I had planned on saving this post until my manuscript was completely done and sent off to agents, but then I thought, why not have a little chat about it before while it’s still in the process of being revised (even if it is almost done).

A little bit of background: I completed an undergraduate degree in creative writing in 2018. While it was all sorts of useful, and I have many fond memories of my time there, it also did something terrible to me in that I felt I had to write a certain way, in a certain genre.

The reading lists for each and every class were the kind of contemporary literary fiction where nothing much happens, mainly local to the Vancouver area, where I live. This isn’t meant to be derogatory—I love a good story where nothing happens, at least once in a while—but our instruction was narrow, leading us toward a very specific way of writing.

(I have heard the program has since improved to include more diverse perspectives. I hope that’s the case.)

Unfortunately for me—and to be honest, I think most people in the program—this isn’t necessarily what we wanted to learn to write. I’ve been enamoured with mysteries and strange things since I was a kid (I grew up on Nancy Drew books, and read my first Agatha Christie in grade four) and so while writing literary fiction is absolutely doable, it’s not what I’d call exciting—not for me.

In the eight or so years since graduating, I’ve slowly unlearned that degree, at least in some aspects. I took with me what makes a piece of writing effective, and how to draft without editing at the same time (the best skill, in my opinion), but I’ve also finally stopped trying to force myself into writing literary fiction when that is absolutely not what I want to write.

How I started writing it was characteristic to who I am as a person. A couple autumns ago, I was annoyed with my current project (literary fiction, of course) and said to myself: “Ok, I am extremely bored with this. What do I actually want to write?” 

And a witch who is all sorts of stubborn came onto the page almost immediately, though to be honest, the house came first, as it always seems to in my writing (I have a weird obsession with architecture and floor plans). 

In short, it’s a story about magic, and whimsy, and death, and found family. It’s also a mystery, and has a big old house covered in ivy, and a garden bursting with flowers, and an ominous wood beyond. The characters are flawed, and things are more alive than they have any business being.

So, what I’m writing now is exactly what I would have wanted to write eight or more years ago, though it’s objectively much better than it would have been had I written it back then. 

After the first draft, I left it only a couple weeks, then burned through the second draft; that would have been autumn of 2023, I believe. Over the past almost two years, I spent a lot of time writing other things, working too much, and staring at my phone more than I have business doing (this is no longer a problem, thankfully).

Through 2024 and the first half of 2025, I saved up so I could take intentional time off for writing—something I’ve been saying I’ll do since I graduated in 2018 and have, surprising to no one who knows me, not done. But now that I’m adamant that this will get done and be sent out, revisions have been going exceedingly quick. 

At the time of writing this, I’m about one third of the way through my final draft, though by now it’s mainly just clarification, and not on every page. I think, if I continue working at the pace I have been, it should be ready for querying by the coming weekend.

Thanks for reading! We’ll talk soon.

—Catherine

---

Like this post and want to see more? Type your email into the space above to receive updates when new blog posts are added, head over to the blog’s main page, or click the “next” or “previous” buttons below.

---

Home | About | My Books | Publications | Newsletter | Contact