I’m at 82,938 words for my rough draft for the sequel to Muspell’s Sons! This book has been difficult for me to write, but I’m finally in a better place mentally and able to push forward.
I’ve been in a pretty bad slump for the past six months due to my frustrations with publishing Muspell’s Sons. Since no one is buying it or reading it in Kindle Unlimited, I was left with the conclusion that it’s not a good book. I felt like I was being smacked down by the universe, and that I must not be cut out for writing.
Just the other day, though, I came across Dean Wesley Smith’s website. A prolific and skilled sci-fi writer, he is an advocate for writing your story, not letting anyone touch it, and then learning from peoples’ comments to put towards the next book, and to always keep learning. He says that when you start writing, it’s going to be bad, and the only way to get better is to write. A lot. This meshes with what I read in Atomic Habits, so I’m inclined to believe him. He also talks about how writing talent isn’t an immutable or unchanging fact of our existence. It is more a skill that can be developed through practice. When we start off, we all suck. But with determination and the willingness to put our noses to the grindstone, we can improve our writing.
So that’s what I’m going to be doing. I’m going to be writing as much as I can about anything an everything I can think of. I’m going to practice writing for the simple pleasure of writing. I’m going to write because that is one of the threads of the fabric of my personality and just as worthy of enjoying and nurturing as anything else.
If you are a writer, I highly encourage you to check out his website. He puts writing and publishing into a much healthier perspective than I think a lot of us writers are used to hearing. I particularly love his “Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing”.
Next week, though, I’m going to spend the week smoothing out the mess that I’ve got. After writing about 20k words, I decided to completely change the story. I still kept what I’d written, but noted where I’d have to rewrite and change characters and such. Then around 50k words, I added some much-needed structure. While I’m much happier with the story now, the rough draft that I’ve got reads about as well as trying to drive over the Grand Canyon. Hopefully after next week, it’ll make a lot more sense and be much easier to continue fleshing out.
Even though I won’t be writing anything for the book, I’ll still be writing. Since writing at least 1,667 words a day for the same book day in and day out can get draining, I’m going to be working on a short fanfiction story to give my brain a break. If I finish that before I’ve finished correcting Brand’s book, I have a backlog of short story ideas that I’d like to write down to practice outlining and condensed story structure.
Until next time!
JLJ
