All About That WIP! – in which we take a sneakety peek at each of my projects for 2021

good morning, cyberspace!

A while back, I did a poll over on my instagram as to which post y’all wanted to see from me next, and All About That WIP! sorta kinda won by a landslide. Which … I guess you guys are just really interested in my works-in-progress? Which is wonderful, I’m sure. This is pretty much every writer’s dream, right? To have people interested in their books and wanting to learn more about them?

Unfortunately, I prefer to keep all my projects under a pile of moth-infested blankets stuffed in the deepest, darkest corners of my mind where they can ne’er see the light of day, but I digress. Spilling all the nitty gritty details of my books is DEFINITELY not my worst nightmare which wakes me up screaming in the depths of the night! Lol, no not at all!

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All right, let’s just get this over with.

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ALL ABOUT THAT WIP

So! You want to know about Kenzie’s story projects for 2021, do ya? Well, you’re in luck, my friend, because today’s post is all about the projects that I’m hoping to work on this year! Or rather, projects that I’m hoping to continue working on this year, because–not gonna lie–most of these have already been started and then just left to dangle ominously in the middle of their prospective plotlines until I find time to work on them again.

The life of a WIP is a very sad life, indeed.

But anyway. I should probably mention now that I’m not going to be going SUUUUUUPER in-depth on all of these projects. As always, I like to keep some sort of thinly-veiled mystery when it comes to my precious children, simply because I find that spilling the beans on everything often makes me no longer want to work on the story. But, at the same time, talking about my WIP’s helps me gain momentum to continue working on my projects, so essentially it’s just a very complicated balance of how much to share and how much to keep secret.

(are you confused yet?)

But hopefully, by the end of this post, you’ll have gleaned a better understanding of the names and projects I’ll most likely be throwing around in a few weeks’ time, so for that, at least, this post should be fun!

But enough about that. Let’s start with the most important project you’ll be seeing around here…

i. PROJECT GOBLIN / THE GIRL AND THE GOBLIN KING / WELCOME TO INKWELL

beautiful mock cover designed by Shannon Aardsma! (links to socials below!)

Ah, yes! Project Goblin! I’ve been talking about this one rather frequently for a few months now, but the first time this particular WIP made its appearance here on Smudged Thoughts was back in 2018 as I was preparing to write it for my NaNoWriMo novel.

I ended up winning that NaNo with over 50,000 words, but–unfortunately–the story I was writing was not, in fact, the tale which I was hoping to tell. In 2018, PROJECT GOBLIN was known primarily as THE GIRL AND THE GOBLIN KING, but over the years, I became rather confused with what its name should actually be, and the name soon evolved into many different forms: The Girl and The Goblin King, Welcome To Inkwell, and simply Inkwell to name a few. The most recent variation, however, has returned to The Girl and The Goblin King, and from here on out, that is what we’re referring to it as here on the blog until further notice–or publication. *nervous laughter*! (and also Project Goblin. Because that is a LOT easier on the typing hand, my friend.)

All Bartholomew Todd wants in life is to draw comics that will make people smile. Unfortunately, when all you’re capable of drawing is the stuff of nightmares and horror films, it’s a little difficult to accomplish this.

More often than not, they run away screaming instead.

But when Todd is inadvertently kidnapped by the very creatures his hands have created, he finds himself torn in a war between two worlds: one he’s spent his whole life struggling to fit into, and one which relies on him–and him alone–to save it.

With a rogue band of misfits in tow, Todd must retrieve a little girl’s stolen smile from the lair of a wicked goblin king before it’s too late—both for Inkwell and himself.

Not gonna lie, this book has become exceedingly difficult to write over the years. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’ve been trying to write it since 2018, but I feel like the core of this story has evolved and manifested into something so intricate and deep and whimsical that anything I try to write can’t possibly do the world I’ve built inside my head justice. But the characters, the world, the all-around vibe this book has grown into … words alone cannot possibly describe how excited I am to get to share it with you all someday.

If EVERLOST was my trash gremlin and PROJECT SUNSET my Sunshine Child, then I can only claim PROJECT GOBLIN as the book which is–at its very deepest of hearts–my true identity as a writer. This book has bits and pieces of every single one of my sides–darkness, humor, whimsy, pickpocketing gnomes, a guard dragon, goblins, magical pencils, curses, hope, love, enchanted enchantresses, fairies, pixies, potentially a troll or two, a scythe-wielding little girl… The writing of this novel is a complete and utter adventure–as most novels typically are–and following it down every single twist and turn is an honor I’m truly blessed to have.

(also also also! can we just take a moment to appreciate the absolutely DELIGHTFUL mock cover that Shannon Aardsma made for me??? this girl is absolutely wonderful, and I’m so so blessed to have met her through the writing community! you can find her over on instagram @shannonaardsmawriter, or over on youtube! definitely go check her out, guys. she’s incredible!)

ii. PROJECT SUNSET / SK

Writing Project Sunset was the highlight of my creativity in 2020, not gonna lie. Writing a whole book during Quarantine, having my first ever (and most likely only) 10k writing day, scribbling away late into the nights and sleeping way too late the next day… It was a process which I’m so utterly thankful to have had, and while the plot of this book desperately needs some first aid, I have hope that the editing phase will prove just as rewarding as the first drafting.

…with that being said, however, the plot of this book desperately needs some first aid. XD Part of the joys of first drafting is throwing every single idea at the wall and watching the chaos unfold, but unfortunately for me, this means my second drafts are very much me trying to scrape bits of noodle off said kitchen walls and cursing myself for not simply tasting the noodles to see if they were al dente in the beginning.

(…I swear that analogy made sense in my head before I wrote it out.)

Anyway. Once I finish up the first, very messy draft of PROJECT GOBLIN, my next project is going to be reading through the first draft of PROJECT SUNSET, making ALL OF THE EDITORIAL NOTES, and then promptly ripping my hair out as I try to edit the second draft into perfection.

Or rather, into a somewhat messy glob which, if you squint just right and tilt your head at a 90 degree angle, looks slightly like perfection’s second cousin, twice removed…

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…we’ll get there eventually, okay. Anyway, some of the more interesting details about this book include:

• a main protagonist who is obsessed with comic books
• a group of very old friends who would legit die for each other
• a black hole
• a dude named Casey
• an hourglass which holds the key to time manipulation
• death
• a theme of self-forgiveness
• a single toupe

After the whirlwind that was the drafting process for this book, I’m just SO excited to dive back into it! Part of me wishes I could start immediately, but I have WAY too many things I’m juggling at the moment. ’tis a shame, of course, but sometimes life just be like that.

(also 10/10 already have this thing formatted into PDF for reading on my Kindle. I just need to catch up with myself, apparently.)

iii. PUMPKALAGOO

Aha! A project that I’ve only just briefly mentioned back in my 2021 Goals & Aspirations post! For the most part, I’ve kept rather silent about this project because I literally know virtually nothing about this story. But I’ve also kept quiet about it because … I legitimately do not even know what I’m doing with it anymore.

Obviously I’m still planning on writing it–I’ve had the idea stewing for far too long to let it go so easily now–but the fact remains that this book is … bizarre. It follows a teeny tiny witch and her teeny tiny black cat who live on the edge of a teeny tiny little lagoon which is currently inhabited by a teeny tiny octopus, and their adventures as they try to save their crow friend from the evil clutches of a king who really just wants some delicious pie…

…honestly, at this point, I’m just throwing random gibberish at the wall to see what sticks (I do this a lot, apparently), and unfortunately for me, all of it is sticking. Which means this book is getting oversaturated with absolute nonsense.

Which is, of course, my favorite kind of story.

Sometimes I wonder if I should physically be allowed to write books for kids. After all, I am the one who wrote a whole book with a severed arm which slowly decayed over the course of the entire plot. But then I remember that the minds of kids are far more deep than we give them credit for, and–more often than not–my deepest conversations are held between myself and children over half my age.

Also, what kid doesn’t want to read a rollicking fantasy about a teeny tiny witch who befriends a mismatched-sock-wearing octopus whilst crows get baked into pies?

It’s fine. Everything’s fine. I definitely should be a children’s author. 100% (tell me otherwise and I’ll either cry or stab you with a pitchfork. ye have been warned)

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And that, my friends, are the three main projects that I’m hopefully working on this year! Obviously I’m already working on PROJECT GOBLIN, which, you now, means I’m clearly ahead of schedule and am totally crushing this yearly goal thing….

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lol.

Anyway. There are, of course, some projects I’m working on that were not listed among these, but those will continue to remain slightly secret until I’m more prepared to share them. Which obviously means you will never hear about them ever.

So clearly you should be as excited about them as I currently am. XD

But I digress! I’m extremely excited to dive into these projects, and am even more excited to get them into your hands someday. Eventually I’d love to get to the point where I can throw books at your faces and declare what a pleased novel-mommy I am, but before that can happen, I think I need to … you know … actually write the books.

So please excuse me whilst I go do that. The forests of Inkwell are calling my name, and I must answer.

talk to me, peasants!

what sorts of projects are YOU working on this year? are you someone who typically works on multiple projects at once, or do you prefer to work on a singular project at a time? (and if you DO work on multiple projects at once, how do you juggle them in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming? [this smol writer needs some MASSIVE help. XD])

as always, let’s talk about ALL OF THE THINGS down in the comments below! and until next time….

* flings cookies in the air and disappears *

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