What if the reason you can’t start isn’t that you don’t know enough or haven’t planned enough, but because starting would make the thing real?

In this episode, I tackle the Ouroboros Problem 🐍 — how do you begin a book when the beginning depends on the ending, and the ending depends on the beginning?

I break down why first chapters and blurbs are particularly thorny, then propose two simple questions for de-thorning them.

👉 We’ll also get into persnickety perfectionism, the fantasy of the unblemished book, and something I almost edited out of this episode—no joke—three separate times.

Timestamps:

00:39 — The Ouroboros Problem

02:17 — Grandpa Joe has something to tell you

11:46 — If you ever tell yourself this…get very curious

15:02 — What do I (secretly) get from staying stuck?

18:35 — The anxiety loop I didn’t want to tell you about

23:21 — A spell for releasing your art

24:16 — Next week on Will I Ever Finish This Fucking Book?

📖 Did you know that you can start reading my first book, The Fool and the Threads of Time, for free at twinflames.life/freebies? It’s true!

Full Episode Transcript

What if that idea you’ve been dismissing as totally bonkers is the one that will change your life?

In this first episode of ✨Will I Ever Finish This Fucking Book? ✨ join me, Aven Winslow, romance author and Jungian Witch, as I invoke the central question of the season 👉 can I drag my second romantasy novel out of my mind, off my hard drive, and into readers’ hands without losing the magic that made me write this story in the first place?

This episode begins with the strange origin story of the Twin Flames series...

And then? It's time to meet the Four Hallows, of course! We'll use them to crack open the creative process: what’s going wrong on the page, what craft tools might help, which of my (many) fears and neuroses are getting stirred up underneath, and the real-life change the work demands of me.

Timestamps:

00:00 — What if the weird idea is the right one?

00:36 — The problem with being almost finished

03:09 — “Hey, you should write a romance”

06:24 — The hotel room that started it all

07:59 — What the H-E-double-hockey-stick are the Four Hallows?

09:09 — Fire, Air, Water, and Earth + the creative process

14:19 — Next week on Will I Ever Finish this Fucking Book?

🎨 Which of the Four Hallows is YOUR creative superpower?

You can totally take a quiz and find out at twinflames.life/freebies.

Full Episode Transcript