Just sharing this as an FYI. I have been working with Chat for a couple of weeks on a novel. We struggled at first, but finally hit a good stride about halfway through and we have been rolling at about 8-10K a day with Chat writing initial draft and me rewriting it ever since. It was taking more effort than I thought it should, but we were still making excellent progress. Today I rewrote the last chapter, then uploaded it to Chat to get feedback on where there might be issues...as I've been doing all along. It kept locking up and I spent almost an hour, uploading the data several times and chat simply would not respond. I tried refresh and it did nothing, so I logged off and logged back in only to find the entire book had disappeared...everything after Jan 15th. Thank God, I was saving each chapter offline in Word, so I had it, but I lost all of the discussion, suggestions, and any other back and forth...completely gone. This means if I had lost that content earlier, he would have lost all continuity in the story. As it is, it is only one chapter worth of evaluation I lost Not a big deal. But this was all done in project folders. So what are project folders worth if you can lose an entire 54K novel? Be careful if you are writing in Chat...copy and save on another platform is your friend!!!

I am thinking of a million things so y'all need to help me narrow them down. What are things you would like to learn about for 2026? I know about running pen names - I am actually working on showing different methods so it works for different people (knowing I am awful at this but at the same time seem to have 5-6 pen names?) What else? I was thinking how to write X # of books for rapid releasing? Running this as a BUSINESS (ie Mindset) vs a hobby. Setting goals and making them happen. Talk to me people!!!

2026 is my year of trying to streamline my processes. I am trying to get faster at producing my cozy romance books from idea to publishing. Currently it is taking me about 30 hours to complete a book. Yes, I know I'm slower than most but I need to learn to automate better and I always get hung up on the editing (a very unpleasant task) and book covers (but I'm working on improving all of this). I am keen to learn how long it is taking others on average. What's achievable? It will inspire me to improve my practice this year! 🙂

Hey guys - I’m in the new house waiting for the internet people to show up. So I’m not as fast answering - but I’ll get there!!! It’s weird living in 2 places at once - figuring out what to do but I’m excited about it all. Now off to find a desk and clean up I’m also trying to figure out why there are 4 extra chairs in the house that don’t match anything (yes we bought it furnished so it’s a strange mix at the moment of what to keep and what not to)

This is NOT the place for FOMO 😉 It might feel like that with all the tech stuff - but no. I do NOT want you to buy any classes you aren’t ready for - that’s not what this is. This is a safe space to ask questions and not worry about if you are tech-y enough. We ALL started somewhere and though I may be teaching classes - trust me there are much more experienced people out there. I just talk on an even level. If I ever get too tech-y for you - ask WHAT? And I’ll see if I can do better. The classes will be there - they aren’t going anywhere. And tech will change - and YOU will change! I started with Sudowrite - then Chat - then wrote books with Claude - then moved to Novelcrafter - then a mix with Claude projects - then Antigravity …. I changed. So PRETTY PLEASE save the FOMO for the First Draft Facebook group 😉 - that’s the ONLY place for some reason I encourage chaos 🤷🏻‍♀️ For those admiring my penguins - I don’t know - this one came up when I said penguin fomo