I think so! Otherwise, I would have had to erase my entire identity in 2025. It seems I spent the entire last year with the seeds of a story in my mind but nothing tangible growing on the page. And that was so frustrating. Because it’s not like I set out to take the year off and simply brainstorm. I wanted to be drafting. I wanted to be adding word counts to my color-coded spreadsheet. I wanted to be writing! But I’ve been at this for a long time and if there’s one thing I know about myself, it’s that I can’t force a story to take shape before it’s ready.
My brain doesn’t work that way. And I bet yours doesn’t either.
Not all writing sessions look like writing. Some look like fragments of characters materializing while I’m driving. Scenery coming into focus while I’m walking on the treadmill. Voices and phrases popping into my mind with so much attitude I have to add them into my Notes app.
These moments and occurrences all add up and count. Even if I can’t track them easily on my spreadsheet. Or rush them. They arrive when they feel like it. Not when I command them to!
As frustrating as this is, I’m never surprised by it. I’ve learned to recognize my own writing rhythm and trust the invisible parts. The parts where I struggle to formulate the inciting incident, develop a magic system, streamline the order of events, or even discover who my protagonist is. I’ve written six novels and my process has been exactly the same with each one. The invisible parts are essential. But they take time.
And even though my word count on this story has barely registered a blip, I finally have enough invisible pieces to begin writing… in the traditional sense. Because I know I’ve been a writer this whole time. Just a writer sowing the seeds that will soon grow into a story. One that I am finally so ready to draft!
So, if you’ve been in a quiet season of your own, creatively or otherwise, let this be a reminder that stillness is not emptiness.
Sometimes the most important things are happening where we can’t see them yet. Sometimes beginning again starts with just one paragraph. And sometimes, it starts quietly with coffee in hand, watching the world move along the horizon… while your mind quietly does its thing.
