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April Dávila | Author

@aprildavila

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Award-winning author 📚 Writing coach 💻
Mindful writing advocate 🧘🏻‍♀️
Helping writers finish their novels
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There’s a reason you haven’t finished your novel.

And it’s probably NOT because:

❌ You’re not talented enough.
❌ You’re undisciplined.
❌ You don’t want it badly enough.
❌ You’re not cut out to be a writer.

Something is getting in the way.

The trick is figuring out what.

Because once you can name the actual problem, you can stop beating yourself up and start doing something about it.

I’ve found that most unfinished novels get stuck for one of five reasons.

So I made a quiz to help you figure out which one is keeping your novel unfinished.

Take the quiz.
Find your sticking point.
Deal with THAT.

And then?

Channel your inner Ted Lasso. Be a goldfish. 🐠

Let the past go.

It doesn’t matter how long the manuscript has been sitting there.

It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve started and stopped.

It doesn’t matter what you should have done by now.

What matters is what you do next.

👉 Take the quiz at the link in my bio and find out what’s really keeping you from finishing your novel.

And if you discover you need some support getting unstuck, reach out.

I’m here to help. #sitwritehere #writingcommunity #amwritingfiction by @aprildavila

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20 days ago

😂 The two most dangerous words in a writer’s vocabulary?

“It’s research.”

And frankly, I don’t think writers are taking nearly enough advantage of them.

Writing a scene set in a bustling Italian restaurant?

Well, obviously you need to go out for spaghetti and meatballs. 🍝

Maybe a glass of red wine.

Take some notes.

IT’S RESEARCH.

Writing a novel set in Ireland?

Oh no. 🇮🇪

Guess you have to go to Ireland.

What a terrible burden we’ve chosen for ourselves.

😂

Now, obviously, not every writer has the time or money for international research trips.

But the point is this:

Being a writer gives you permission to be curious about EVERYTHING.

Go somewhere you’ve never been.

Try a food you’ve never tasted.

Talk to someone whose life looks nothing like yours.

Take the weird tour.

Ask the strange question.

Pay attention to the details everyone else walks right past.

Because you never know what tiny observation is going to make its way into your next novel.

And can we talk about Google search histories?

If you’re writing fiction and your search history isn’t at least a LITTLE concerning, are you even doing research? 😂

Mine has definitely included some questions that would require an explanation.

But that’s part of the fun.

Your job as a novelist is to get curious about the world.

And sometimes that means reading a book.

Sometimes it means interviewing an expert.

And sometimes?

It means ordering tiramisu because your character would absolutely order tiramisu.

For accuracy, obviously.

🍰 What’s the weirdest, funniest, or most suspicious thing you’ve ever researched for a story?

I want to hear it in the comments. by @aprildavila

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3 days ago

"Nerd Word of the Week: Liminal – in between two states
As in: The film explored the liminal space between life and death.

Liminal scenes hold the real tension. The old life is gone, the new one isn’t here yet.

Where is your character liminal right now? What are they between and what are they afraid to become?

#WritingCoach #writingcommunity #AmWriting #WritingLife #NerdWord" by @aprildavila

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4 days ago

"I'll finish it someday" is not a plan. It's a feeling.

And feelings, as lovely as they are, have never once moved a manuscript to the end. Someday has no date. It has no first step. It quietly lets the book stay exactly where it is while you keep believing you'll get to it eventually.

What actually moves a novel is knowing the real reason it stalled in the first place. Not a vague "I got busy," but the specific one. Because the fix for exhaustion looks nothing like the fix for a story you've lost the thread of, and guessing wrong just burns more time.

Trade the someday for a two-minute answer.
Take the quiz. 👉 Link in my bio.

#SitWriteHere #FinishYourNovel #WriterMindset #WritingCommunity #AmWriting by @aprildavila

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5 days ago

"“Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence.” — Alice Walker

Writing can redirect intensity into meaning. It can turn a wound into a sentence that holds. The page can be a safer place for power.

What does writing save you from, or save for you?

#WritingCoach #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WritingLife #MindfulQuotes" by @aprildavila

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7 days ago

"Nerd Word of the Week: Noctilucent – glowing at night
As in: We saw noctilucent clouds in the summer sky.

Some beauty only appears under specific conditions. Not because it’s romantic because it’s true.

What in your writing feels noctilucent right now? What shows up only in the hard hours?

#WritingCoach #writingcommunity #AmWriting #WritingLife #NerdWord" by @aprildavila

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11 days ago

Want to sound more like a professional writer when you talk about your novel?

Stop telling people how many pages it is.

Tell them the word count.

If you’re talking to an agent, editor, or someone in publishing and you say:

“My novel is 327 pages.”

That doesn’t actually tell them very much.

What size are the margins?

What font?

What spacing?

Change the formatting and suddenly your “327-page novel” is 400 pages, without adding a single word.

And chapters?

Even less useful.

“My book has 25 chapters.”

Okay… are those chapters 500 words or 5,000? 😂

A novel could have three chapters or 100.

Publishing talks in words.

So instead, say:

“My novel is about 80,000 words.”

Boom.

Now you’ve communicated something useful.

You don’t have to know the number down to the individual word, either. Round it to something sensible.

And one important caveat: there isn’t one magical word count that works for every novel.

Genre matters.

Age category matters.

The expectations for an epic fantasy are different from those for a cozy mystery or middle-grade novel.

So learn the general word-count expectations for the kind of book you’re writing.

Then, the next time someone at a writing conference asks how long your manuscript is?

Don’t give them pages.

Don’t give them chapters.

Give them words.

It’s a tiny shift, but it tells people you know what you’re doing.
#sitwritehere #amwriting #writingtips by @aprildavila

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11 days ago

"“When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.” — Amadou Hampâté Bâ

Stories disappear when they are not carried forward. Writing can be preservation, even when it is quiet. Keeping memory alive is a form of care.

What knowledge or memory are you trying to keep alive?

#WritingCoach #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WritingLife #MindfulQuotes" by @aprildavila

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14 days ago

📚 Okay, I forgot to mention something yesterday…

I posted about why you shouldn’t obsess over writing your first page first.

And then I realized:

I have an entire YouTube series devoted to first pages. 😂

It’s called First Page Fridays.

Writers send me the first page of their novel, I share it anonymously, and then I walk through:

👉 What’s already working
👉 Where I’m getting confused
👉 What might be slowing the story down
👉 What I’d consider changing
👉 And how the page could become stronger

If you want feedback on your own first page, you can submit it.

But you don’t even have to do that to get a TON out of these videos.

Because there’s something magical about watching someone else’s writing get edited.

You’ll be watching and think:

Oh yeah, I would NEVER do that.

And then you open your manuscript and…

👀

Oh.

I did that.

😂

It’s one of my favorite low-pressure ways to improve your craft because you get to practice seeing what works (and what doesn’t) without your inner critic freaking out because we’re talking about YOUR writing.

Then you can take what you learn back to your own pages.

So go to YouTube, search April Dávila, and look for First Page Fridays.

Watch a few.

Then go look at your first page again.

You might see something you couldn’t see before. by @aprildavila

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16 days ago

🚨 Stop trying to write your first page first.

Seriously.

You decide, “Today I’m starting my novel.”

You open a fresh document.

You stare at the blinking cursor.

And suddenly you think you need to write the PERFECT opening to a book that… doesn’t exist yet.

No wonder you’re stuck.

Your first page has a huge job to do.

It needs to introduce the voice.

Set the tone.

Ground us in the world.

Introduce character.

Create intrigue.

Make us want to turn the page.

But when you’re just starting your first draft, you’re still discovering most of those things yourself.

So why torture yourself trying to get them exactly right?

If you have a brilliant opening scene in your head, great. Write it!

Just don’t get precious about it.

You’re almost certainly going to come back and change it after you’ve written the rest of the book.

Personally, sometimes I barely write a first page at all.

I’ll open a document and write something like:

Okay, I think it opens here. I think we’re in this setting. These characters are probably there…

And then?

I MOVE ON.

I write the part I actually know how to write.

Because the goal of a first draft isn’t to prove on page one that you’re a brilliant novelist.

The goal is to discover the novel.

Once you know what the book actually is, you’ll be much better equipped to figure out how it should begin.

So if you’ve been staring at that blinking cursor waiting for the perfect opening sentence…

Skip it.

Jump ahead.

Write the part you know.

You can always write the first page last.
#sitwritehere #writingtips #amwriting by @aprildavila

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17 days ago

"Nerd Word of the Week: Lambent – softly glowing
As in: The lambent flames danced in the fireplace.

Not all light is harsh. Some scenes glow quietly and still change the reader.

Where is the lambent moment in your work? Share the small image that keeps staying with you.

#WritingCoach #writingcommunity #AmWriting #WritingLife #NerdWord" by @aprildavila

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18 days ago

Your manuscript hasn't gone anywhere. You have.

It's still sitting in the same folder, right where you left it, patient as anything. It didn't get worse while you were away. It didn't expire. It's simply waiting for you to come back to it.

So the real question was never whether the book is still there. It's what pulled you away in the first place, and why coming back feels heavier than it should.
Answer that, and the way back in stops being a wall and starts being a door.

That's a two-minute answer, and I made a quiz to give it to you.

Come find your way back.

👉 Link in my bio.

#SitWriteHere #MindfulWriting #WriterMindset #WritersOfInstagram #AmWriting by @aprildavila

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19 days ago