Mele Gaddini, Writer

03/02/2025

Wrote a quick short story! This one was fun to work through, as it was for a contest where writers had ten days to come up with something of substance (does it fit that bill? I don't know!). A short list of characters and settings were provided as well as one element that had to be featured in the story. The coolest thing about this contest is that every contestant gets feedback about our story! Since there were several hundred writers involved with this one, I probably won't hear back until April, but that's the reality! Now, back to my novel...

Trigger warnings for: non-graphic animal and human deaths.

20/01/2025

Not every day works out awesomely, but today did! I started the day by belting out 1k words into my second draft, proceeded to make a killer batch of everything bagels, and then met with a couple local authors to talk shop! On to eating the bagels while beta reading! Russel Frans

13/01/2025

It took several months of developmental changes, a month off, more editorial changes, and finally restarting, only to take another break for illness/recovery. Last week was my official restart week, and I doubled my goal of 2k words during two writing days. I’m still working on reformatting chapters alongside writing, but this morning, I got another 2600 words written towards draft two, and I’m feeling great about the progress I’ve made as well as the rest I’ve decided to schedule in. I should still finish my word count goal of 60k words by my February 28th, though I’m sure I’ll go well over that 60k to finish the entire draft, which means I may not finish the actual draft by that date… I’m staying positive, though! Here’s my progress on draft 2 so far :)

10/01/2025

Basking in all the animal cuddles as, after multiple weeks of burnout over the holidays, I finally felt motivated to get back to writing this morning. I started the day with writing 2.5k words of my second draft, bringing the total, so far, to about 11.5k. I also wrote two substack posts and scheduled them for the weekend, planned multiple chapters worth of my outline, attended a mini course on dialogue, and wrote up a weekday schedule to best fit my writing goals and accommodate a rest day mid-week to prevent burnout as the days turn to weeks and the weeks into months. I’ve been getting plenty of reading done as well! Thank you, Novelry coaches, for always being there with support when I return from a hiatus!

09/01/2025

Another 2025 goal that works well with my “slow down” year: being more self-sufficient! Over the past month or so, I’ve added homemade yogurt to the docket of things to make on a regular basis to save money, reduce chemicals in my food, and eat a bit healthier. It’s so easy and makes a lot! The short jars are 4oz and the tall jars are 6oz, all from 2 liters of whole milk and some of the previous batch’s yogurt.

09/01/2025

I have several broad-ranging goals for 2025, and this is one of them! To knit my year of reading into the beloved book snake. I don’t really know how to knit, having only started a month ago, but YouTube has been awesome to me so far, and my first finished book of the year has become the first stripe- on to the next!

07/01/2025

Here's my latest Substack article! This applies to any writing outline, not just novels, though the formatting may be a bit different.

1. Treat your outline as a draft
2. Other than the plot, write a separate section for the bullet points you want your readers to learn during your scene/chapter
3. Separate the chapters
4. Start with your 5 major plot points
5. Treat it as a working outline

My post goes into a bit more detail about each one, so please read if you're interested!

There are many ways to write an outline, but here are five of my top tips to make the most out of writing yours!

06/01/2025

Here's my latest Substack article related to writing! You can check it out here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/melegaddini/p/5-tips-for-writing-a-novel-outline?r=b4tig&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

30/12/2024

This morning, my husband asked me if I’m living the dream, and I couldn’t help but laugh hysterically. 1. I hadn’t had coffee yet, and 2. My dream last night was of serenely tromping through a gorgeous pine forest covered in multiple feet of fresh snow and then seeing a black speck of something coming down the mountain, quickly growing bigger. It was a starving bear who never went into hibernation. I was mauled. So it kinda feels like I’m living the dream 🤣

26/12/2024

One thing I do to save a tidbit of money is make my own peanut butter! Don’t fine the online recipes, though- they always say to add oil, but the peanuts have enough oil on their own! I use the giant tub of Costco peanuts (usually unsalted, but this is what I had this time), which gives me about 3 jars of peanut butter. When we moved, I bought a store bought peanut butter to hold us over until our stuff got here, and I’ve been reusing it since then, which gives a great idea of how much I’m talking about! 3 of these :) so, just blend it! Once it gets to a powdery consistency, keep blending! It’s very simple, though a bit of a messy cleanup. It can be refrigerated or not, totally up to you.

24/12/2024

Tonight is Christmas Eve for us, and that’s just dandy! We’re spending the night relaxing before the kids open their Christmas Eve boxes after dinner, and then I’ll prep cinnamon rolls for the morning!

20/12/2024

It’s always a joy to visit Auntie’s Bookstore! These are the books that caught my eye in the short time I was able to browse- Christmas’s booklist material!

19/12/2024

Ignore the mess (it’s always messy- I won’t make excuses), but look at bramble all stretched out as far as his wittle kitten legs can go!

18/12/2024

I wrote another little article! This one was less about writing and more about life :)

It's the little things

14/12/2024

From my first Substack post! If you’d like to subscribe to inconsistent writing and life-related stuff, check out “That Writing Bug” over there :)

14/12/2024

I started a substack! I'm not promising consistency in posting at the moment, because my main project is still this book, but there'll be tidbits here and there!

Writing is more than just writing- it's repetition of writing.

13/12/2024

A discarded portion of draft 2 for your viewing pleasure. The nature of their relationship has changed since this was written!