It's been over two months since I posted on this blog! Apologies for that. The past two months have been quite a ride. Hell, this whole author journey has been a mad experience (in a good way). Think roller-coaster, plus your choice of hallucinogenic (or substitute with sugar overdose), and throw in a 7.8RM quake for good measure. Then multiply that by ten. You get the idea.
A lot of stuff happening means a lot of change. And some of those changes will inevitably spill over into my work. All good changes, though.
Before we get to said changes, however, I want to point out an essential lesson I recently learned: A writer (or anyone really) needs to manage his/her expectations and understand his/her limitations. This has been a tough one for me, as I'm sure it has been for many. I mean, how many times have you started out with the loftiest of intentions, only for life to throw a cream pie in your face and leave you in a puddle of your own salt water.
The problem is, how do you know what your expectations should be? What is realistic? What isn't? What are your limitations?
I've always found those things out by testing my boundaries. It was never energy efficient, but it was always the quickest path.
In the past I was usually able to take new things up and go at them full pelt. But this time, that just didn't happen. I don't know why. Maybe I met my match in writing. The more likely explanation is I'm just getting older. I find I have less energy, patience, and flexibility these days. I took up the pen and looked at guys who had been doing it for years and thought to myself, "hey, I'ma do what they're doin!"
Big mistake. You see, the problem with biting off more than you can chew is you end up choking. And boy, did I choke? But here's the thing. When you recover from choking do you decide that you will never eat another bite for the rest of your life? Obviously not. And even though it was a tough lesson to swallow, I got back up and tried again, only slower and with a hell of a lot more caution. The result? I'm MUCH more productive than I've ever been and I'm enjoying my writing ten times more.
The lesson? Don't expect too much of yourself. Start small. And if you did try to run before you could crawl and fell flat in your face, don't give up. Get up and try again. People don't win races sitting on their holes. That is unless you're in a car, or on a horse, or... never mind. You know what I mean.
Anyway, some changes...
Up until now, most of my posts here have been geared toward other writers (well, they've mainly been my own meandering musings, but they would apply more to other writers). Come to think of it, who am I to judge? You guys could love all the writer mindset/marketing jargon, for all I know.
Anyway, my blog posts are going to consist of material readers will enjoy. For one thing, I'll be startling a weekly serial here, that I may also mirror in Whatpad for those who enjoy that platform. I'll also be running monthly short stories on here and at the end of the year, they'll get deleted and compiled into a book.
I haven't mentioned this yet on here (I definitely have on the newsletter), but there have been some significant changes with regards my release plans. Originally I had planned on releasing an epic sci-fi series called The Lost Starchives.
No, it has nothing to do with chives that grow in space, as one of you guys pointed out recently... thanks for the laugh by the way :)
The Lost Starchives turned out to be another example of taking on more than I could handle. Star and Fury is the first book in that series. It's a great story, even if I do say so myself, and I had a blast writing the first draft. Also, I seriously can't wait to get back to it. That being said, it's currently beyond my limitations. At my current level, I just wouldn't do it justice.
The book follows two very complex characters and tackles some really in depth issues that are important to me. Going from writing short stories to an epic like that was an ambitious decision, but it wasn't a wise one. So I've put that on the shelf until I've had time to get some experience under the old belt and hone my craft a little, which I think I'm making some serious progress with, by the way.
Currently I'm focusing on the Galactic Sentinel series. It's another great story, though be it a little more lighthearted. I'm having a blast with it since I'm no longer missing all those targets I would never have been able to reach in the first place. I'm also still writing short stories and plan to have another collection (called Paradox) out by the end of the year. It will contain about ten shorts based on the theme of man vs machine.
All this means I won't be a full time writer as soon as I'd hoped, but hey it's better than never being a full time writer. Hey, I got a little carried away and wrote a lot more than intended. We'll leave it at that for now.
Have a great week folks!
Cheers,
Killian