Taryn East Writes

May is typically when SAD starts setting in. So I spent the month concentrating on work and parenting to conserve valuable spoons... but as it turned out I was retrenched in the first few days of June. So, looks like I have way more time to spend on writing this month. I'm working first up on the minutiae of getting The Conjunction ready for publishing first, then will get back to King Tide . I need ISBNs, I need to get a proof-read done, etc etc. So that's my priority for this month. In the meantime, I'm now reading my way through "The Twice-Scorned Lady of Shadow" (book 3 of the Guild Codex Unveiled series ) by one of my favourite authors: Annette-Marie .

April was an even slower month. I had a lot of external priorities to work through and writing took a back seat, unfortunately, to my IT job, parenting, and coping with basic mental health. So I only wrote around ten pages total for King Tide for the month, most of which was written in the first fortnight. I did get some dictation and writeup for King Tide, and I have begun plotting out the final quarter of the book. But it's a bit of a rough sketch still. I know where I want the story to end up, but not really sure of the steps to get there, and that tends to hinder my writing, even though I'm definitely a pantser. As for the first book: The Conjunction . Editing is still on pause pending spoons to pick it up. Thankfully I don't have anyone really waiting on it - nobody is going to get cross at me for not publishing yet, apart from myself. Meanwhile I'm still reading: Book 6 of A practical guide to evil. Though I'm finally approaching the end. There's o...

Bit of a slow month for me. I made some progress writing King Tide , but it was a bit of a slower slog. I don't have much of an improvement in word-count because I haven't managed to dictate much, it's all still handwritten. So I still have ~75K typed up, and ~26 pages of handwritten first-draft (which would mean maybe another 7800 words). I've had a month of working hard at my other job instead, plus COVID-based make-up-xmas and kidlet birthday party instead. As for the first book: The Conjunction . Editing has been on pause as well. I had the first chapter returned by my english-teacher friend who is editing it, but I haven't had the spoons to take that and run yet. I find it hard to mix up writing with editing tasks - the mind-set for each is very different. My internal critic has to be locked away in order for me to write well. If I let it out to edit, then it'll also pounce all over my ability to write. Meanwhile I'm still reading: Book 6 of A p...

When I was 5 I liked to do jigsaw puzzles upside down (to make it harder) and blow bubbles off the balcony -- watching them drift over the street. I liked to walk to school by myself (one block) and learn Origami from the lady in the flats behind us. When I was 7 I wished on every star that I could have a baby sister. When I was 8, I got one. When I was 10 I liked to explore the backways of Oyster Bay, picking flowers to make perfume (which smelled terrible). I played fantasy make-believe games with my cousins - involving magic and unicorns, where we saved the world. When I was 12 I got another sister... I stopped wishing. :) When I was 13 I liked to play make-believe with my sisters and all the younger cousins. We plotted adventures for us all, in-amongst the bamboo. When I was 15 I liked to climb up on the roof and watch the clouds drift by. I liked to ride my bike home from school and play LARP in the park across the road. When I was 17 I liked to swim in the backyard po...

My writing process is a bit chaotic, but I do have a process. Step 1: starts with roughing out a basic arc of the book. I'm more of a pantser than a plotter, so this is really just a basic synopsis - to make sure it has all the exciting plot-points and I haven't missed the rising tension or other main beats. Step 2: my first draft I write long-hand. Yep, pen and paper. It gets me into Flow much easier than typing and I spend less time staring at an empty page. Pictured right is a page from The Conjunction to show you what I mean. I ususally write with no paragraph breaks, just everything on the page and sort it out later. Step 3: after most writing sessions I'll also dictate some of what I previously wrote. I'm usually behind by a few scenes. I copy that up into Scrivener, which is how I keep track of all the writing for my book. Then I go through it to fix the autocarrot mistakes. Step 4: after dictation, I print out a copy for editing and take to it with a ...

I'm still madly writing my way through King Tide (the second book in the The Hope Gray series ). I'm roughly 75k words into the first draft. My first-draft final wordcount was around 110K, so that means I'm a bit under three quarters, which matches up with where I feel I am in the story right now. I still have a bit ore action and the stunning conclusion to write up before I hit the editing hard. As for the first book: The Conjunction . The first edit is complete, but I still have some hard editing and proof-reading to go, to polish it up ready for publishing. I aim to publish in June on both Kindle and Kindle-Unlimited, and shortly after that I'll hopefully get a paperback version available through Ingram Spark. At which point I'm hoping I'll also have King Tide ready enough to put up for pre-order too. I'm not yet ready to start plotting out the third book, though ideas are bobbing about on my backburner. Meanwhile I'm also building up a quick...

Woohoo! I've begun my journey as a published writer. It'll probably geta bit more interesting once I acually publish my first book, of course :D For now I'm still setting everything up, so be patient, I'm still working at my Tech job full time as well as solo parenting... so this may take Some Time :D My current tasks are below: