What’s worse than writer’s block when you’re an author? Burnout, that’s what. It’s one thing to get stuck and not know where to go next in a story, but when you’ve got burnout, it’s a whole different beast. The problem with burnout is that you can write, and you know you should be writing, but you just can’t seem to face it. I wrote and published fourteen full length novels in a year, and to be perfectly honest, I burned myself out. I just reached a point where I needed a break, so I took December, January and the early part of February off…for the most part. I did a little writing during that time whenever the next scene would pop into my head and I didn’t want to lose it, but for the most part I just had a nice, long rest.
After finishing Travelers, which is now fully edited and ready to go whenever I reach that point in the series, I’ve been feeling sort of rejuvenated and excited about writing again. I’ve already got the opening of Infestation rolling around in my head and I can’t wait to get started on it.
To be honest, I was ready to give up. It’s damn near impossible to get any traction in the indie market today because the marketplace has become absolutely flooded, both with well written novels and absolute junk that had no business being published in the first place. Even if you’re writing a great story or series, trying to compete against the flood of material that’s out there now in a world where fewer and fewer people are taking the time to read books for pleasure can be really discouraging. So what are you supposed to do? Well, you can either keep going and hope that someday people will discover your stuff and you’ll start getting some word of mouth sales that you can build on, or you can give up. I came to that crossroads just recently, and I’ve decided to stick with it.
Now, something else I’ve said recently is that Travelers will be the final book in the series. Now I’m not so sure that’ll be the case. It’s written to be the final book in the series because it takes place over two-hundred years in the future after the main characters from the rest of the series have all moved to the Nathalis dimension, but there’s nothing saying that I couldn’t just continue on from there and continue with their adventures, while doing the occasional crossover stuff with the characters from Travelers since they’re still living on Earth and trying to rebuild things. To be honest, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do at this point. I guess I’ll decide that when the time comes. We’ll just have to see where the writing takes me.
At this point, I’ve decided to keep writing for myself. When the series does come to an end, I’ll publish Travelers and then I’ll very likely start working on several stand alone novels that will hopefully attract those readers who aren’t ready to jump into a series and get them interested in my writing. I think I’m going to start looking for an agent too. I mean, I know I’ll be opening myself up for countless rejection letters, but who knows? I might just find one that can really help me get things going. You never know.
Anyway, that’s it for now. I got the juices flowing again and I can’t wait to get started on Infestation. It just breaks my heart that I can’t show Travelers to anyone yet, because of all the books I’ve written so far, it’s far and away my favorite. Oh well. Its time will come eventually.
What’s worse than writer’s block?
What’s worse than writer’s block when you’re an author? Burnout, that’s what. It’s one thing to get stuck and not know where to go next in a story, but when you’ve got burnout, it’s a whole different beast. The problem with burnout is that you can write, and you know you should be writing, but you just can’t seem to face it. I wrote and published fourteen full length novels in a year, and to be perfectly honest, I burned myself out. I just reached a point where I needed a break, so I took December, January and the early part of February off…for the most part. I did a little writing during that time whenever the next scene would pop into my head and I didn’t want to lose it, but for the most part I just had a nice, long rest.
After finishing Travelers, which is now fully edited and ready to go whenever I reach that point in the series, I’ve been feeling sort of rejuvenated and excited about writing again. I’ve already got the opening of Infestation rolling around in my head and I can’t wait to get started on it.
To be honest, I was ready to give up. It’s damn near impossible to get any traction in the indie market today because the marketplace has become absolutely flooded, both with well written novels and absolute junk that had no business being published in the first place. Even if you’re writing a great story or series, trying to compete against the flood of material that’s out there now in a world where fewer and fewer people are taking the time to read books for pleasure can be really discouraging. So what are you supposed to do? Well, you can either keep going and hope that someday people will discover your stuff and you’ll start getting some word of mouth sales that you can build on, or you can give up. I came to that crossroads just recently, and I’ve decided to stick with it.
Now, something else I’ve said recently is that Travelers will be the final book in the series. Now I’m not so sure that’ll be the case. It’s written to be the final book in the series because it takes place over two-hundred years in the future after the main characters from the rest of the series have all moved to the Nathalis dimension, but there’s nothing saying that I couldn’t just continue on from there and continue with their adventures, while doing the occasional crossover stuff with the characters from Travelers since they’re still living on Earth and trying to rebuild things. To be honest, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do at this point. I guess I’ll decide that when the time comes. We’ll just have to see where the writing takes me.
At this point, I’ve decided to keep writing for myself. When the series does come to an end, I’ll publish Travelers and then I’ll very likely start working on several stand alone novels that will hopefully attract those readers who aren’t ready to jump into a series and get them interested in my writing. I think I’m going to start looking for an agent too. I mean, I know I’ll be opening myself up for countless rejection letters, but who knows? I might just find one that can really help me get things going. You never know.
Anyway, that’s it for now. I got the juices flowing again and I can’t wait to get started on Infestation. It just breaks my heart that I can’t show Travelers to anyone yet, because of all the books I’ve written so far, it’s far and away my favorite. Oh well. Its time will come eventually.
By Duane • Uncategorized 0