I Doubled My Word Count in Two Months

Wow, it's been two months already! To say things spiraled would be an understatement, but amidst the bad news, there is good news too.

Let's get the good news out here first: if you remember from my last article ( thank you to everyone who commented, liked, and got it on the leaderboards! ) I was feeling very sick. Thankfully, I had a team of super hero doctors on my case. One procedure and switching of a medication later and I'm feeling back to my old self. I really can't thank the doctor and nurse who saw to me enough as they scheduled me for the procedure without me even needing to ask and were there for me during the whole thing.

Forgive me for the vagueness of my condition, it's a bit sensitive and something I'm not comfortable sharing yet ( if ever ), but know I am much better!

As for the writing sprint, I need to get the bad news out into the air first.

About a month ago, both of my grandparents contracted COVID, and after weeks of phone calls, paying for at-home nurse services, and prepping for a trip all the way up to Wyoming to see them, my grandmother, Gloria, passed in the first hour of May 26th, 2025.

By some miracle, both of my parents managed to get up there in time to say goodbye. I had offered to stay home to look after the house and our cats, while my sister ( who, if you don't remember, has Rett Syndrome ) stayed with a long-time caregiver.

As you can imagine, I lost any desire to continue the writing sprint, as the stress and frankly the isolation ate into my mental health. Now that everyone is back home though, things have calmed down as much as they can with my family. It's going to be a while yet to fully process grandma Gloria's sudden death, and I know I'm still working through the grieving process.

To give some insight into who my grandmother was, she had one of the loudest, most infectious laughs. She was joy incarnate, always down to get into some trouble and crack jokes to spread the smiles. I'm very lucky to have inherited her laugh from her and my mother; when you got all three of us going at the same time it was like a pack of hyenas - cackling and giggling with maddening glee.

Love and miss you, grandma Gloria. <3

Despite all of this chaos, I still managed to double my word count on my draft, CASTLING, during the month and odd week of time I did write.

Obviously, I did not hit 50k words, and I'm more than okay with that. I managed to hit 38,783 words before shit hit the fan, and my draft is looking more like a novel than it ever did before.

I can say with confidence that, if things out of my control hadn't happened, I would have stuck that 50k landing with ease, and some extra words to boot.

And if that wasn't amazing enough, my total word count on my draft has surpassed 50k, which I find to be very poetic. c:

So, take it from me folks: sickness, sudden death, nor my own mental health will prevent me from continuing my march into the worlds I have built. And if you struggle with life's chaos like I do, know that you can accomplish much, even if it's not exactly what you hoped.

I will be continuing work on my draft, but it's safe to say I am back on Vocal. I will be resuming weekly posts, and hopefully reignite the interest in An Ends of Gods & Dust as I still got those six acts to write!

Thank you again to everyone who has joined me on this journey. I'm looking forward to diving back into the Vocal landscape and reading some stories from my favorite creators!

Until next time, Vocal family!

Much love,

Amanda Starks