave an insightful comment that will do the trick. (Wouldn’t be the first time!)

First off, regarding last week: all is well! Thanks for the kind comments, and I hope that post didn’t come off as ominous or anything. I just had a bit of a bottleneck situation with work, combined with the fact that we’re trying to out-maneuver this heat wave and that meant more driving than usual every day. I do my best to work while we’re on the move, but I can get carsick, so contracted/client work gets priority when I’ve got stationary work time.

Also, I got some good news last week: an offer on a middle grade proposal! More details to come, but this book will come out spring 2026, and the deadlines are a bit tight. Especially given that the proposal was actually just a summary, no outline or sample chapters. This is NOT a complaint - on the contrary, things are so brutally tough for middle grade authors on submission right now, plus publishing all but shuts down in summer, and to get an offer (in July, no less) has me feeling like a unicorn! That said, I already had work lined up through fall because I wasn’t about to count my chickens with this submission, so now I’ve got a whole other book to write in addition to the stuff I’m already committed to, and that’s going to take some rejiggering of my schedule.

I’ve hit this sort of paralysis with work before. Like that time back in 2021 when I had no fewer than four novels to ghostwrite between January and April. I couldn’t decide which to start with, which meant staring at Scrivener for a minute than bouncing over to YouTube, wash rinse repeat. I know the only thing to do is pick something, anything, and start. But sometimes that feels physically impossible.

I’ve been a full-time writer since 2019. I think by some definitions I could even say I was one starting back in 2012, but I did heavily supplement with part-time teaching and other non-writing gigs. I’m also using “writer” as a sort of umbrella term for writing, ghostwriting, editing, and book coaching. Here’s a look at what I’ve got going on work-wise at the moment.

Developmental editing

I’m an editor for a large book packager. We “meet” (via Zoom and Slack) Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. My extremely fun job is to come up with high-concept pitches, develop them into outlines, audition writers and find one who can bring the book to life, work with them on creating a proposal, and go on submission. (Ideally, the next step is selling the project and continuing to work with the author as they draft and edit the book with their publisher.) Currently, I have one project that is out on submission, one that is in the editorial phase and will go on submission this fall, and one that is in the early stages of development.

(Side note: if you think you’d like to audition for a book packager project, email/DM me some samples of your writing! Sub-side note: the team I’m on focuses solely on YA fiction.)

Ghostwriting

I’m in the middle of drafting the fourth and final book in a series I’ve been ghostwriting since 2020, which is due late August. I’ve also just begun working with a new client and will start outlining that soon, with a draft due sometime in December.

Book coaching

I have one client right now in the middle of revisions with their publisher. We’re meeting twice a week via Zoom, going through the notes and making the edits together. I also have one-off consultation calls with other clients pop up now and then.

Books

A draft for my aforementioned new middle grade is due in October. I don’t even have an outline! Just a summary. I’m asking for a little extra time, but even November is not that far away. Target word count is 40-45k.

And here’s where the paralysis comes in. I want to write the serial paranormal/sci-fi thing. But lately, my thoughts keep going back to the mystery I wrote last year (and vlogged about). And then there’s the thriller I have plotted out and started drafting. I keep bouncing between the three of these and committing to nothing.

1. KITH: the paranormal/sci-fi serial that I want to publish in weekly installments here on Substack. I have a fully realized cast of characters, setting, and world. I have NOT plotted a thing.

2. THE HOUSE OF FOUR SHADOWS: the completed (96k words) and partially revised mystery. The end is a hot mess, but the first half is in decent shape. I keep thinking about approaching it as a serial too, but maybe over on a platform like Ream, just as an experiment.

3. BREAKOUT: the plotted thriller with about three chapters written. This is one I would ultimately want to send to my agent to see if he thinks it’s worth pursuing the tradpub route. It would be my debut adult novel (I’m published in middle grade/young adult). It’s a ton of fun to work on! I think my hesitancy here is just the usual publishing malaise. It’s hard to get excited about working on a project that would realistically go on submission no earlier than spring 2025 and then most likely deal with radio silence for the better part of a year before ultimately getting rejected.

So in sum: I’m currently editing two projects, developing two projects, and I have three drafts due between August and November - and that’s before the three projects listed above. In theory, I could work on whichever one strikes my fancy on a given day. But in reality, most afternoons my creative brain is fried from spending the first half of the day on all those other obligations, so the amount of work I get done on any of my books is negligible. At that rate, it’d be years before I finish any of them.

HELP. I really was hoping I’d have an epiphany by the time I finished writing this. Alas! I’m still lost.

If this post were written by one of my book coach clients, my advice would be this: if there’s one you feel most passionate about, pick that one. Barring that, pick the one that you think you could finish quickest—and by finish, I mean either start publishing (in the case of serials) or send to your agent. Whatever it takes to get that dopamine hit of accomplishment.

I suppose that would be #2: the mystery. I mean, it’s a completed draft (however messy the second half may be). It’s been over a year since I opened the doc. Maybe I need to start there, read a bit, see if I still feel the same way about it.

Or…

I’ll just open YouTube and distract myself with more cooking videos.

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The posts I publish here will remain free. But I have a new series called Ask the Editor, which publishes every Friday. The short pitch: Dear Abby for writers.

The longer pitch: paid subscribers ($5/month or $50/year, cancel anytime) will receive a link to a form where they can submit pretty much anything within a two page limit. Things like…

• Queries

• Synopses

• Pages from their novel

• Questions about writing or traditional publishing

• A current problem or situation in their writing journey (ie: trying to decide if an agent is a schmagent, disagreeing with beta feedback, etc)

• A rant about this whole “trying to get published” endeavor to a sympathetic ear

Subscribe

Every Friday, I’ll respond to/critique as many submissions as I can and publish them together in one post. Because they’ll be behind a paywall, there’s some privacy—your query, pages, or rant about that one really horrible rejection won’t be online for editors to discover when they Google you.

Hope to see you there!

Michelle