On Friday, I turned in my manuscript! it’s been quite a journey with this one. Thrilled to have completed this third draft and looking forward to the fourth (and hopefully final) draft. Whenever I talk to more seasoned writers and try to get them to say that writing books gets easier, they refuse to agree! Every book is different, they say. And so far that is bearing out to be true.

This has been a rollercoaster in every sense of the word, but what has been comforting—and true—is that with each draft, I drew closer to my characters and their worlds; I know more about their hearts and their journeys, and that is such a beautiful part of the process.

You can never escape the fact that life (and art) takes place on multiple levels. It’s so easy to try to flatten it, to say this is good or this is bad; this is hard or this is easy, but it’s so much of everything mixed up together. I’m working on finding the joy in all the swirls, the gift in all the challenges.

In this challenge, the gifts are my characters and the arc they are traveling. I am committed to them, no matter how twisty this journey.

For those of you in one of life’s twists, I’m hoping you can find the pearl in the grit. Not so that you can ignore or deny the grit, but so that you can balance it—and have a little balm as you weather the storm!

Onward.

—K.