Five Years Later...

Above: The rocky shoreline of Rye, New Hampshire. The bottom of the image has drier bedrock, while the rocks in the center are darker, many covered with seaweed. The ocean in the background is calm and clear, underneath a partly cloudy sky.

August 27, 2025

As I scrolled through my blog posts last week, I realized I have been working on at least two, but often three, projects since last November. Now, with two of those projects published, I’m down to just one. That’s…strange. Welcomed, for sure, but so very strange.

The Way of the Wielder, Book Four: I’m sitting at just over 100,000 words for this first draft, bringing me to about 60% complete. I’m aiming for 170,000, although it might be a bit longer than that. We’ll see how things go. If all goes according to plan, the first draft will be complete sometime in October.

Previously, when my drafts have hit 60% complete, I’d announce the name of the book. However, I’ve only just released book three, and the title of book four is somewhat of a spoiler. So I’ll keep that a secret for a while longer.

Writing, Five Years On…

I went to the ocean with my dad a couple of weeks ago. As I walked along the shore, I realized I hit a milestone in my writing journey: I’ve been doing this for five years.

As with most things in life, there have been phases throughout the journey. I’ve also learned much about writing and myself in a relatively short amount of time. I’ve reflected on that over the last couple of weeks, and wanted to share my thoughts with you all.

Content warning: Brief mentions of infertility.

The Hobbyist

I’ve mentioned before that I started writing during the pandemic. We had just started a new Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and I was compelled to explore the intricacies of the character I was playing. With my commute gone, I had almost two extra hours each day to devote to writing. And since social distancing was a requirement, I had more time on the weekends as well. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

We usually played D&D (remotely) on Saturday nights, so I spent much of the day on Sunday writing the events from that session. I wrote in first person from my character’s perspective, taking bits of dialogue I could remember (and some I made up) and weaving that with the on-going events of the game. Add in some plot twists I thought up on my own, and the result was something that resembled a LitRPG story.

In truth, that writing was choppy and awful, and it will never see the light of day. It served its purpose, though, awakening in me a passion I didn’t know I had. A passion that, I quickly realized, gave me something to look forward to when the world was too much.

But yet, when faced with the opportunity to pursue this passion full-time, I hesitated.

The Conflicted

Hesitated might not be the right word. At least, it doesn’t tell the full story.

Writing was my newest passion. My recent obsession. Every spare moment was spent in my world—drifting with the magic, conversing with the characters, creating intricate webs of plot the spiders in my basement would have been proud of. Of course I wanted to write full-time. I hesitated not for lack of want, but for conflict of identity.

In 2022, I had been working in some kind of public facing job for over a decade. I’d honed my skills to the point where not only was I confident in myself, but others were confident in me. It was a good place to be—until it wasn’t.

My career stagnated. I was constantly overlooked for promotion, but given more responsibility. I’d take on the most difficult PR projects, train new people, and even attend leadership meetings. It quickly became apparent that I was kept in my position because I was good at it, and management didn’t want to lose me for the project work.

That, coupled with ongoing infertility treatments, sent me into a downward spiral. The only thing that brought me joy—any joy at all—was writing. My husband knew that, and encouraged me to continue doing it whenever I could.

I took a leave of absence from work in July and August, mostly for IVF, but also as an experiment to see what it would be like to write full-time. Long story short, I loved it. And although I hesitated to admit it, I didn’t want to go back to my job.

In early August, my husband said, “You don’t have to go back, you know.”

My heart leapt, but still, I denied it. “I do. I’m a PR specialist, not a writer.”

“Sarah.” He looked at me lovingly. Empathetically. “Five years from now, will you regret not taking this opportunity to pursue your dream?”

“Yes.” No hesitation.

He smiled. “Then I think you should do it.”

The Obsessed Newbie

The year following my resignation was the most prolific year of writing I’ve had to date. I finished editing The Way of the Wielder, wrote Mysteries of the Material and Rise of Iron, and started outlining Convergence of Connection. I also queried TWOTW and ROI with 40 literary agents each.

I was in what I’ve come to call my “obsessed newbie” phase. Freed from the constraints of my former career, I dove headfirst into writing, getting so many words down that my hands sometimes cramped. But nothing kept me away from writing, especially after the IVF treatments were over (and unsuccessful).

Writing became my whole identity. I lived to write, and wrote to live. If I can’t bring a human to life, I remember thinking sometime in the fall of 2022, I can bring my stories to life instead. And that’s exactly what I set out to do.

The Full-Time Writer

It has taken me another two years to really embrace the lifestyle of being a full-time writer. This is, in part, because there’s so much more to it than writing. Sure, writing is the bulk of it, but as a self-published author, I also do… well, everything else.

Okay, that’s not entirely true. I hire someone to create my covers, and I hire someone else to copyedit my manuscripts (after editing them myself). But I’m heavily involved in those processes from start to finish. Everything else, I do by myself.

Compiling, formatting, proofreading, publishing, marketing, advertising, maintaining a social media presence… all of that (and more) is in my control. It’s honestly wonderful. But also terrifying. And, I won’t lie, overwhelming.

I recently identified a rhythm that seems to work for me. I’m sure I’ll tweak it as I go, but having an idea of how to structure my days and weeks will certainly help keep the overwhelm at bay. It better. After all, I have 19 other books on my long-term book planning spreadsheet, and now I have fans who are yearning to read them.

——

There’s no doubt about it: being a full-time writer is hard. It takes a lot of discipline, and no small amount of confidence in yourself and your work. I struggle with both at times, but it’s worth it. And compared to where I was five years ago—stuck in a stagnant career that sucked the joy out of my life—I wouldn’t have it any other way.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. Until next time, be well, and stay creative.

~Sarah