Hi everyone, I'm Jenna! I wanted to introduce myself and say hello! I'm just outside Chicago, a mom to a very energetic 6-year-old, and a lifelong book lover. I spent over 15 years in education, mostly focused on literacy, and I'm also the founder of Love Smiles, a nonprofit that provides books and comfort items to kids going through cancer treatment. I've also been working on a children's book series called Tales from the MakerSpace, so I've been having some fun on the writing side of things, too! Books have always been a huge part of my life, whether I'm reading them, teaching with them, writing them, or finding ways to get them into someone else's hands. I'm excited to be here, connect with other book lovers and writers, and see what everyone is working on! So, what is everyone reading right now? I'm always looking for another book to add to my list!

StoryClub will be hosting a special Q&A session at 7 p.m. MST on Thursday, November 5, with New York Times bestselling author Kathryn Purdie! You can add the event to your calendar using this link. Purdie is the author of the Burning Glass series, the Forest Grimm duology, and the Bone Grace duology—which features a matriarchal society of women who ferry the dead and who are only initiated into that society at the cost of killing their soulmates. A lover of art in all forms, she also enjoys singing and playing the guitar. Her next book, a Greek mythology-inspired fantasy romance called THE LOVELY INVISIBLE, releases April 27, 2027. You can also find her at StoryCon next year, signing books in the Exhibit Hall and teaching a Masterclass entitled "Writing with Deep Point of View." What questions do you have for Kathryn Purdie? Here are some of her specialties: - Balancing dark storylines with hope and healing - Adapting urban legends and folktales - Drawing inspiration from her experience acting on stage Comment your questions below and make sure to invite your friends to the event!

With some excellent advice, I've decided that I need some accountability with my editing because my life is very chaotic right now. And there's a saying that has been motivating me: "If you don't sacrifice for what you want, what you want becomes the sacrifice." I don't know who said it, but I know I don't want to sacrifice this story becoming the best it can be. Doing the 30 in 30 challenge was really helpful and I think it was because I had a community of writers watching me. I know nobody is pressuring me on here, but the imaginary pressure I feel when I post is genuinely motivating. I've split up my editing process into four phases that will hopefully have me finishing up this draft ready for beta readers in April. I won't go into too many details today, but my goal for October is to complete Phase 1, which is basically going through the book, doing some research and mapping, and generally getting it ready for actually going in and editing things. In the research part of this, I've just finished a book called "Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird: The Art of Eastern Storytelling" by Henry Lien. It dives into Kishotenketsu storytelling (if anyone here is familiar with that) and has opened the boundaries a little bit for how I can tell my story. I had an idea at the beginning but changed quite a few major things because I felt like I couldn't tell a good story with them. But this book proved me wrong. It's getting me pretty excited about my novel because I can bring back the things I really wanted to do with my novel in the first place. (And actually make it work). So if you want to chat Kishotenketsu, editing, or motivation...let me know! Until then, I'll update you guys again when I complete Phase 1 by the end of the month!

GUYYYS. Haha better late than never, but last night at 1:30 am I finally finished my story-level revision that I was working on during our 30K in 30 Days challenge! The middle is still messy. I think the pacing is still off. But I'm in love with the ending, and now all the plot threads tie together in a way that makes sense. My goal is to print it out and listen to it on Speechify next (following @Allison Anderson's advice), then clean up whatever new issues I find, and hopefully get it to beta readers by the end of the month! I know there's still a lot of work to do, but I'm not going to lie--I'm still riding the high that comes with typing "THE END" for the second time. Maybe editing won't kill me after all! 😂

Hello from the other side of the planet!! 🌏 I moved to South Korea about a month ago and I have been struggling to find time to write. Part of it is the moving/new job and the other half is the excitement of everything. I'm hoping things will start to calm down so I don't have to go out every night and get basic essentials I've forgotten I don't have yet, but I will take any and all advice for finding a good writing time. I'm sure I just need to say "This is my writing time! I can't do anything else!" But maybe I need someone or something to help me be accountable? I do know the 30k in 30 days challenge really helped motivate me to get writing done. Any tips?