💻 lisa writes a lot of stuff 📚issue #53 Prioritizing Writing Work

Also this week: Women's Fiction Day and AFSP fundraiser

Dear Internet,

I’ve taken my ADHD drugs this (Sunday) morning, so let’s see where this goes!

Romance Includes You 😕

Welp. I didn’t submit to the Romance Includes You contest.

As I said in the last issue of lisa writes a lot of stuff, I sent Katherine, my editor, 5,700 words to cut down as close to 5,000 as possible. I also asked her to do a quick edit for continuity. I figured Harlequin wouldn't look for perfection but rather for voice and writing style. After working together for some time, Katherine gets me and my voice and style. She’s an amazing editor.

The turnaround from Katherine was great, and I started editing the piece by agreeing with the ones to incorporate and disagreeing with the ones to skip. But as time ticked on, I was a few hours from the deadline of 11:59 p.m. Saturday, May 31, I knew I couldn’t finish it in time. I set the story aside, watched the clock tick by, and went to bed.

Sure, I’m upset I didn’t submit. We need more marginalized voices in the romance world, but I fucked myself over by not prioritizing time for my work. I waited until the last minute, like I did in graduate school, and ended up not meeting the goal that I’d known about for months.

I thought about last year’s submission. Katherine and I worked on it for a couple of months. I had 20,000 words in the book done. I sent Katherine the first 5,000 words and her editing and suggestions changed the piece enough I knew I had to go through the following 15,000 words with a fine tooth comb. Honestly? I was overwhelmed with the idea so I never finished the book.

In January, I set a goal to finish the book by my birthday, which is this Thursday (June 12) by the way, and I bet you can’t guess where I’m at now.

Yeah, didn’t even look at the damn thing.

After May 31 came and gone, I decided I am going to finish the book I started this year and gave myself the end date of December 31. I calculated that with the speed I write, if I wrote 3,700 words a day for 21 days, I could have a 75,000 word novel finished. The scary part is, with now having my ADHD drugs in my system, this is not an unreasonable project. Am I going to crank out 3,700 words a day for 21 days?

Of course not! Which is why I gave myself until December 31 to finish this book.

I keep jumping the gun on future planning on what happens when the book is finished (promotion, selling, agent hunting, etc) rather than writing the damned story. That needs to change.

I mentioned to Kristin recently, after finding a note I left for myself on accountability, that maybe I should go back to sketching out a daily routine to get the things I want to get done.

I’ll add that to my to-do list.

Women’s Fiction Day

June 8th (this past Sunday) was Women’s Fiction Day. Sponsored by the Women’s Fiction Writer Association (whom I was a member of but left for reasons). It’s to celebrate the readers and writers of women’s fiction.

I’ve spammed across all my social media and the writers’ groups social media I manage (yes, I changed the language for each post) and asked: who are your favorite women’s fiction authors?

Women’s fiction is categorized as stories where the female protagonist's primary conceit is an emotional journey. Romantic, fantasy, paranormal, and sci-fi elements can be included in women’s fiction. With that being said, I would argue that Jane Austen, Emily Henry, and Abby Jimenez books are have the characterization of women’s fiction. Just because their books have HEAs does not mean there is not some kind of growth happening in the characters.

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Fundraiser

Some of you may know that one of my very best friends in the world, Brendan McAdams, killed himself on January 10, 2025. His death has been hard on me and the grief is a struggle. Not a day goes past that I don't want to tell him something, make plans to see him, and basically love him.

I'm participating in a fundraiser walk for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (​AFSP​) in honor of Brendan. The walk is on September 14 in Grand Rapids. I've fundraised and walked in previous years since I tried to commit suicide when I was 17, and also my mom attempted twice. (She passed away from heart failure in 2017.)

My goal is to raise $1000 USD. I've got $950 more to go. I'll be posting this in every issue of every one of my newsletters until the day of the walk. If you can ​donate​ even $5, you would be an amazing human being.

read smut!

lisa x