On restructuring Lullaby's Echo
Gabe has always been the most personal character in Lullaby’s Echo for me. He is in essence a reflection of the grief I have for my own sister.
His refusal to let his sister Alice go, his need to keep looking, his inability to accept disappearance as something clean and finished - none of that was invented from a safe distance. It’s the part of the book that comes from the deepest place.
That is a big part of why I wanted to write a quick note about why I stopped serialising Lullaby’s Echo after Chapter 22.
The short version is simple: I hit a point where I could see the book more clearly, and once that happened, I didn’t feel right pushing ahead in public as though nothing had changed.
This isn’t because I’ve lost faith in the story. If anything, the opposite is true. I care enough about it to admit that parts of it need reshaping.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been looking at Lullaby’s Echo not only as a novel in its own right, but as the opening movement of the wider Trinity of Echoes trilogy. That broader view has helped me understand what Book One actually needs to do.
It has to stand on its own first. It has to land emotionally. It has to carry the weight of grief, love, memory, and that refusal to let go that sits at the centre of the story. But it also has to plant certain things more cleanly, strengthen some threads, and shape the middle so the whole book hits harder.
So this restructure isn’t about changing the heart of the novel. The heart is the part I trust most.
It’s more about making the book truer to itself.
Some of that is structural. Some of it is pace. Some of it is about making sure the emotional throughline stays strong all the way through. And some of it is about understanding that a few things which once felt like atmosphere or instinct are actually carrying more weight than I first realised.
I don’t want to say too much about the wider trilogy yet, because I’d rather those things reveal themselves in the work than in an author note. But seeing further ahead has shown me where Book One can be stronger now. Not bigger or louder. Just stronger and more focused. Cleaner in its movement. More deliberate in what it holds back, and more confident in what it chooses to hit hard.
That matters to me, because if I’m asking people to come on this journey with me, I want to give them the best version of that journey I can. Serialising a novel can be a strange thing. Part of its beauty is that readers get to see work in motion. But there comes a point where continuing to post chapters while knowing the structure needs revision starts to feel less like stubbornness.
So I chose to pause.
Not because the book is broken or I’m walking away from it. But because I think it can become a better, sharper, more emotionally complete version of itself if I give it the time to do that work now.
I know pauses can be frustrating, especially if you’ve been reading along, and I really do appreciate everyone who has spent time with the story so far. It means a lot to me. Truly.
My hope is that when Lullaby’s Echo returns, it will do so in a form that feels more whole. More intentional. More equal to the things it is trying to carry.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for your patience while I go back into the bones of Lullaby’s Echo.
