This is not an advice book.

I know it might look like one, but believe me when I tell you it is not that. If that's what you're looking for, back away slowly and pretend you never found this. I won't tell if you won't.

No, dear friend. This is a book of chaos.

But it's also a book about writing. And it started because when you spend enough time around enough writers, you start to have questions. Questions you ask yourself, questions you ask them, questions they ask you.

I've been involved in formal discussions, casual conversations, and unrelated chats about food that just turned into writing discussions somehow? Don't ask me to explain how that happened because I honestly could not tell you.

But in these conversations, working together with others to troubleshoot issues and figure out what it is we need to do to be better writers, I've learned a few thousand things. And I've also developed a few thousand more questions.

Which is why this is not an advice book.

But in order to explain what it actually is (because "it is a book of chaos" is about as useful to you as an umbrella in a snowstorm), I'd like to explain a little about me, if you're willing to indulge me.

Back in my youth, before I retired from "real work" to become an all-the-time Mom to my kids, I was a teacher. But even before that, I was in a very fancy (debatable) bachelor's degree for both English Literature and Mathematics.

At the same time.

If this were a speech, I'd write "pause for reaction" here, because everyone, and I do mean everyone, hits me with a gasp of shock at this revelation. "How do you do it? How can one person enjoy math and literature? It just doesn't make sense!!!"

Maybe it doesn't. But to me, it has always made nothing but sense. I like logic and patterns and figuring out puzzles. I like learning to understand the world and depicting what I find in it.

What is reading literature but figuring out the puzzles of who people are and what they will do and why they behave as they do? And what is writing but figuring out all of those things and then, somehow, finding a way to tell their story?

And what is math but an elegant story of truth? An attempt at a universal discussion of the reality of our world. To me, they are both communicating. They are both questioning. They are both knowing. And they are both filled with endless learning.

So I'm a girl who lives for snacks, Romance novels, and spreadsheets. I collect data and endlessly question how things work. And I do all of that because I live for a good puzzle.

This, I think, is where my process for writing really begins. The foundational element, if you will, of how I approach my own writing process. And given how many people look at me like I have three heads for loving English and Math, I'm not confident this approach will completely make sense to other people.

Which is why this isn't an advice book. This is me staring at a blank page on my computer trying to work out the answer to so many questions I have for myself and from others on how it is I create, how I learned to do what I do, and what I still want to investigate.

You can expect to find me talking about snacks, jokes, math, and romance/comedy. You can expect a few anecdotes from my actual life. And you can expect a little bit about how I piece together puzzles: how I'm learning to craft stories and characters that are fun and entertaining and maybe even let us escape the harshness of the real world for a while.

But you can expect that to come with a lot of questions. Because I have so very much still to learn.

In fact, I started writing the first word of my first story just over three years ago, in October of 2019. I already had two children and one husband and three binders that I'd filled with recipes that could be made in 30 minutes or less.

I had no plans to write a book ever and, if I'm being honest, I was reading less of them than I would have liked. But one day, while we were sitting on the couch (I was probably eating a snack), my husband challenged me to write a book for NaNoWriMo.

Now, before I continue, I should probably tell you that I'm the kind of person who is very, very bad at backing down from a harmless challenge. I'm not daring at all so if you challenge me to skydiving I'll laugh and say no. But... you can probably already see where this is going.

In short, I wrote a book. I sat down and created a Wattpad account (we can thank my husband for that, too), and then I wrote a whole entire young adult novel in two and a half weeks.

And the whole time, I was posting chapters on Wattpad to share with the world.

Well, about two people, if I'm being honest. Turns out that getting an audience for my free story was more difficult than I had anticipated.

And some of that is just because marketing is hard and finding people to read your book in a sea of this many books is just difficult. No matter how prepared a person is, that is going to take work.

There are things, I've realized, that I just have no control over. And this book is mostly not about those things. Because I can't change what I can't change, and while there is some comfort in knowing we are not alone, this book is mostly about learning.

And let me tell you this. Looking back with all the wisdom three years and a dozen or so books brings, I can see I brought some of my difficulties with my first book on myself.

My cover was... well, it looked like something a kid drew with Microsoft Paint (remember that? I do because I'm old). And my story? Ooooooh boy I did not know what I was doing. What is plot? What are genre expectations? What are character flaws?

I won't bore you with the specifics right now (I'll save that for later), but suffice to say I made a whole HOST of mistakes. But I also didn't quit. I got so lucky to find a group of dedicated writing friends and jumped at the opportunity to receive a critique from a Wattpad veteran.

I put myself out there. And I'm usually not a "put yourself out there" kind of person, but those moments also defined me. I've become the kind of writer that isn't afraid to experiment on hot messes that never see the light of day. I've become the kind of writer who agrees to cowriting or anthologies just to see if I can do it. I've become the kind of writer who absorbs knowledge like a sponge. And I have every single writer who welcomed me into their communities to thank for this. Because I would not be here without them. And I think, in some way, I would not be me without them.

Especially my Chuck Taylors friends and the lovely human who came along and took time out of her excessively busy schedule to tell me my writing was good, my dialogue was realistic, but she didn't know what purpose the scene served in my story. The kindness of that praise gave me confidence and the honesty of that critique spurred my motivation.

It was a challenge. A new puzzle.

It drove me to learn about writing. And coupled with those writing friends I mentioned earlier, it propelled me into reading my very first book on the craft of writing (it was "Save the Cat! Writes a Novel" if you were wondering. We called our discussion "Craft Cheese" because we are writers who are very good at titles).

I haven't stopped learning since. I read novels and research details and devour craft books in my spare time.

But I'm still learning. And I'm learning how to identify issues at a faster rate than I'm learning how to correct them and that can be frustrating at times.

So I don't want this to seem like it's smooth sailing because it really isn't. What it is, for me, is a puzzle.

I am determined to figure out the pieces, yes. I want to know them. I want to understand every little one. But I'm also really interested in all the different ways they can be assembled to make a whole picture. How can they work together to make books people love to read? How can I twist them to tell the stories I need to tell?

And that's why this is not an advice book. This is an investigation. An experiment. A window into my brain as I attempt to dissect some things I've already learned and unravel some things I want to learn in the future.

Most of all, it's an exploration of all of those questions I keep getting asked or asking myself.

Because I don't think there's only one right answer. And even if there is, I'm probably not the person most qualified to give it.

But there is a journey. And I'm hoping sharing this will help someone find a spark of inspiration, feel less alone in the world, or be encouraged to share things that work for them.

And if it brings you absolutely nothing else, may my chaos bring you joy.

~ * ~ * ~

If you've stumbled onto this book from somewhere that isn't my profile... Hello! I'm Eliza, and I write mostly romantic comedies but sometimes just romance or just comedy. I'll try most things once, though.

If you'd like to share this book with others and help get the word out, it helps me immensely if you add this to a public reading list, shout it out on your announcements or socials, or leave a couple comments.

If you'd rather just wait and see where it goes, you can get notifications when new parts are released by adding it to your library or following me on my profile: authorelizasolares .

And if you just want to come back and check it out later, you'll know where to find it. It's not going anywhere.

Either way, thanks for taking the time to check out my book. I hope you'll stick around for the next part because I have questions.