>writing

Late in 2024, I decided I wanted to start writing a novel. So, my main New Year’s resolution for 2025 is to complete a first draft of a full manuscript for this novel. Great, right!? Just for some background context, I have been mulling over a concept for a science fiction trilogy since the summer of 2020. Over the course of reading a few books about the end of the world, living through a life-changing pandemic, and listening to a few podcasts, my thoughts and reality blurred together into a concept for a book. As I thought about it more, I realized it would be far too much to cram into one book, so I felt a trilogy would be a better fit. I immediately wrote a couple chapters over a month-long period that summer. But then I hit a big old writer’s block.

I couldn’t find what I wanted to say to any future reader of this story. It had no meaning – just some ramblings and expressions of how I felt about the world. After taking a step back for a week or two, the only proof I had of my concept and characters was 40 or so pages on a Google Doc. I had outlined some story lines, noted a few plot ideas, and made a glossary of some new technology I invented. And there it sat for the better part of four years. It collected digital dust bunnies. On the rare occasion I thought about the story, I would type out a few more sentences or maybe insert a note or comment about what I thought should happen next. But I never contributed meaningfully to that novel in any way. I also started a new separate document with bullet points of random, sporadic story ideas that may or may not find their way into this story. I never stopped thinking about writing though. At the time of writing this, I have over 50 unique story ideas and about 20 movie ideas. Will any of these get incorporated into this novel? Who knows for sure.

Now fast forward to the winter of 2024. I had just started a new job, and my family just finished relocating to west Michigan from our home in Indianapolis. My life was changing in just about every way possible. I started getting more interested in audiobooks again. I also was feeling the stresses and pressures of moving and selling a house. I needed an escape. Over the course of driving to and from Indy to west Michigan several times in a month, the gears in my brain started churning again. I found that escape again, and I wanted to reapproach the story I started in college. So I reopened the document.

This past November, I finally took the plunge. I was dreading this task, but it needed to happen. I spent dozens of hours revisiting my notes, rereading my past manuscript, reorganizing plot points and characters, and finally committing to what the new story would be about. I also made my mind up about the novel and set a goal for myself. So here I am in January 2025, and I’m writing regularly now.

I have also revisited my website. I created this platform about two years ago in an effort to improve and refine the overlap between my professional and personal lives. I wanted a central space that I had full control over and to complement my social media presence. As I continue writing my novel, I want to also practice writing in the general sense. As I research and look for tips on writing, I’ve found several sources online that say to write so many words per day, others say to write responses to prompts, yet other advice recommends brain dumping for a set time without editing. Well, my approach is going to be a little different than these ideas, but it’ll blend aspects of each of these.

In order to complete a manuscript for my debut novel by December 31, 2025, I feel that I need to write between 80,000 – 85,000 words total. In my experience reading, this would equate to about a 300-page book. As I try to reach this goal, I also want to explore other random story ideas that have popped into my head from time to time. In the years-long lull, I acquired over 50 of these ideas, and now, I’ve created this space to dump them. So, you can expect to see on an irregular basis, a 1,000 – 2,000 word short story as a response to a prompt or nugget of an idea I’ve had in the past few years. I’ll name them with a simple title and also show the brief description I jotted down when thinking about it. I want to explore various genres with these posts as I hope to broaden and strengthen my writing skills. I hope you enjoy what I have to offer! Thanks for reading!