Holding the Line: Returning to the Work
June 2, 2025
Some days, it feels like the hardest part of being a writer isn’t the writing itself.
It’s holding the line.
That quiet, invisible line where you swore to yourself you’d keep going, through chaos, fatigue, family duties, mood swings, brain fog, or just… the general ache of being human. Sometimes everything in your life, from the dishes in the sink to the weight in your chest, is screaming take a break. And maybe you should. Maybe you do.
But getting back to that line? That’s where the courage lives.
The past few weeks have been a tug-of-war between momentum and the dreaded funk. You know the one: the heavy-limbed, soul-weary fog that makes opening a document feel like climbing a mountain in a lead robe.
And even though I wanted to write, to finish the next chapter, to show up for the readers and characters I love… it was like something inside me had slowed to a crawl.
But here’s the quiet truth I keep relearning:
Every day is a new chance to return.
Even if you’re not where you were before. Even if the spark feels dimmer. Even if the routine’s been broken.
It still counts.
The smallest step back toward your creative center is still movement. Still resistance against entropy. Still sacred.
And maybe, just maybe, it’s okay if you’re not always writing at 100%. You don’t have to win every battle. You just have to stay in the war.
On Love, Death, and Fox Matchmaking
In completely related emotional devastation: can we talk about Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Love in Pavilion for a moment?
I went in expecting a light fantasy romance with some charming folklore and instead got emotionally obliterated, in the best possible way.
Not just the main couple (who absolutely ruined me, thanks), but the side couples—oh gods, the side couples. You know the ones. The sweet ones. The tragic ones. The ones with soft glances and sharp fates. Their SPOILER death scenes wrecked me. I was fully curled on the couch, hoodie strings pulled tight, whispering “no no no no NO” like it was a prayer.
And yet... I wouldn’t trade that pain for anything.Because when a story makes you feel that much, it’s doing something sacred.
Maybe that’s what keeps me returning to my own writing too, that hope that I can offer even a fraction of that emotional weight. A small echo of the same bittersweet ache.
So yes, I’ve been a little behind. Life got loud. The funk crept in.But the good news?
The next chapter of When the Heavens Turned Away is nearly here.
We’re diving into dreams that aren’t our own, past lives that still leave bruises, and a river that flows backward through time.
The journey isn’t over. It just took a breath.
You can catch up or follow along now on Novelizing.com, where I’m uploading the full story arc by arc.
Thank you, as always, for reading, supporting, and walking this wild road with me.
With ink-stained fingers and an ever-dramatic heart,
XueRui – 陳雪瑞 – Void Quill
