And what does Nando’s have to do with it?

January, as we all know it, is a month of resolutions: unattainable goals that usually don’t make it beyond the first couple weeks. I used to be obsessed with resolutions, always thinking of ways to improve myself as a person: making plans that this year I really was going to begin running and eating healthy… But as I’ve gone on, I’ve realised that these goals are not reflective of who I am, and I set up goals and dreams for the year that were a little more me.

In 2021, I sat down at my family-home dinner table (the same place I had written a hundred stories as a child) and began to plan out my second book, Sheathed.

Second ever written book, and hopefully the first to be published.

Over the next couple years, I poured my heart and soul into Sheathed and the story grew into something I truly loved. It reflected my heart and thoughts in so many ways, and is truly the story I want the world to see. Sheathed was always part of a duology, and when I finished writing it in mid-2024, I thought I was ready to dive straight into Book 2.

Alas, I hadn’t realised just how draining teaching part-time, and studying full-time was. Then, I finished my Master’s, and began teaching full-time, something truly so exhausting that I have barely had enough energy to doom scroll online.

January 2025 rolled around, with its snow storms and freezing temperatures, and my fingers began to itch again. With autumn term done and the holidays to step back, my creativity was coming back in full swing.

My fiancé (Ryan) and I had already plotted out a brief skeleton of where I wanted Book 2 to go, back in 2024. He is as much of a creative nerd as I am, and his imagination melds well with mine. After a brilliant Nando’s date where we discussed how to kill multiple characters, and where the table beside us sat in silence the entire time they were, the story had been floating around in my head for a while. I just needed the right time – an excuse many aspiring writers make, but that’s for another day.

So I sat down during a free evening, and decided to stop procrastinating. This book was going to get written. This series was going to be finished. I was going to publish these books, and people were going to read them, even if that’s only my family and two housemates. This was, and still is, my dream – and I am going to make it a reality.

One thing I love, and one reason I did a Masters in Creative Writing, is the process behind the story. I love discussing it; I love seeing how other writers write. I think it is incredible how the human brain is able to come up with something from nothing, and how that process can be so varied from writer to writer.

Maybe this comes from my other love of teaching, and wanting to share the knowledge that I have, but I’ve decided to share my writing process on here. Even now, I wish some of my favourite authors explained what they were doing as they went along, so I could feel their accomplishment in the same way they do when the book is released.

I want to unveil the story behind the story, the cogs behind the clock. I want to share the machine behind the mask (does that count as a Wicked reference?), and so I will be talking all things plotting, writing and editing. Hopefully from idea to heavy, three hundred and seventy page book in hand.

I’ll probably be sharing more regular snippets on my Instagram too: @ruta.reads https://www.instagram.com/ruta.reads/

You need a shovel to dig.

Starting a story is intimidating and I have found that staring at a blank page does nothing for me. I’ve had to find and create my own tools to unearth the stories in my mind.

My first go-to place for inspiration is always Pinterest. I cannot express enough how much that little app has done for me. I have a hundred boards and constantly add quotes and images that work for various story ideas. It’s one way I cultivate them in my mind before I write them.

My board for this series (The Daggered Ones, or TDO for short) has just under 200 pins in it, from settings to quotes to character inspirations. It was a great help when I was dreaming and figuring out what I wanted the vibes for TDO to be.

Then, I have two notebooks: my “book-idea book” and my “book book”. Original, I know.

My “book-idea book” (BIB) is a simple, pocket notebook where I chuck any random ideas that come to me. Quotes, characters, dreams, excerpts, plans for series… you get the idea.

My “book-book” (BB) is my encyclopaedia, my holy grail for the book I am currently writing. Sheathed had one, and my first ever novel had one. Everything I need to know goes into my BB; mind maps, setting descriptions, chapter excerpts, editing notes, random ideas and questions as I write, world-building and lore.

My book-book is my favourite writing tool. Not only does the name bring me joy–the noise makes me think of a chicken–but the organised chaos that is contained within those pages, is in my opinion, the perfect example of a writer’s brain. Or a teenager’s room.

So I’m fortunate, in that when I sit down to write TDO2, I already have a solid starting point.

• The finished manuscript of Sheathed.
• My BB
• My BIB
• Pinterest boards
• Playlists
• And a Nando’s napkin with gory details of a final showdown and potential character deaths on it.

At the moment, I have nothing more than an inkling of what I want TDO2 to be. I have some ideas of themes, and character arcs, some juicy one-liners, but no plot yet.

And that’s okay. Because right now, my priority is not the mechanics. My priority is the love for it. Sheathed took a lot out of me; writing a book is not for the faint of heart. But I wrote it because I believed in the story and the characters, and that came from months of pure planning and imagining.

Working full-time means I’m going to have to write slower than I would like. But I’m hopeful that this will mean more time to delve into the heart of the story and fall in love with it, so that when I do write TDO2, I will not do so with trepidation or out of obligation, but because the story pours out of me, needing to be told.

A good idea needs time to ferment, like wine, one can easily ruin the bottle with too much time.

Diving in.

With nothing other than a free evening ahead of me, I sat down with all my tools, loaded up my writing program Scrivener (props to Victoria Aveyard – this thing was a lifesaver during my Master’s) and sat down in my tired, squeaky, but comfy chair.

I love a mind-map, and so it came as no surprise that I started out with drawing a mind-map into my BB. I had my playlist for TDO on in the background, songs that I have rinsed over the last four years, but that truly encapsulate the book’s vibe. It was slow starting at first, and I was mainly copying down the ideas from my BIB and the notebook onto a generic page. I’ve never been one to sit down and immediately have ideas flood to me. Coming up with stories always takes me some time, and concentration, but the sweetness of uncovering a line or character or scene in those quiet moments is unparalleled.

So I brainstormed. Essentially, anything that came into my mind went down onto the page. No question too strange, no scenario too small. Once I found myself flagging, I switched over to Pinterest, where I began searching for similar photos and quotes to Sheathed. I know more or less where TDO2 will go, and who the main characters are. I know what kind of journey I want these characters to go on, so I pinned and jotted down a few one-liners, setting descriptions, and theme ideas.

As fun as writing is, the planning is truly one of my favourite moments. I get to finally bring the stories that have sat in the back of my mind for months, years sometimes, to the page. I get to fully experience and delve into them for the first time. It truly is like making something grow, and when I get to sit with my thoughts and my music, I feel such joy and excitement to just see where this story will take me.

After about an hour of searching, pinning, writing down questions, I turned my attention to Scrivener, where I began to write a synopsis.

This is still something I’m experimenting with in writing. During my first ever novel, I didn’t plan the first draft. I just wrote. It ended up being over 120,000 words and took me two and a half years and four drafts to get it down to 96,000. For Sheathed, I wrote a 20 page synopsis, detailing every scene and character arc in as much excruciating detail as I could. Now, three years later and also, coincendtally, four drafts later, that story is so different to where it started.

I have found that having an outline with a clear end point helps me make sure my writing is concise, clear and strong. I don’t write well in the long run if I don’t know where I’m going, or how I’m getting there. So, I’ve started writing my synopsis, though with more freedom than I did with Sheathed. It feels a bit like I’m laying down the images in a director’s room; essentially storyboarding. Actually, that’s exactly what I’m doing.

I’m writing out the main beats of the book, and so far only have the first six chapters or so. No dialogue, just vibes, with a focus mostly on the emotions of the characters. This is where I do all my telling, so that when writing the real scene, I know what my main character is experiencing and can show it to the reader more implictly.

This synopsis will probably also end up being 20 pages long, but I hope that with the continued experience that I have with writing, it will come down, and I will have a strong starting point with minimal plot holes. That is the hope and the plan.

Next up…

Now that I’ve begun planning, I’ve continued to develop and think through these characters and themes. My favourite time to do this is when I walk home from work, especially if I’m with Ryan. Our walks home can sometimes take up to an hour, and he is always willing to lend his creative brain to me, and listen to me rant about how I’ve already written myself into a corner (:

Moving forward, I’m going to finish writing up the synopsis, hopefully by the end of January. With all the things going on around me at the moment, I can’t guarantee that I will finish it then, but maybe having a deadline will help keep me accountable. I’m also feeling like I need a bit of an escape from the pressures of teaching and wedding planning.

Okay, so, woah – long blog post. But like I said, I like yapping and discussing my process. It’s an insight, maybe to you, or to some other writer. Let me know what thoughts you might have on this, or what else you would like to read about! I’m so open to suggestions.

Keep up with all the other things I’m up to on my Instagram!

-Rūta x