Category: Captives in Obscurity

On the way to 10k

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how I plan to achieve my writing goal of hitting 10k words of fiction in a single day. The steps I laid out to getting there were:

  1. Write first thing every day.
  2. Write in timed, focused sessions.
  3. Strive to achieve 2k words per hour.
  4. Strive to hit at least 6 writing sessions.
  5. Pre-write each day for the next day.

I’m happy to report that the writing has been coming along very well! Ever since I started timing my sessions and keeping track of how much and how fast I write, it’s been as if someone turned on a switch inside my brain. The words are flowing, the story is coming along very well, and I’m a lot happier and more productive than I was only a month ago.

The main thing that does it is, ironically, forcing myself to stop every half hour or so. When I wake up in the morning and thing of how much I want to write that day, it can be a little daunting. By writing in short bursts, it helps to break the big goal down into parts. When you think too much about all the writing you want to achieve, it’s very easy to get caught up in the procrastination trap. But when you think of it as just a half-hour session of 400-600 words, it seems a lot more doable. And it is!

So things are coming along very well with Gunslinger to the Stars. My goal is to finish the first draft by February 6th and send it out to my first readers shortly thereafter. If things keep going the way they have been, I may actually finish it sooner.

As for reaching 10k words, I’m still a ways off but headed in the right direction. For now, I’m laying the foundation for it: building good habits and hitting a consistent stride. Once I’ve got that laid out, I’ll start to stretch myself, pushing the limits further and further until I’m ready to make the final approach to the summit. No sense in pushing too hard and burning out along the way.

In other news, I’ve sent Captives in Obscurity (Sons of the Starfarers: Book V) off to my editor, and should be getting it back in early February. The cover art should be ready around the same time. If all goes well, the book should be up for pre-order by the end of February, with a release date of May 15th.

I’m not sure when Patriots in Retreat (Book VI) will come out, since I’m still writing it, but as of right now I’m tentatively planning for a release sometime in August. After I’ve finished with Gunslinger to the Stars, I’ll move on to Patriots and see if I can’t knock that out before the end of February. If so, I might actually push the release date up to July.

As for other WIPs I intend to tackle, The Sword Keeper and Edenfall are on the top of the list. The free month for Genesis Earth went a lot better than I had expected, leading me to believe that there’s enough potential to make finishing the trilogy worthwhile. Besides, Edenfall is already plotted out, so if I can keep up the 10k pace it should be a cinch to write. Same with The Sword Keeper.

That just about does it for this post. I intended to write another Self-Sufficient Writer post responding to some of the craziness going on in the world right now, but that will have to hold off until next week. I’ve also got another trope post planned for Monday, so that should be interesting.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this video about how many twinkies it would take to power the Death Star. Take care!

State of the Vasicek 2015

I recently read a post over on Brandon Sanderson’s blog where he did an exhaustive recap on his writing and update on all of his WIPs, and called it State of the Sanderson. Since it’s the end of the year and I’m already looking back in order to make some new resolutions for 2016, it seems like a good opportunity to do something similar myself.

In 2015, I managed to publish five books, including two novels, a novelette, and two short stories:

In addition, I wrote a number of short stories that are currently on submission to the major markets, and will probably be published (by myself or in the magazines) sometime in 2016. These include:

  • Killing Mr. Wilson — Time Travel (950 words)
  • My Name Is For My Friends — Sword & Sorcery (2,000 words)
  • Utahraptors at Dawn — Cyberpunk (1,950 words)
  • Welcome to Condescension — Sci-fi Humor (750 words)
  • A Less Than Perfect Game — Sword & Sorcery (1,250 words)
  • Elusive Eden — LDS Science Fiction (2,200 words)
  • The Janus Anomaly — Space Opera (4,400 words)

All of these stories will get out eventually, though it may take a while. I’m putting them on submission to the short story magazines and anthologies that pay at least semi-professional rates, since none of them buy exclusive rights to the stories. Why rush to self-publish if I can get paid twice?

In a lot of ways, it was a pretty decent year. In other ways, I wish it had been more productive. I didn’t publish anything for the first six months, except for A Hill on Which to Die, which I later unpublished in order to take it out of Kindle Unlimited (the first and probably last time I will ever experiment with exclusivity). I made up for it later, but still.

Next year is going to be a lot more productive, I hope. I started a lot more projects this year than I finished, so in 2016 I plan to refocus on the writing and substantially increase my output.

As for writing projects, here is what I’m working on:

Major Projects

Sons of the Starfarers

There are five more books before this series is complete, and while I know more or less how the series is going to end, I’m still in the process of writing it. However, I’m making good enough progress to publish at least two more books in the series this year, possibly three or four.

Captives in Obscurity (Book V) is already written and ready to send off to the editor. Trouble is, cash is kind of tight right now and I probably won’t be able to send it off until after I’ve filed my taxes, which I hope to do early February (I always try to get a jump on tax season each year). For now, that means I’m looking for a launch in May.

Patriots in Retreat (Book VI) is my current WIP, and I hope to have the first draft finished before the end of January. A lot of stuff happens in this book—it’s kind of like the Empire Strikes Back episode, where crap hits the fan and things get real. Then again, Friends in Command (Book IV) was kind of like that too, and Captives in Obscurity has some really crazy developments… point is, I think you guys are going to like these books.

Haven’t outlined any of the other books in the series yet, but I’m a pantser so that’s normal. I do have a climactic ending that I’m working toward, which will tie in this series with all of my other books in the same universe. It’s going to be great to see it all come together, and I expect it will over the course of the next year!

STATUS: Book VI currently in progress.

Gunslinger to the Stars

I started this book in earnest a few months ago, then hit chapter 2 and realized I had a beginning and an end but no idea what to put in the middle. So I put the project on the back burner, letting the ideas percolate until I’m ready to pick it up again and go full throttle. With luck, that will happen very soon.

This is a really awesome project, and one of the ones I’m most excited about. I’ll post a few excerpts in the next few weeks to give you guys a taste, and I think you’re really going to like it!

STATUS: On the back burner, will resume again soon.

Queen of the Falconstar

A few of the readers who enjoyed my Star Wanderers books have mentioned that they wish Jeremiah, Noemi, and Mariya had ended up in a polygamous relationship. While I don’t think that would have worked for that particular story, in Queen of the Falconstar, it’s a major plot point. In addition, the book is an origin story for the Hameji, which should be a lot of fun for readers of my other books as well.

I’ve been working on this project off and on for the last year or so, and while I have a pretty good handle on the main storyline, I’m still a little iffy about how to proceed. It may have some promise as a hybrid between Space Opera and Sword and Planet (sword and starship? Is that even a thing?). The Princess of Mars books are on my reading list, so I’ll probably revisit this project after reading through some of those.

STATUS: On the back burner.

The Sword Keeper

I really need to finish this book. It’s already more than half written, and has some really fantastic potential. For the last three years, I’ve been working on it off and on, but 2016 will definitely be the year that I finish it (though it might still be a while before it’s published).

STATUS: On the back burner.

Secondary Projects

Starship Lachoneus

In spite of finishing the prologue and publishing it as “Worlds Without Number” under my J.M. Wight pen name, I haven’t yet made a serious attempt to write this book. The main reason is that it’s a passion project that I don’t expect to pay off very well or earn me much prestige. Still, when my career is at a point where I can afford more time for a passion project, I will probably pick it up.

STATUS: On the back burner.

The Genesis Earth Trilogy

Genesis Earth is a standalone book, but I realized soon after finishing it that I could easily turn it into a trilogy. Back in 2011, I even started writing the second book: Edenfall. But one thing led to another, and it got put on hold in favor of Star Wanderers.

The trilogy is still on hold, but if there is enough interest, I could certainly resume work on it. I made Genesis Earth free for the month of December, and it’s had a much stronger free run than I’d anticipated (especially with almost no advertising). Depending on the feedback I get from readers, I’ll finish this project sooner or later.

STATUS: On hold, may resume soon.

Mercenary Savior

This is a prequel to Bringing Stella Home that I’ve had kicking around in my head for the last two years. The interest in Heart of the Nebula has been surprisingly steady, even more than a month after publication. If either of those books starts to break out, then I will definitely pick up this project. Otherwise, I can’t justify making it a priority.

STATUS: On hold.

Empress of the Free Stars

Empress of the Free Stars is a sequel to Stars of Blood and Glory that I started back in 2013 but never got further than the prologue. Again, unless my Gaia Nova books start to break out, I can’t justify prioritizing this over my other WIPs.

STATUS: On hold.

Children of the Starry Sea

This one is a novelized sequel to Star Wanderers, with all of the major characters from that series. I know there’s some interest in this one, but for now I think my time would better be spent launching new series rather than returning to old ones. But in 2016, that may well change.

STATUS: On hold.

Lifewalker

This is a standalone I started back in 2013, and I even got several chapters into it before I put it on the back burner. Haven’t touched it since, so right now it’s really more on hold, but my Dad keeps bugging me to finish it (he read the first chapter and really liked it). So yeah. Someday.

I will say this, though: if the short story that’s derived from this book gets picked up by one of the magazines, I will definitely move it up in the writing queue.

STATUS: On hold.

A Brotherhood of Swords

This book is supposed to be a Sword & Sorcery prequel to The Sword Keeper, but since I already have plans for that book, this one is on hold. I did get a really good short story out of it, though.

STATUS: On hold.

That pretty much does it. This next year is going to be super, super busy, and hopefully productive as well. My goal for 2016 is to get back in the saddle, writing full-time again as soon as I can. There are other resolutions I plan to make as well, but those can wait until Thursday.

SSF-V: Captives in Obscurity 2.0 is complete!

Yesterday I finished the second draft of Captives in Obscurity (Sons of the Starfarers: Book V). I’m extremely pleased with how it turned out, and I think you guys are really going to enjoy it!

Unfortunately, writing the book is only the first step. Publishing is going to take resources that I don’t currently have, so it’s going to be a few months before I can get it out. Right now, it looks like Captives in Obscurity will go up for pre-order sometime in April/May, for a release date in July.

In the meantime, I plan to start working on Book VI: Patriots in Retreat right away, in order to release it soon after. With luck, there should be three Sons of the Starfarers books published next year, with only two left to complete the series.

I’ve got so many awesome ideas for stuff to fit into the next few books. Captives in Obscurity and Patriots in Retreat fall squarely into the midpoint of the series, where the characters hit rock bottom right before the plot twist. In other words, this is where I really get to twist the knife, and if you’ve read my other books you know that that’s the part I like best!

So yeah, it’s going to be a while before these books come out, but they are really going to be awesome when they do. In the meantime, I’ve got some short stories coming off of submission in the next couple of months, including a Sad Puppies inspired piece that I want to have up before the Hugos are in the news again. So even if it takes some time for Captives in Obscurity to get out there, I’m definitely not going away!

Why SSF-V: Captives in Obscurity won’t be coming out in January

Okay, so here’s the deal.

Back in May, I made what might possibly be the worst mistake of my entire publishing career: I severely underpriced all of my Star Wanderers books. For the year and a half leading up to that decision, sales had been declining rather steadily, and I was getting rather desperate for some way to reverse that. By lowering my prices from $2.99 to $.99 for that particular series, I thought I would bring in some new readers who would go on to buy my other books, and that that would offset the loss in income.

At the time, I kind of had an impression in the back of my head that it was a bad idea. And for a while, I listened to that impression. But when you feel desperate, there’s a temptation to shift strategy and just do something, especially if it’s easy and produces immediate results.

So from May to October, I severely underpriced my books. In October, I went through all the data I’d collected, and realized that I’d categorically failed to accomplish any of my goals. Sales had increased by only two or three copies a week for the books I’d discounted, and sales for the non-discounted books hadn’t increased at all. Meanwhile, my writing income had fallen precipitously, to the point where I could barely cover costs.

At the same time, my personal expenses started to become a problem. I’ve always been frugal, but a couple of unexpected expenses combined with poor planning and lack of work meant that by the end of the summer, my emergency savings were drained and I had to make some hard choices. Long story short, I had to pull most of the money out of my business account in order to avoid going into debt.

I’m doing okay right now, so don’t worry about that. Work opportunities have picked up with the Christmas season, so I should be able to get by for the next couple of months just fine. And as for the writing end of things, business is still profitable, so if I just let it sit for a couple of months I should be able to replenish the money I had to take out. It’s not like I’ve eaten my seed corn.

At the same time, though, it kind of is like I’ve eaten my seed corn, because I don’t currently have the money to pay for editing and cover art. In a couple of months, I will, but not soon enough for a January release.

I had originally planned to release Captives in Obscurity (Sons of the Starfarers: Book V) in January. And on the writing end, I’m still doing pretty good: I’ve heard back from my first readers and should have the revisions done by the end of the month. But the actual production isn’t something I can do right now, so I have to put the project off until the money comes in.

So that’s what’s going on. It kind of sucks, but lesson learned.

As for Captives in Obscurity, barring any more problems, it should come out in March. And I do still plan to publish some short stories between now and then. The nice thing about short stories is that they’re small enough that you can do most of the editing/art yourself. It’s kind of like the difference between planting a backyard garden and planting several acres of farmland. In fact, if things go well I should be launching a pen name soon, potentially as soon as December.

And for the future, I will be careful not to underprice my books. If I could, I would love to give away all of my books for free (in fact, I actually do: on Smashwords, my books are available on a “reader sets the price” arrangement), but that just isn’t practical. Lesson learned.

Sick sick sick!

I have been sick for about a week now and it sucks—literally. Got a sore throat right now, and I’m sucking on garlic to try to make it go away. Strangely enough, it seems to be working.

It all started with my cute little niece, who apparently is an incubator for the plague. Came down with the mother of all stomach flus a week ago, and was spraying out both ends for three or four days. Just when my stomach settled and I thought things would return to normal, I woke up on Sunday with a throat so sore I could barely breathe.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, though, I managed to finish Captives in Obscurity (Sons of the Starfarers: Book V). So that’s going out to the first readers. After that, I’ve got a couple of projects that I could start working on, though I probably won’t get to it until after I’m feeling better.

Heart of the Nebula is up for pre-order, though, so check it out! I’ll send out a newsletter announcing it soon, but I just switched from Tinyletter to Sendy and I’m still figuring out how it all works. Keep an eye on your inboxes though!

Now back to sucking that garlic…

To publish or submit?

Man, I am so sick right now. Caught a stomach flu from my neice, and it has been going through me like a chainsaw through butter.

In any case, things are going fairly well aside from that. Heart of the Nebula is now up for pre-order through November 21st, so you can expect to hear a lot more about that in the coming weeks. Captives in Obscurity (Sons of the Starfarers: Book V) is nearly ready to send off to my test readers, and should be published sometime in January or February. Besides that, I’m working on a couple of other big projects that should come out next year.

Right now, though, I have something of a dilemma. Do you guys remember Starship Lachoneus? It’s that completely unmarketable story idea I had a while back: the one where Jesus Christ organizes the construction of a generation ship to take humanity to the stars, because after His millenial reign, the Earth will be rendered uninhabitable. Well, I wrote the prologue, and it actually stands well enough on its own to be a short story. The dilemma is whether I should publish it now, or submit it to a short story market.

From what I can tell, the market for Mormon sci-fi short fiction is somewhere between small to non-existent. Irreantum closed a few years ago, Sunstone is limited to an annual contest, and Dialogue only pays in contributor copies. The Mormon Lit Blitz would be awesome, except that the story is more than 2k words long. Another option would be an anthology like Monsters and Mormons, but I’m not aware of any new ones.

I could try to submit it to the mainstream sci-fi markets, but I don’t think it would be a good fit for any of them. It’s written for a Mormon audience, with cultural and religious references that only people familiar with Mormonism would get. That said, the religious elements aren’t all that different from any other sci-fi world-building element, and the story isn’t overtly preachy or moral, so I suppose you don’t have to be a believing Mormon to enjoy it.

What do you guys think? Should I submit it elsewhere first, or publish it myself?

Cover reveal for my next big novel!

Wow, it’s been forever since I posted anything on this blog. I’ve definitely been busy, but haven’t been as good at keeping up with it here. That’s definitely going to change.

For those of you reading the Sons of the Starfarers series, I’m only about a chapter away from finishing the first draft of Captives in Obscurity. If all goes well, that one should be out sometime in December/January. There’s a huge, game-changing shift that takes the story in a completely unexpected direction—one that’s going to be really fun to tie in with everything else that’s going on. It should also answer some of the wider questions about the Gaia Nova universe, and set things up for the book where they rediscover Earth (or at least attempt to).

I’m also working on a fun shoot ’em up sci-fi adventure novel with the working title Gunslinger to the Stars. It’s kind of like a mash-up of Firefly, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Monster Hunter International. The main character is Sam Kletchka, a gunslinger / man of fortune from New Texas, one of the Gliese colonies near Earth. He sets out for adventure with his arsenal of firearms (affectionately named Mercy, Faithfulness, Righteousness, Judgment, Preservation, Love, Kindness, and Trust), and hilarity ensues, along with lots and lots of explosions.

In the meantime, though, I have some really, really awesome news! On November 21st, the weekend before Thanksgiving, the fourth novel in the Gaia Nova series will be coming out! Here is the cover and book description (the artist is Hideyoshi, who also did the covers for the other Gaia Nova books):HOTN (cover)

THEY LOST THE WAR, BUT WINNING THE PEACE IS STILL WITHIN THEIR GRASP.

Five years have passed since the Hameji conquered James McCoy’s homeworld, all but enslaving his people. Now, the occupation threatens to destroy them.

Deep in the heart of the Good Hope nebula, there is a place where they can start over. But it will take a strong leader to get them there, and the temptation to trade freedom for security has never been greater. Even if they manage to escape from the Hameji, the greatest threat to their future may come from within.

James once gave everything to save the ones he loved. This time, his sacrifice could make him a legend.

Heart of the Nebula is a direct sequel to Bringing Stella Home. Like all the other books in the Gaia Nova series, however, it can be read as a standalone book. A lot of characters from the other books come back for this one: James of course, but also Stella, Abaqa, Lars, and many other people from The Colony. There are also a lot of new characters.

This may be the most important book of my career to date. I started it almost five years ago, and have been working on-and-off on it ever since. In that time, I’ve really poured a lot of myself into it, perhaps more than any other book I’ve written.

If all goes well, it should go up for pre-order by the end of the week. The print version will come out with the ebook. Once Heart of the Nebula is up for pre-order, I’ll set Bringing Stella Home to free until November, and probably organize a blog tour for the book release. If you’re interested in having me guest post on your blog, shoot me an email at joseph.vasicek@gmail.com!

 

Two new stories!

Now that I’m back from Cape Cod, I’ve got two major projects that I’m focused on: finish the first draft of Captives in Obscurity (Sons of the Starfarers: Book V), and get Heart of the Nebula ready for publication in November. Those are some big releases, so you can expect to hear a lot in the coming months about them—especially Heart of the Nebula, which I’ve been working on for the past four years. Lots of exciting stuff!

In the meantime, I had two smaller releases in the past couple of weeks, and I think you guys are really going to enjoy them!

The first is the re-release of “A Hill on Which to Die,” an epic fantasy novelette about a band of free orcs trekking into the wilderness to start a new clan. This is my first real foray into fantasy, but I really enjoyed it and am thinking seriously about writing more books in this universe. If that sounds like something you’d like to see, then give this story a try and let me know what you think by posting a review or shooting me an email.

The second is a short story in the Star Wanderers universe. Longtime readers may recognize it as a story I wrote last year as part of the Short Blitz challenge. “Starchild” is a quick read that takes place in a far-off corner of the universe, and shows what life is like on a tiny isolated space colony in the Far Outworlds.

This is only the tip of the iceberg as far as stories go. My goal is to have a new release at least every two months, with short stories in between the major novel releases. I’ve been averaging about one short story every month as far as writing goes, and it looks like quite a few of them are going to come off of the submission pipeline (either by getting picked up or by exhausting the pro/semi-pro markets) in the next year or so. This is all in addition to my novel writing, which hasn’t slowed down in any way from writing short stories.

So you can definitely expect to see more stories from me in the coming months! And as always, if you want to be the first to hear about a new release (as well as special offers and exclusives), then be sure to sign up for my email list.

Thanks for reading!

Nothing Found

Nothing Found

 

Update from Cape Cod

Wow, it has been forever since the last time I blogged.

So I’m at Cape Cod right now, vacationing with family for the next full week. Since my parents are moving from Massachusetts from Iowa, this will probably be the last time that we come up here, at least for a very long while. I’m doing my best to enjoy it, which means that I’m not doing much writing at all.

However, I have a lot of things in the pipeline to come out soon. At the end of this month, A Hill on Which to Die will be out not only on Amazon, but all the other retailers as well. And after nearly five years of work, I’m finally getting Heart of the Nebula ready for publication. If all goes well, that should be out over Thanksgiving.

Lots of other stuff going on behind the scenes, too. When I get back, I’m going to finish writing Captives in Obscurity (Sons of the Starfarers: Book V), which I started back in June. I hit a block midway through, but after taking a break to let the ideas percolate, I think I can jump back in and finish it before the end of September.

There are a few other projects on my mind too, including one with the working title Gunslinger to the Stars that’s a bit of a mash-up between Firefly, Monster Hunter International, and Guardians of the Galaxy. That one is going to be a lot of fun to write. Then there’s The Sord Keeper, which I hope to finish (finally!) before the end of the year.

As for the vacation, it’s been pretty fun so far. My sisters are all here with their families, and it’s been good to catch up with them and their kids. We’ve all mellowed out a bit over the past decade, so it’s not nearly as stressful to be around each other as it was when we were all teenagers. We can actually play a full game of Shanghai without someone rage-quitting midway through! Okay, okay, usually it was me doing the rage-quitting, but still…

Cape Cod is a nice place, but I have to admit, I kind of miss Utah. I’ve lived ten years of my life in New England and another ten years in the Intermountain West, and I have to admit, Utah feels a lot more like home. When my parents move, I won’t have any roots to pull me back to this part of the country, and I don’t anticipate ever coming back except to visit.

I used to say that Cape Cod was my favorite place in the world. It’s definitely still up in the top ten, but it’s not at the top anymore. If you asked me which place was, though, I honestly wouldn’t have an answer. It’s been almost three years since I did any serious traveling, and I’m starting to get antsy to get out there again. We’ll see what the future brings.

Streamlining

About a month ago, I decided to make some changes to my writing process. I’d noticed that a lot of time was passing between book releases, and that even though I was writing almost every day, there wasn’t much to show for it.

My old process tended to go in one of two ways:

ONE

“I have the coolest idea for a story! Ima drop everything and write it now!”

Writes the first chapter.

“Okay, it’s not quite as cool as I’d imagined, but I can work with this.”

Writes another chapter or two.

“Hmm, this story is starting to have issues. Maybe it’s not as cool as I thought it was.”

Gets writer’s block for a couple of days. Struggles to do anything productive.

“Dammit, why isn’t this story coming together? I should be doing 2k words a day, but I can barely manage 500. If this story is really that bad, then maybe it’s not the project I should be focusing on right now. Maybe I shouldn’t even be writing it at all.”

Gets discouraged and takes off a couple of days.

“I have the coolest idea for a totally different story! Ima drop everything and write it now!”

TWO

“It’s been forever since I actually finished anything, so I am going to stick with this project until it is DONE.”

Writes productively for a week or two.

“Yes! The story is coming together just like I knew it would!”

Reaches a difficult scene.

“Why am I not as productive as I was last week? I can do better than this! Words, dammit! Words!”

Struggles to finish the difficult scene. Loses all momentum and enthusiasm.

“Okay, that was pretty tough, but at least it’s finished. I am really, really, really excited about this random shiny story idea that came to me yesterday, but I have to stick with my current work in progress until it is DONE.”

Procrastinates for hours every day. Watches in dismay as productivity falls.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME??”

Tries for weeks to regain enthusiasm for the project. Invariably fails.

“Maybe I should work on something else.”

It went on like this for the better part of a year, which is why I haven’t published anything for the last six months (until Friends in Command, that is). And honestly, it’s not a lot of fun. When you feel like you should be more productive but don’t seem to really be getting anywhere, it’s very easy to lose touch with the passion that made you want to be a writer in the first place.

So back in May, while hiking in the mountains, I thought about it for a while and asked myself: what is the 20% of what I do that produces 80% of the results?

The answer, interestingly enough, wasn’t “butt in chair, hands on keyboard.” I’d been doing that for months, and all I had was a dozen unfinished projects to show for it. For me at least, merely showing up to work is not enough to produce results.

In 2014, one of my resolutions was to publish a new release every six weeks. I didn’t keep that resolution perfectly, but I did keep a regular release schedule right up to the holiday season. At that point, I ran into some troubles with Friends in Command and pushed the publication date back (which in retrospect was definitely the right thing to do). I abandoned my release schedule (which was not the right thing to do) and fell into the traps I mentioned above.

When I write without a goal beyond a daily word count, I tend to spin my wheels. In contrast, when I write with a set of goals for a project timeline, such as deadlines for finishing the first draft, sending it out to first readers, making revisions, and preparing the finished project for publication, I tend to get stuff done.

So I streamlined my writing process by giving myself more structure: a WIP log with writing deadlines and publishing schedules. And this is how it works now:

ONE

“I’m really excited about my next project! I’ve been thinking about it for weeks, ever since I put it on the schedule, and now I can finally work on it! Yay!”

Writes for a week. Gets the coolest idea for a totally different story.

“I have the coolest idea for a totally different story! Ima put it in the WIP log and schedule it for… let’s see… two months from now. That should give me something to write while I’m getting project X ready for publication.”

Continues to work on current WIP.

TWO

“It’s time to finally finish this thing so that I can publish it six months from now.”

Writes productively for a week or two. Reaches a difficult scene.

“This story is not coming together, and my deadline is coming up. I don’t know if I’ll reach my deadline. I’d better swap places with this and project Y in the publishing schedule to make sure I have something to publish.”

Keeps writing anyway. Begins to lose momentum and enthusiasm.

“Well, I’m not going to finish this project by my deadline. However, I have enough time that I can take another shot at it six weeks from now, after finishing project Z. I’ll write what I can by the deadline, then box it up so that I can approach it with fresh eyes when the time comes.

Writes until the deadline and sets unfinished project aside. Starts next project with renewed enthusiasm.

In June, I spent most of my time working on Captives in Obscurity (Sons of the Starfarers: Book V). I hoped to finish the project by the first week in July, but I hit a really difficult scene about midway through. Instead of forcing myself to stick with it, though, I pushed on until the deadline and left it unfinished so that I could pick up the next WIP on the schedule.

I think that was the right thing to do, because changing it up has helped to keep things fresh, both for Captives in Obscurity and my current WIP, Heart of the Nebula. Instead of bringing heaps of baggage to the next project, I’m starting clean, and things are going quite well. With luck, Heart of the Nebula should be up for pre-order in September and published over Thanksgiving week. As for Captives, I’ll come back to it in September with fresh eyes, which will not only help me to fix what was broken, but finish the first draft in a few weeks, rather than taking months to agonize over it.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. Hopefully it will lead to lots and lots of books in the coming months and years!