🌊 Writing life updates: recent successes and struggles
The river of summer is crashing along, bringing disasters and upheavals in the news. May you be well and find solace amidst the storms.
Updates from my Writing-river
I’m excited to report that I finished the first draft of my current novel!
It’s actually the first novel I’ve finished! (That’s not for lack of persistence—my previous one was up to 100,000 words and nowhere near done, so I put it on the back burner to work on this one.)
I really love it, and I’m excited to get it revised and sent to my “beta readers” for feedback. (If you’d like to be one, let me know!) Then I plan to revise it further, polish it, and start pitching it to agents! I want to get it out there in the world, because it’s my personal truth-fire burning in me. It’s what I want to say.
I’ve also been doing a good deal of blogging…
…practicing speaking up from my own voice and experience
…and also wrestling with Substack “sections.” It turns out to be absurdly non-simple for readers who aren’t Substack- or internet-savvy.
Substack sections-subscribing insanity
So here’s what I think is a reliable path toward subscribing to my different “sections,” if you want to do so but haven’t figured out how yet. (As a reminder, it’s all free.) Please may the Substack team make this more user-friendly somehow!
Go to my website home page: annaeplin.com
If you see the “Welcome page,” click “Not now” (and/or keep clicking things like “Skip” and “Not Now” until you can see all my posts)
Once you can see my main page with featured posts, click “Sign In” (top right)
Enter your email address, and cooperate with its instructions to send you a verification code
Then you will finally be shown your subscription management page, where you can click which sections to subscribe to!
(Note: I can’t see which ones people are subscribed to or not, so please don’t take my feelings into account here—just what you want to receive notifications for.)
“Section” posts you may have missed
So here are some highlights from my recent “sections” posts (besides this main “River Reflections” section). I haven’t had a chance yet to do much with the “Learning Lagoon” section, but I’m looking forward to diving into that one more when I can!
Serenity Splashes
Learning Lagoon
Song Stream
Thanks for reading! May you keep following your heart and speaking your truth—and I’ll keep trying to do the same. 💗
SO EXCITED that you got the draft done!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 Isn't it just the best feeling, to know that you have a complete story? Yes, there's a lot of work ahead, but make sure you take a beat and appreciate this moment. This is huge and I'm so proud of you!!