My books ranked from easiest to hardest to write

Or, The labor of our love is a reward—and that's enough

My pal Emily gave me this idea: rank your books from easiest to hardest to write. And I initially thought it would be an easy, fun prompt to tackle…

What instead happened is an absolutely enormous list detailing the trials and tribulations of over fifteen years in this business, followed by a Classic Sooz commentary on the challenges of a creative life.

So read on to get some insights into your favorite books (if you’re a fan) or to see that you are NOT ALONE if you’re a fellow writer struggling with your latest draft.

Or just skip ahead to the end if you want only a summary of the insights. I won’t take it personally. 😉

---

The Books, Easiest to Hardest

1. The Murder Quartet — these are four books I’ve talked about a little in the Discord that are in the vein of TE3, except they skew less humorous & more upper YA.

   1. I cannot overstate what a joy each of these books has been to write.

   2. Once I had mental space from finishing Witchlight, the words just POURED out of me.

      1. On top of that, we’ve just been through an incredibly tough few years in the Dennard household, and these books were such a glorious escape.

      2. I mean, who doesn’t love romance, murder, ghosts, and more romance?!

   3. Admittedly no, these four standalone are not finished. But they’re close enough that I feel okay listing them here!

   4. I started the first, Two For Joy, in August 2024 and wrote 60K words in 2.5 weeks.¹

      1. After that, I wrote Four & Twenty Blackbirds in a second flurry of escapism. This one needed a little more reworking/backtracking than 2FJ, but that didn’t make it any less pleasurable.

      2. Then came Three Mollys in the Well, and gahhhh. Like 2FJ, this one just exploded out of me in one go. I hit 55K in 2 weeks, and then petered out.

      3. Lastly came One Raven for a Dove, and admittedly, this one has been the trickiest.

         1. Mostly because I couldn’t unlock my heroine. Everything else was so clear, but who was she?

         2. I finally got there after a week of poking/prodding/false starts, and I just hit 39K words last week!

   5. As much as I would love to sell these books next in my author career, I also keep telling myself: It is okay if you don’t. You loved writing these, and that is something you will never regret.

      1. More on this below!

2. The Luminaries — Writing this book felt like writing fan ficiton.

   1. It was such a joy to be back in the Luminaries world I’d shared on Twitter in 2019, after failing to sell that book/world in 2013.

   2. In 2020, I got to reacquaint myself with all the cast and world a third time, but I also to give them new plots and histories. Truly, a joy.

   3. Plus, the structure of the trials in combination with Winnie’s underdog character? It was just a naturally propulsive book to write.

   4. I could only write during my infant daughter’s nap times because it was Covid—we had no childcare and no family to help.

      1. But that only made the escape even more special. For 3 hour-long spurts a day, I got to escape in to Hemlock Falls instead of deal with baby spit up.

3. The Executioners Three — Okay, so this was both easiest and NOT because it went through so many iterations over the years.

   1. Once I unlocked the Right Story, OH, how it flowed!

   2. But prior to that unlocking, I spent literally 7 years writing, rewriting, reframing, and trying to understand what I was missing.

   3. Turns out I had the wrong love interest. Once I put Theo in, then I was off to the races.

   4. I started this book in 2011. And now it’s finally releasing 14 YEARS LATER.

   5. Moral of the story? Don’t give up. Some books just take a while.

   6. Also, while you’re here, please consider pre-ordering?

4. Sightwitch — This was like TE3 (and many other projects on this list) in that it took a few false starts.

   1. I actually gave up on it the first time around because it was just not working—and my plan had been to self-publish it for fans anyway.

      1. So I threw in the towel and focused on contracted stuff instead.

   2. But then two years later, Tor Teen asked if I could write it for them, and I agreed to at least try.

   3. Turns out, once I allowed Ryber to tell her story in first person (instead of third like the rest of the Witchlands books) AND once I viewed the whole thing as an immersive game for the reader to discover…

   4. AH. Thar she blew! Ryber’s story and (unexpectedly) Eridysi’s too poured out of me.

5. Something Strange & Deadly — This book was my very first book that I ever fully finished + tried to publish.

   1. I wrote it 15 years ago, if you can believe it.

   2. And while I was clumsy and learning as I went, I was also writing in a naive, hopeful space that I will never get to experience again.

   3. That alone made this process much easier.

   4. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and that “unconscious incompetence” powered me.

   5. This was followed by “conscious competence” as I studied the craft of novel writing, rewrote many times, and applied everything I was learning.

6. Truthwitch — This was my love letter to the books I grew up reading.

   1. My bread and butter growing up (in addition to mysteries) was epic fantasy. Pierce, LeGuin, McCaffrey, Hobb, Lackey, and beyond.

   2. I always wanted to write my own sweeping fantasy with slow burn romance and EPIC payoffs.

      1. On top of that, after a couch-surfing trip across Slovenia and Croatia, I’d always wanted to write a fantasy series with that kind of landscape…

      2. Plus, I’m a huge gamer, and I wanted to capture the breathtaking scale can you get in an open world RPG.

      3. In 2013, I finally had the idea to tie it all together.

      4. I just threw everything I love most into Truthwitch.

   3. This was so much fun to write because the sky was the limit.

      1. Consequences for plot choices? Worry about that later!

         1. Lolololol

         2. Big mistake, Sooz.

   4. I’ll admit I felt a lot of pressure for this book, having been in the midst of watching my SS&D series tank horribly.

      1. But, I was also so hopeful for future success—so determined to get there, no matter how many books I had to write—it fueled me to keep going.

7. A Darkness Strange & Lovely — This was my first ever attempt at a sequel.

   1. It took me quite a few false starts—in addition to a ton of research, which slowed me down.

      1. Alternate history ‘tis not for the faint of heart.

      2. And setting a book in 1876 Paris wasn’t the easiest thing to research. The internet wasn’t NEARLY as vast, and resources weren’t nearly so accessible as they are today.

   2. Once I got Eleanor out the door, though, and realized the demon Oliver needed to join her…

      1. Well, off I went!

8. Strange & Ever After — This was my first ever attempt at a series conclusion.

   1. And phew boy.

      1. I should have learned my lesson here, though! It would have better prepared me for later conclusions.

      2. I learned nothing. Ha.

   2. As with almost everything I write, I bit off a lot of plot to wrap up at the end—in addition to a lot of character work.

      1. That made finding a way to stick the landing and wrap up all the loose ends a real challenge.

         1. I’d never done it before! And as an intuitive writer, this required a lot of planning that went against my natural grain.

   3. This book was also extremely hard on an emotional level. For two reasons:

      1. A character I truly loved met a pretty horrific fate at the end of the book.

         1. I get deep in my characters emotions, so I had to tap fully into how Eleanor felt there—and WOW.

         2. I still have never cried with my writing as much as I did at the end of that book.

      2. THE FIRST BOOK IN THE SERIES TANKED! SO I WAS AFRAID THE SEQUELS WOULD BE CANCELLED AT ANY MOMENT!

         1. And on top of that, since I had barely sold any copies of the sequel ADS&L, I had no idea if anyone out there would actually read the finale (assuming it did get published).

         2. I write for other people, so not knowing if other people would actually read…

         3. Yeah, 10/10 don’t recommend.

9. Bloodwitch — This book was tricky to get started (as literally all of my sequels have been).

   1. But once I figured out where Aeduan and Iseult were, plus what their primary goal was…

   2. Then it came together.

   3. Writing the climax to this book will forever be one of my most favorite writing memories of all time.

      1. I was so locked into Aeduan (and Iseult), and the intensity of getting them through one of my series cookies was just INCREDIBLE.

      2. I literally had to take breaks and pace because I so overwhelmed by the emotions in those final scenes.

10. The Whispering Night — This book was difficult because I was simultaneously trying drafting the conclusion the Witchlands series.

    1. Turns out two series conclusions at once is hard for my brain! Hahahahahahahaha. 🥲

    2. I thought this book would actually be easier, since all I had to do was “ride out everything that happened in book 2.”

       1. But NOPE.

       2. Like with S&EA, I had to much plot to wrap up.

    3. This book was filled with a ton of writing. Getting stuck. Backtracking. Writing more. Getting stuck. Backtracking. Deleting. Screaming. Then writing some more.

11. A Dawn Most Wicked — This was my first ever attempt at a novella.

    1. Turns out a I SUCK at novellas. Truly. I suck at them.

    2. Also, turns out because I am a completely intuitive writer, I can’t just “jump into a random side character’s head and write their story.”

    3. I thought it would be easy because I knew Daniel through Eleanor’s eyes…

    4. But nope. Lol, nope. I couldn’t figure out his voice at all.

    5. This literally took me as long to write as a full novel, and I ended basically just writing a full novel, then trimming/tightening it until it was 35K words.

12. The Hunting Moon — Me and sequels, y’all.

    1. Me. And. Sequels.

    2. I should really have learned after the SS&D series AND the Witchlands series showed me how hard it was for my particular brain to manage sequels.

    3. But I just love an “earned payoff” so much. I always seem to imagine at the scale of a series.

       1. Give me a slow burn romance.

       2. Give me a plot twist that takes three books to reveal.

       3. Give me a final climax where emotions are SO BIG because you’ve been building toward them with characters you care about for hundreds upon hundreds of pages…

    4. I really, really, really struggled with THM, though. I just couldn’t find Winnie’s voice, and rather than step away to work on something else², I just kept on trying to force her story out.

    5. So many cut words before I finally found the opening funeral scene.

    6. Then things proceeded…okay. Lots of stopping and starting, but still. I got it where I wanted/needed it to be.

13. Screechers — No, this book still isn’t finished, despite working on it for 15 YEARS!

    1. But I’m including it here because I recently took parts and transformed them into a 10,000 word novelette.

    2. What makes this project especially hard is the sheer number of times I’ve written and rewritten it over 15 years.

       1. More on that here.

    3. Somehow, I still love this story despite the literally uncountable number of rewrites.

       1. Specifically, I love the world and my main characters—so I keep wanting to come back to them.

    4. But, I also can’t deny that Screechers has been so difficult for so long. And turning it into a novelette was also so difficult.³

    5. Will it ever become a book? I honestly don’t know. But I have not abandoned it yet!

14. Witchlight — The conclusion in a six book series. What could go wrong?

    1. If I thought wrapping up a trilogy was hard, imagine 6 books of earned payoffs.

       1. 6 books with 7 core POV characters, plus a few other key characters.

       2. 6 books that are each 120,000-180,000 words long.⁴

    2. Because I think in terms of “earned payoffs,” I had planted everything I wanted to happen all the way back in the earliest books.

       1. Which meant I couldn’t deviate or change my mind now.

       2. And as an intuitive pantser, that meant I COULD NOT PANTS a single freaking word.

    3. It was like building the most complex Jenga tower, and I had no choice but to go slow.

    4. I also had the difficulty of trying to write this book with a baby at home and no childcare because of Covid.

       1. This is not a book that could be written during 1-2 hour nap spurts.

       2. I needed to rebuild the Jenga tower in my head every time I sat at the keyboard…and I just couldn’t do it.

       3. So I wrote the entire Luminaries trilogy to pay my bills while continuing to focus on this simultaneously.

    5. This book took 3 years to write/assemble.

       1. I was anxious the whole time about the weight of the contract to Tor.

          1. What if I couldn’t figure it all out?!

          2. What if I left the series forever unfinished and let my entire publishing team down?

       2. I was anxious the whole time about my readers, who were understandably getting less and less patient each month

          1. How long would they wait for me?

          2. And again: what if I left the series forever unfinished and let ALL of those readers down?

    6. Unsurprisingly, there was also a lot of trauma wrapped up in the Witchlands thanks to what happened during the Witchshadow process.

       1. (More on that below.)

    7. And again, while I have you…please pre-order?

15. Witchshadow — I wrote an entire newsletter about why this book was so hard.

    1. I won’t rehash here, but the tl;dr?

       1. There were craft challenges that required me to combine two books into one.

       2. There were IMMENSE life challenges, including IVF, miscarriage, and then near-death during delivery that required months of intense healing.

       3. Also, I got shingles from the stress of it all.

16. Windwitch — If you’ve been following me a long time, this one won’t surprise you. If you’re new here, then it might.

    1. I’ve talked about it here.

       1. And here.

       2. And here.

       3. And here.

       4. And here.

       5. And countless other places over the last 9 years, honestly…

    2. One thing I have NOT talked about, however, is the fact that I had to change the book because of a behind-the-scenes issue with a corporate bookstore.

       1. This is the sort of thing that won’t happen in today’s age because of how much the corporation itself has changed.

       2. But in 2016, I was told a big chain wouldn’t accept the title Threadwitch for my third book.

          1. I was given no reason, but was only told that that the title wouldn’t work—and if I wanted this store to stock my books, I needed to change the title.

          2. And hey, can you just do Bloodwitch next instead? Do that. Yes. If you want this book in stores, do that.

       3. This screwed. Up. Everything. Because my original plan was for the series to go: Trutwitch, Windwitch, Threadwitch, Bloodwitch. And I’d already planted all these seeds in the first book—which was already ON SHELVES.

          1. So suddenly I had to recalibrate everything; turn every foreshadowing hint into something else; and figure out how to rearrange my character arcs.

             1. Because keep in mind: each Witchlands book follows the titular character primarily, then every other character in the book has an arc that echoes the title character’s.

             2. So to suddenly make Aeduan fill book 3 instead of the FINAL book…? His final decisions and growth arc were meant to be THE THING the entire series hinged on! CRAP!!!

       4. I wrote an entire draft of a book—after spinning my wheels for >1 year—and turned that into my editor.

          1. Then a week later, I emailed her and said to toss it. I was starting over.

       5. It was bad. A mess. And I have never put myself through so much stress over a book.

          1. It wrecked my health.

          2. I had no perspective, and I saw only pressure and failure everywhere I turned.

          3. And it wasn’t worth it.

       6. I have since learned how to relieve the pressure and put things into a much healthier perspective. But I didn’t have those tools then. It was brutal.

    3. This book wound up with more typos in it than any other. And no surprise! I literally turned it into copyedits, and then the finished book hit shelves 3 months later.

       1. That kind of timeline is impossible today.

       2. Literally impossible because of impacts to the production schedule during Covid and beyond.

---

Creative Balance?

And there you have my books, ranked from easiest to hardest. As I warned at the top, this turned into an enormous list.

But you can also see how I’ve come a very long way in my fifteen years of publishing, and I’d like to think I would never let myself get into the pressure cooker that was Windwitch.

I got close, certainly, with Witchshadow. And I skated that way as well, with Witchlight. But I caught myself before it ever got too bad with those books.⁵

Because truly: no book is worth that kind of long term physical damage.

You’re writing a book; not curing cancer.⁶ That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t feel any pressure or that what you’re doing doesn’t matter. Of course it matters!

No one will die, though, if you miss a deadline or can’t get the book perfect.⁷

Yet I have so many writer friends who’ve suffered long-term physical ailments caused by the stress of writing books under deadline—myself included!

---

The Labors of Our Love

I’ve been listening lately on repeat to a song by the Growlers called “Going Gets Tough.”

Here’s the part I like:

Still always remembering, when the going gets tough,

That the labor of our love will reward us soon enough.

However, there is one thing that I change about that line every time I listen. I always, always change it to:

That the labor of our love is a reward and that’s enough.

I know it’s such a cliché to say that we should “enjoy the journey and ignore the destination.” (And for some people, that is genuinely anathema to who your are. Which I get. So go ahead and disconnect now because what comes next ain’t advice for you.)

For everyone else who perhaps, at one point or another, took joy in their work and now finds they do not have that joy…

Well, then this IS for you. Because it can return.

You have to work at it—I won’t lie. You have to look at the lies you’re telling yourself that are making you so miserable now. For me, it was the lie that failure to perform or to meet a deadline would destroy me (and destroy my publisher + readers too).

Of course that’s not true, but it felt so very true for so very long.

And I still slip into a place where it feels true again! I’m not perfect, and I am people pleaser to the extreme.

But I know that it is all just a lie in the end. I will not die; no one I love will die; no one at my publisher will die—and guess what: no will hate me either just because I’m late.

And because I’ve worked hard to cultivate tools specifically for this trap⁸, whenever I slide into that terror spiral, I use those tools.

Which is why I can say with 100% honesty and certainty that writing is both a joy and an escape. It wasn’t that way a decade ago; it absolutely is now.

Writing energizes me. It sets my stress free. Each writing session is time that I never wish I’d spent elsewhere.

So no matter the outcome—maybe a book doesn’t sell or doesn’t get stellar reviews or just never makes it past 70,000 words—I do not have regrets. I do not look back and think, Boy, I wish I hadn’t wasted that hour writing.⁹

The labor of my love is a reward, and that’s enough.

---

I know, I know.

Many of you are rolling your eyes at Pollyanna over here. And I get it. I’d have done the same thing five years ago.

But my family has been through some real shit in that time. The kind of shit that focuses priorities and makes everything else seem…well, honestly, pretty insignificant.

And the benefit of that perspective is that it has so dramatically lowered the stakes for my publishing and writing life.

Sure, I need to get paid. Sure, deadlines can still be stressful. And sure, I don’t want to let anyone down because, again, PEOPLE PLEASER!

But also, what a privilege that I get to wake up today and write words! If I had died in 2020, then I wouldn’t be able to do that.

And what an incredible gift that I get to exist in a made-up world today where none of my real life problems exist! My daughter’s lungs are healthy enough to be at school today¹⁰, and that means this manuscript gets my entire focus.

What a joy to have to grapple mentally with this sticky plot problem! It means I’m not focused on this surprise surgery I have to have after a heartbreaking loss. Or on my daughter’s asthma. Or on a sick dog or ailing parent or nagging debt or all the undeniably terrible things happening in the world today.

The fact that any of us can unplug for a little while to write is such a huge fucking privilege, and I believe strongly that we alll should acknowledge that. Regularly.

I love my job.

I love my books and my stories.

I love my readers.

And I love, love, love that I have been doing this for so long now, I can make an absolutely MASSIVE list like the one above that most of you will have skimmed.¹¹

So I hope you can understand that I really am not trying to be Pollyanna. I am just so grateful I get to do something many people never will—and not because they don’t want to, but because real life simply will not let them.¹²

We are, so many of us, very lucky. Try to remember that, okay? When the deadline gets to be intense or you’re terrified no one will ever read your story or you’ve only got five minutes before the hospital nurse comes in with more bad news about a loved one…

SAVOR the peace and joy that exists when it’s just you, channeling words onto a page. That moment is yours and yours alone, and no one can take it away from you once it’s past. The labor of your love has brought you joy.

And that can be enough.

💚 - Sooz

1. That’s just drafting time, of course, not editing time too!

2. Which I now know is the way I work best.

3. I just don’t do well with short, y’all.

4. Except for Sightwitch, which is 60,000 words + all the supplementary illustrations, documents, and puzzles.

5. Well, okay. The shingles incident with Witchshadow definitely told me what I was unwilling to acknowledge: girl, you’re burned out. Stop working for a hot second and sleep.

6. There is literally an entire episode of The Studio about this. SO cringe to watch, but the point stands. (And that show is excellent, by the way. Really sharp comedy.)

7. And if they will, then I have some SERIOUS concerns about your publishing situation.

8. Which yes, I am slowly adding to the my “Facing the Fears” course on the Academy.

9. In case it’s not clear: I still prioritize my family first. ALWAYS. So if it’s a choice between going on a hike with my kid (like I did this morning) or writing. I’ll pick the hike.

10. She has asthma, which has to be managed day to day—and she almost died from it in 2023. Some days are amazing; other times, we’re terrified and vigilant and she’s home with me to manage it.

11. I don’t blame you. I'd have done the same.

12. Don’t even get me started on the advice to “prioritize” the writing—advice I’ve certainly barked out myself when I was younger, childless, and naive. I know better now! Time limitations, money needs, family support, etc. are all valid reasons to not prioritize the writing. Those frequently HAVE to take priority—and damned well should.