Writers Write

Renaissance Humans, #75

This week, a brief update on writing efforts and thoughts on the craft. I am overseas on a work trip.

The first draft of The Heavenly Tunnel is done.

Not really. In LOTR chronology, I’m basically at Weathertop, ~15% through the trilogy.

80,000 words, completed between May 12th and July 19th. I gave myself until Labor Day weekend to get it done, but once the tap opened, it poured right out. Over 68 days, I averaged nearly 1200 words a day. I think what helped was that it incubated for so long, and I had a strong outline when I began drafting. Most nights I took long walks and chewed over what was next.

Page One—The Writer’s Notebook

It’s a funny thing, finishing a novel draft. In one respect, it’s an accomplishment. Viewed another way, it is something novelists do every year—some multiple times a year. I am thinking of this like I just climbed a foothill, but I’m staring at the mountains behind the foothill I still need to summit.

Which is how most of life is, if you get right down to it.

I’ve heard people say the first draft of a novel is the author telling themselves the story. That resonates. The Heavenly Tunnel has a long way to go, but you can’t improve what you haven’t put on the page, as the saying goes.

I was afraid to write this novel for a long time. Like The Infernal Tower, I had the initial idea for over a decade. I’m not sure if I was worried I’d screw it up, or just intimidated to start a big project.

I much prefer revision/rewriting to drafting, so I am grateful to have this step behind me. One of my old bosses in Naval Special Warfare used to say “leaders lead.” It might sound trite, but it’s true. Simple, but not easy.

It’s the same thing with writing.

You can watch videos about writing, listen to podcasts about writing, read books and essays about writing. I’ve done lots of each of those things, and still do. They are important parts of your journey as a writer, but you can only improve your craft by rolling your sleeves up and BICHOK (Brandon Sanderson uses this, it stands for Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard.).

Every writer has to figure out what works for them, and it’s slightly different for each. All face what Steven Pressfield calls The Resistance:

Resistance is described in a mythical fashion as a universal force that has one sole mission: to keep things as they are. Pressfield claims that Resistance does not have a personal vendetta against anyone, rather it is simply trying to accomplish its only mission. It is the force that will stop an individual's creative activity through any means necessary, whether it be rationalizing, inspiring fear and anxiety, emphasizing other distractions that require attention, raising the voice of an inner critic, and much more. It will use any tool to stop creation flowing from an individual, no matter what field the creation is in.

The trick is finding out what moves the needle for you.

Claw the words out of the ether.

Sharpen them until they sing.

What am I willing to say about the novel right now, after telling myself the story?

Partly, it’s a story about a warrior learning to let go—not to forget, but to move forward. It’s also got some unique speculative elements.

One of them is embodied by this picture:

So, I’m letting this new draft breathe for a few weeks before I pick it up again.

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Infernal Tower Update

Are you tired of hearing about this book?

Me too.

It’s long past time this novel went out into the world. I have an agent (Mark Gottlieb at Trident Media) and we’re out for submission to half a dozen or so publishing houses. If it doesn’t find a home, I will likely self-publish. It died on submission once before; it could die on submission again. That doesn’t bother me. The traditional publishing pipeline is at times imperfect and capricious—working well in some cases and not at all in others.

At this point, I am okay with however it turns out. I can only control what I can control, which is doing my best to write a good novel. Over the years, I’ve invested in two rounds of professional developmental editing, as well as a professional copy edit and cover design for the novel. Oh, and I got a blurb—from the outstanding Jack Stewart, retired Navy fighter pilot/Top Gun instructor, and author of the USA Today bestselling Battle Born series. Here’s what he had to say after reading it:

“Imagine Die Hard, directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Dante. The Infernal Tower is a brutal, mind-bending gauntlet of action, redemption, and soul-searching, where one broken warrior must battle his way through hell to become the father—and man—he was meant to be.”

A few months ago, I submitted the novel for the Killer Nashville Claymore Award, for the first fifty pages of an unpublished manuscript. While I wasn’t a finalist (top 2-5) in my category, “Top Pick” is a nice acknowledgement. From the Killer Nashville site:

The Finalists lists are capped at five titles per category, but true to Killer Nashville’s mission of encouraging and uplifting writers, the Judges’ Top Picks honor outstanding stories that moved our judges deeply and left them wanting more. Congratulations to these remarkable writers for winning a spot as the Judges' Top Pick.

Enough navel-gazing about novels.

Next week we will return to our previously scheduled programming, Renaissance Humaning….

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Currere Certamen Tuum / Run Your Race