J. D. Edwin

Are you familiar with Comic Sans? 

The font has been a subject of both admiration and disdain. Created in 1994, it has sparked endless debates in design circles and beyond. Loved by some for its playful charm and readability, loathed by others for its overuse and perceived lack of professionalism, Comic Sans occupies a unique place in the typographic landscape.

Most of us know Comic Sans as the font of memes.

And perhaps it is this association with silly pop culture that makes it hard for us to take Comic Sans seriously. Can you imagine writing a book in Comic Sans? Ridiculous!

But not so fast. After struggling to gain momentum on a new book recently, I tried the unimaginable – writing in Comic Sans. The result was miraculous. Its silly, easy-going appearance removed a significant amount of stress from the drafting process. Have you heard the saying “a first draft only needs to exist”? When written in Comic Sans, it’s hard to take anything I write seriously aside from getting it on digital paper:

I have to say, there’s something to be said for writing a book in a font that looks like an eight year old’s diary. As writers, we take ourselves too seriously. I would say I feel silly using it, but I also wrote 25,000 words in 12 days with minimal effort, so you tell me what’s silly or not. For professionalism, Comic Sans rates -1, but for ease of use, I give it 9/10 highly recommend.

Almost every reader has that one book that starts off the new year for them. That book that sets a hopeful and positive tone for January 1. For me, the book for 2024 is I Didn’t Do the Thing Today, by Madelein Dore.

It might seem a little odd to start off the year with a book bearing such a name. But far from the laziness and slacker lifestyle the title seems to suggest, I Didn’t Do the Thing Today is actually a most positive and useful book on productivity and the truth behind what really gets things done.

When the pandemic began in 2020, I found myself, like many, inundated with worry and anxiety. To cope, I wrote. Then I wrote some more. I wrote 4 books in 3 years, a number of articles, plus many short stories. I eventually signed a publishing contract and taught classes on writing and productivity. It all sounds amazing on paper, when in truth I was running myself ragged trying to build my author career on top of a full time job and two young children. The to-do list was growing fast and even worse, I was the one adding to it nonstop. Finally, after a massive burnout, I found myself reevaluating how I went about my days, and it was during this time that I stumbled onto this book.

Unlike many other books on productivity, I Didn’t Do the Thing Today takes productivity off its pedestal and examines productivity guilt (which I was suffering a generous amount of) with a close eye. It calls out the unrealistic urge to plan flawless, perfect routines (something I was becoming quite obsessed with) and encourages the reader to embrace the ebb and flow that comes with each day as normal and natural. 

As I read this book, I felt myself relaxing, taking a deep breath, and re-examining my life and priorities. After a few frantic years of putting productivity ahead of everything, I was ready to reset. This year, I hope to live for joy and fulfillment instead of burying myself in an endless to-do list. If you are looking to do the same, pick up I Didn’t Do the Thing Today. I promise you won’t regret it.

Despite my best efforts to go to bed by 11pm, the fireworks kept me up quite late. So here’s to big cups of coffee to kick off 2024. Middle age is rough.

I used to be quite the stickler for New Year’s resolutions. I would make lists, pick theme words, try to buddy up with friends to stay on track, and make big speeches about what I was going to accomplish that year. But year after year, those expectations fell short, since life didn’t tend to lend it self to keeping up rigid year-long resolutions.

So I am taking a different approach this year. Perhaps it’s because I’m older and (hopefully) wiser as my 40th birthday approaches this year, but I feel like I’m looking at life a little differently.

This year will simply be about space – making more space for what matters, and less space for what does not. What matters in life might change from moment to moment, and rather forcing life to fit my resolutions, I intend to adjust and go with the flow for once. 2024 will be a year of flexibility, intentionality, and perfect imperfection. 

How are you approaching this new year? Lend me your wisdom.

Happy Holidays, dear readers!

This is the final newsletter of 2023. Seems a bit cliché to say what a long, strange journey it’s been, but that’s truly what it felt like to me. This year has held some of the highest highs and lowest lows I’ve ever experienced, and I wouldn’t change it one bit.

In this past week, I had the privilege to be interviewed by the very talented team behind the Writer Syndrome podcast (the episode releases today!). I got to talk about my writing and publishing endeavors over the last few years, which felt like the the perfect way to wrap up not only this year, but the whole adventure of writing and putting out my trilogy as well.

And speaking of my trilogy, Headspace has passed 200 ratings on Amazon! I couldn’t be prouder or more grateful for this milestone, and I have all of you to thank for it.

So as I close another year with you, dear readers, I hope your holidays be filled with warmth and abundance. And may 2024 bring new hope and joy in its wake.

Have you ever used AI to write?

Usage of AI is becoming more and more common in the arts. Illustrations, music, videos, and writing generated by AI is becoming increasingly common. But can AI really mimic human creativity? Will we one day have no need for human artists and solely rely on AI to generate content? Let’s see.

While working on my current book, Love, Death, and Other Things I’m Bad At, I had trouble getting going on a scene between the main character Winnie, and her love interest, the shy and awkward D, who just took over the mantle of Grim Reaper, a job much too big for his meek personality. After a bit of struggling, I decided to take a shot at letting ChatGPT help me. Here’s the prompt I used:

And here is the result:

What do you think?

I have to admit, I laughed a little.

At a quick scan, this seems to be a competent scene. However, once you dig into it, it’s not hard to see the problems.

1) The bot used the word intense/intensity no less than five times in a handful of paragraphs. Probably because it was in the prompt

2) What exactly is this scene about? It’s about as generic as it can get. And sure, I fed it a fairly generic prompt, but this goes to show that the bot has no imagination of its own. It slapped together a bunch of nice-sounding words and made it almost sound like a story. Except it’s not, is it? 

3) There is no style or cadence to the language. Every paragraph is uniform, and every sentence with has a similar beat. This is BORING. It’s boring to read, even boring to look at.

Now I’m not knocking AI. Far from it, I think it can be a very useful tool. But it must be recognized for what it is – a database, at best a jumping off point for people doing the real creative work. It can and will not produce original stories, only compile what people have written and present it in a different way. I ended up picking up a few choice sentences from this prompt and using them to fill out my scene. It did, after all, use some pretty words I wouldn’t have thought of.

But AI-generated books? I think we are a very long way off.

‘Tis the season for gratitude, and despite the chaotic year I’ve had, as the holidays draw near, I find myself thankful for new beginnings.

It wouldn’t be right not to mention my amazing editor Alice Sudlow as part of this next chapter. Alice was one of the main driving forces behind the success of the Headspace series, and now she is helping me forge new territory as well. 

Cozy fantasy is a relatively new trend. It breaks tradition from the more common high fantasy and fantasy adventures and portrays a comforting, slice of life ambiance in a magical setting (you might be familiar with the popular book Legends and Lattes). After the drama and intense action of Headspace, I longed for a story with a laugh, a happy ending, and a touch of easy romance. And so, as the holiday season dawns, I am excited to dive into this story and hope it finds its way into the world next year.

As long as I could remember, I always had one goal in life. No matter what else happened and how my other ambitions and interests ebbed and flowed, I always retained that one goal: to be a better writer.

So it was probably no surprise that I eventually found myself to Neil Gaiman’s masterclass on the art of storytelling. I had heard about this class extensively, though with mixed opinions. After much hemming and hawing, I finally took the plunge.

This is not a review of the class, though I will start off by saying I am enjoying it immensely, then caveat it with the fact that I don’t think I would be enjoying it immensely if I didn’t already have a few books under my belt. It’s a class that speaks to the nature and thinking process of the storyteller life rather than focusing on technical skills found in guide books. But what really caught my attention was his talk about moving past simply doing impressions of other writers and revealing your true voice, to write stories that really show who you are. 

You see, I spent a lot of years fancying myself the next Stephen King. I imitated his style, studied his phrasing, and tried to write scary stories I imagined he would be proud of. I failed at this, of course, because I’m not Stephen King. I wasn’t even the same type of writer he was. Reading was one thing, but when it came to writing, I was not a horror writer at all. And so this class took me down an interesting little memory lane of the years it took for me to find my own voice, write that first truly honest book, and the doors that opened from there. Headspace was different from everything I’d written before. It was honest, and vulnerable, and as Gaiman said, showing too much of myself.

And nothing felt better.

This year was a busy one. Some days felt like they flew by and others felt like they stood still. I often tell my friends that I feel like I let this year slip by, but when I actually sit down and think, it was quite a busy year.

I released my first nonfiction this year, THE WRITE FAST SYSTEM, to share my experience and lessons in completely a book quickly

I created and taught two classes, one on writing productivity, and another on self-editing.

I wrote the second draft of my first cozy fantasy, LOVE, DEATH, AND EVERYTHING ELSE I’M BAD AT, which is currently in the hands of my very capable editor.

And perhaps the most significant of all, I completed the HEADSPACE trilogy this summer with its final book, ORB HUNTERS. This accomplishment was monumental, exhausting, and emotional. It not only marked a milestone I had great difficulty imagining at one point, it marked the end of my very first publishing contract. While I continue to have an ongoing partnership with my amazing publishing team, our major project is now complete.

And all that on top of a busy full time job and keeping two children alive as well.

As I revel in the cooling weather and reflect on the final leg of this year, I find myself craving a change and a break from the norm. In the past month or so, after setting my brushes aside for nearly a decade, I’d found my way back to the world of painting with the help of a wonderful little art studio near my home.

I’d spent much of the last few years mired in writing, to the point of getting tunnel vision and ignoring any interests outside of my books. But as I lift my head and take a look around, I realized I missed art and the feel of paint. I don’t know what the next year will bring or what this new chapter of publishing will look like, but painting is teaching me to slow down, enjoy the journey, and be patient with myself. And so, as I take a breather from the keyboard, I allow myself to enjoy the view in front of the easel.

Recently, I had a chat with a fellow author. She was tired. Really tired. Just like me, she has a full time day job, young children, and is struggling to fulfill her authoring ambitions while trying to balance every other responsibility in life.

We talked about the fight for every sale, the difficulty of marketing in today’s overwhelming social media-driven world, and how we are both just too tired and awkward to make proper use of TikTok. 

See, authoring’s kind of like that song from Annie. Writing books is only the beginning. But after it’s done, authors cannot simply throw their books out to sea and let it sink like a stone. There’s ongoing work trying to gain visibility, to find readers, and earn those coveted reviews one at a time. We get tricked by vanity publishers, kicked by critical reviewers, and there’s always lots of temptations to throw in the towel, all while dreaming of a rich benefactor would descend upon us and make it all easier.

At the end of the griping, we each poured a drink and toasted to our mutual misery, silently acknowledging that we’ll be back to it the next day, nose to the grindstone as always.

Because you see, we love what we do. No matter how hard it gets, we will keep on. No matter how long the marathon lasts, we’ll continue running. 

And hey, the sun might come out tomorrow.

I always fancied myself a writer of strictly fiction. Never once did I think I had any kind of wisdom to impart onto other writers. But as it turns out, experience is what forms wisdom. The more I wrote, the more I learned, and the more I wanted to share my experience and new-found skills with others, in hopes that they could have an easier time with their books than I did with my own. Through The Write Practice, I was able to share multiple classes and articles. Teaching turned out to be one of the most rewarding and enriching experiences of my life. I can’t say what my future holds for teaching, but I hope it will always be a part of my authoring career, even in a small capacity. This October will be my last class of the year. Self-Editing Step-by-Step, coming alongside my nonfiction book, The Write Fast System. Dates are coming soon. Stay tuned!