I had optimistic goals for how long I reckoned it would take me to write Collection of Onyx… well, my predicted timeline wasn’t very accurate. I started strong in December 2023, fresh off the success of having published my first novel… well, the summer holidays started to become busy with social plans and fun. I also didn’t really know how this book would tie into the overall series, and I got writer’s block. Then we were back to school, and year 8 got quite busy, especially with my other activities like basketball. I ended up barely writing in 2024. I picked up writing my novel again about halfway through 2025.
It was in September ’25 that I finally locked in and wrote over 40k words – literally over a third of my novel. I was having a lot of fun and had so many good ideas. That also included some of the school holidays, and with both my teams out of finals, I didn’t have any basketball either. All this free time was put to good use!
I had a rough outline in my notes app for how this book would go, but I added a LOT of extra stuff in as I went. Got some really random brainwaves sometimes!
I finished at the end of September, and my goal was to finish editing before the end of October, to publish in November. I published on 1st November (I spent like 8 hours on the laptop that day), and on 4th November, I received my book in the mail! It was great to hold it in my hands.
I finished my first draft with 104.6k words, and somehow in the editing process, I gained some extra words and ended up with 110k words. Funnily enough, Collection of Onyx is 408 pages, which is the same as Hope of Nightmares.
I feel as if my writing style has developed a lotttt and this book has so many hidden details that I had fun incorporating. I loved writing more flashbacks too, even though Sylvie didn’t really listen to me sometimes. The tension between all the characters was so cool, and I feel like I didn’t write it; stuff would just happen, and I’d just have to recount it. Do I know why two people ended up hating each other? Not really, but it happened, and I had so much fun writing it.
I’ve had so much fun with this book, but I think for Book 3, I definitely need to do some more planning upfront.
