Writing Blog: Plot Holes & Progress

Notes from the making of a story

Some projects begin with announcements.

This one begins with a chair pulled back and a kettle set on.

Plot Holes & Progress is a writing blog devoted to the messy, nonlinear, quietly revelatory process of making a story—specifically, a novel that refused to behave itself. It isn’t a how-to guide or a productivity system. It’s a record of progress. Of detours. Of moments when the story pushed back and turned into something truer than the outline that tried to contain it. At its heart, this writing blog exists to hold space for the parts of creative work that usually happen offstage: the doubt, the rewrites, the unexpected depth, and the slow recognition that stories often know more than we do.

What This Writing Blog Is About

Plot Holes & Progress follows the creation, revision, and emotional archaeology of a novel in progress. Each entry reflects on a specific moment in the writing life—when characters rebel, when subplots demand attention, when worldbuilding grows teeth, or when finishing doesn’t feel the way you expected it to.

Rather than offering advice or formulas, this writing blog explores experience: what it feels like to sit with uncertainty, to revise without certainty, and to learn the shape of a story by listening to where it resists. Some entries will focus on craft. Others on mindset. Many on the strange, intimate relationship between a writer and the work that refuses to stay still. This is not a highlight reel. It’s the long middle. The honest middle. The place where progress happens quietly, sentence by sentence.

Who This Writing Blog is For

It’s written for:

  • Writers navigating drafts, revisions, or creative doubt
  • Readers curious about how stories are shaped before they reach the page
  • Creators who suspect that the messy parts of the process matter as much as the polished result

You don’t need to be writing fantasy, working on a novel, or following a specific method to find something familiar here. If you’ve ever felt pulled between structure and intuition—or wondered whether resistance might be part of the work—you’re in the right place.

Writing blog - writer's office
How to Read This Writing Blog

This writing blog is designed to be both sequential and flexible.

Entries are published weekly and numbered, but each one stands on its own. You can begin at the start, dip into the middle, or read whichever title pulls you in. Some readers will follow along chronologically. Others may return to specific entries when a particular problem surfaces in their own work.

Over time, these reflections form a quiet narrative of becoming—not just of a book taking shape, but of a creative voice learning to trust itself.

Why This Writing Blog Exists

Writing is often described as solitary, but the questions it raises are deeply shared. Am I doing this right? Why does this part feel impossible? What happens if the story changes its mind?

This writing blog exists to say: you’re not alone in those questions.

Progress doesn’t always look like momentum. Sometimes it looks like stopping. Listening. Rewriting the same scene until it finally tells you what it’s been holding back. Plot holes aren’t failures; they’re invitations to look closer. And sometimes, progress looks like accepting that a story will not become what you planned—but something better, stranger, and more honest instead.

The porch is open. Tea will appear when needed. And the story will continue to reveal itself—one entry at a time. As new entries are published, this page will quietly gather them—forming an ongoing record of the writing process as it unfolds.

Plot Holes & Progress Posts

Post #10: When the Subplot Tries to Eat the Plot

A subplot was supposed to add a little depth. Instead, it developed emotional teeth and tried to take over the manuscript. Here’s what I learned about knowing when to prune a story thread—and when to listen to it.

Post #8: Finding My Voice (Again)

Sometimes a writer’s voice doesn’t disappear, it simply goes quiet. After time away from the page, I’m discovering that finding my voice again isn’t about returning to who I was, but listening to who I’ve become.

Post #7: When My Characters Ignore Me

There’s a moment in writing when a character stops following the shape you’ve planned. Not dramatically, but quietly through hesitation, resistance, or a line that doesn’t quite land. This entry reflects on how a single scene shifted when something underneath it refused to settle.

Post #5: The Story Had Other Plans

What began as a tidy fantasy with obedient plot points quickly unraveled. Characters rebelled, villains became philosophical, and the story wandered far beyond my outline. Somewhere in that chaos, I realized the uncomfortable truth: sometimes the story knows more than the writer.

Post #4: From Someday to Manuscript

“Someday” is a comfortable place for a story to live. Safe. Untested. But eventually, I had to choose: keep imagining it—or write it. The moment I began was the moment everything changed.

Post #3: Love Letters to the Story

I’ve started writing love letters again—not to people, but to stories. To the drafts that haunt and quietly save me. To the characters who resist my plans. Loving a story isn’t about control. It’s about devotion—especially when it refuses to behave.

Post #2: Reading Calvino While Editing My Book

Reading If on a winter’s night a traveler while editing my own novel reminded me that stories don’t always want to behave. A reflection on Calvino, creative interruption, and what happens when a book teaches you how to keep writing—by refusing to be straightforward.

Post #1: Writing Discipline, Reimagined

Writing a novel isn’t about sudden inspiration or perfect conditions. It’s about showing up—again and again—with imperfect sentences, stubborn characters, and a blinking cursor. Discipline, I’ve learned, is less about control and more about returning to the story until it finally speaks.