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Where has July gone?!
Honestly, it only feels like five minutes since I wrote my June wrap-up post—not four weeks!
Last month, I talked about making progress on Triquetra: Fractured Loyalties, and deciding to expand the Triquetra prequel, Before the Fracture, into a full novel. Plus, I shared the idea I had for a new sapphic dark fantasy romance.
Project Updates: POV Shifts and New Words
This month, Hubby and I went through all the Nola chapters I’ve written for Fractured Loyalties, making small adjustments to improve the story. As we reached the end and were getting ready to move on to reading through the Esmee chapters, Hubby pointed out that my writing was much stronger in third person than in first.
I looked back on my previous iterations of Fractured Loyalties and noticed those were all written in third person, too—as were the other stories I wrote before I conceived The Triquetra Series.
So why had I changed for this latest version?
The only explanation I can think of is that I’ve written quite a few romance-heavy, first-person POV stories since the last time I worked on Fractured Loyalties. In fact, my two previously published novels are both first-person. I guess it just felt more comfortable to slip into that point of view without giving it much thought.
But once I did reflect on it, I realised Hubby made an excellent point.
A lot of what I write is very description-heavy. I LOVE world-building, and that can feel more limited in first person.
And honestly? I’m not so great at identifying a person’s inner feelings. I think that comes from being neurodivergent—I struggle to understand my own emotions, let alone someone else's!
So, I made the decision to change both Before the Fracture and Fractured Loyalties into third person. That was almost 70k words worth of POV shifts!
PMDD, Fatigue, and Finding Balance
In between POV changes, I also allowed myself to begin work on the sapphic dark fantasy romance I mentioned previously. I figured I could juggle multiple stories. I’ve written about 8k on that so far, and I love how it’s coming along.
💌 Want to read an exclusive sneak peek of my sapphic dark fantasy?
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Between writing sessions, I’ve also been continuing to build The Kindred Creativity Club, and in July I hosted the wonderful Write Here, Write Now author community, run by Karen Sanders Editing.
If you’d like to read a wrap-up for July’s spotlight—and see what’s coming in August—you can check out the KCC blog here: https://kindredcreativityclub.claredugmore.com/the-kindred-creativity-club-blog/write-here-write-now-spotlight-wrap-up
In the last few weeks, things slowed down somewhat thanks to the dreaded PMDD. It’s been a whirl of intrusive thoughts, debilitating fatigue, and an aching body that made it difficult to even move sometimes.
Honestly, I’m just glad I’m coming through the other side now.
Hubby’s Writing Journey
The past few weeks haven’t all been doom and gloom, though. Hubby started writing—and I’ve been completely absorbed in his progress!
For a long time, he worked as a video game journalist for sites like IGN and Heavy, and was even featured in Minecraft magazines. A few years ago, he launched his own retro handheld site—Retro Resolve—and all was going wonderfully… until the dreaded Google ‘Helpful Content’ update, which killed a lot of niche sites and replaced them with Reddit and AI.
Since then, Hubby’s been at a bit of a loose end. He dabbled with action-figure content creation on TikTok, but nothing really brought him joy. I know some of that was burnout—the last few years catching up to him—but I also knew he was searching for something new. That spark, like video game journalism used to give him.
Over the years, he’s dabbled in fiction writing and even had a short story published in a charity anthology alongside me and Karen Sanders.
But recently… something changed. A spark hit! I like to think he was so inspired by reading Fractured Loyalties that he wanted to write his own novel!
His story is actually quite similar in that it features a dystopian world with super-powered people, but it’s tonally very different from Triquetra. It blends dystopia with horror, plus a layer of comedic, meta-criticism of real life.
He’s written over 50k words in July, and I cannot express how proud I am of him. He has autism and ADHD too, so I know how hard it’s been for him to stay focused, find his voice, and fight imposter syndrome.
And you guys… this story is something special. It’s clever, funny, horrifying, and thought-provoking. There are parts that had me laughing out loud, parts that had me recoiling from the screen, and parts that had me yelling in disbelief.
I can’t wait to a) read the conclusion, and b) help him promote it when he’s ready to share it with the world.
Tell Me Your News
How has your July been? Any creative wins you want to share or hiccups you want to commiserate about? I’m all ears! I always want to know what my friends are getting up to, and would love to hear from you in the comments.
It’s about time for me to make dinner, so I’ll leave this entry here.
I’ll be back at the end of August with another update.
Until then, take care & stay creative.
T.T.F.N
