Between the "suffocating" pressure to create social media content and the delicate craft of building a slow-burn fantasy romance, I’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between influencing and understanding. From rethinking how we share our work online to the "one degree" method of raising the romantic temperature between my characters Cin and Ward, here is a look at my current writing struggles and breakthroughs in Project Hollow.

How do you take the perfection of an idea—a pure, sparkly thing—and bring it into a reality constrained by linguistics and math? I’m struggling with the "angel in the stone," trying to write in vivid reds and electric blues while my first drafts feel like washed-out greys. From the philosophy of creation to the "smooth-brained" joy of inventing space-city snacks, here is where I am with my current book, Project Hollow.

It’s on brand that my first blog post of the year is arriving in March. In this instalment, I’m deep in scene 13 of Project Hollow, battling a humourless office scene, writerly self-doubt, and the terrifying possibility that I might not actually be funny. From fumbling wizards to rabbit-shifter taxi drivers, humour usually sneaks into my fantasy romance naturally—but this time I’m having to hunt it down.