Writing a Novel: A Retrospective

This Broken Earth  is finished, as far as the series versions.  I will go back these next few weeks to fine tune and tweak the entire thing so that I might produce them as one volume.  These will include a print edition through CreateSpace, and a Kindle, Nook and iTunes version as well.  After spending 18 months of my life on this novel, I have made a few observations.

I worked every day on the novel, writing a minimum of 1000 words per day, and sometimes those 1000 words were re-writes of certain chapters as the novel took shape.  Now that I’m not writing every day (I’m taking a much needed rest) I’m experiencing something that can only be described as withdrawal.  For three days after I finished, I kept wondering if there was something I needed to do, or that I was missing something but couldn’t remember what it was.

Yesterday as we were headed to church, my children asked if we were going to go see a movie or something today and I started to reply that I had to do some maintenance around the house and the children immediately responded “Oh, you’ll probably be writing, right?”  They know their Dad very well.

Once I produce the print edition and digital editions of This Broken Earth, I will schedule book signings, get a table at some conventions, start a podcast about writing and fanboy geekdom with my good friend Ryan McKinley (more to come later) and start working on the next novel.

What do I write next, you ask?  The choices are vast.  I have a historical novel planned about a Roman soldier, another science-fiction novel with the theme of not wasting one’s life, a science-fiction novel that comments on the issues faced as a parent of a special needs child, and then there is the sequel I have to write to The Transgression Box.  It will be a busy few years.

This post also marks a year of blogging on WordPress.  It’s been great, and I plan on writing even more blog posts on topics ranging from self-publishing, writing tips, teaching writing and…well…my writing process.  Thank you to all of my followers who have seen fit to read my ramblings.  Bless you all!

To those celebrating Christmas, a Merry Christmas to you!  And to you and the rest, a happy new year.  May your new year be filled with successes, may you learn from your mistakes, and may you always remember that writing is hard work.