Hello, dreamers.

It can be difficult, at times, for me to remember that writing is not a science. It often defies quantification. Now and then, my course surprises me, and such was the case this past week. Last Monday, I began writing a short story. It began as a daily sketch, but quickly took on a life of its own. A week later, I’m nearly finished with perhaps the best story I’ve written since Pioneers. At last, I think I’m ready to begin a new novel project.

First things first, however: I need to get to the end. I still have a few thousand words to go, but I expect to wrap things up tonight. Then, it’s on to querying, and Aquarius 1. So with that said, here’s what I’ll be up to this week:

Пришелец

As stated above, my first order of business this week will be to finish the new story, which I’ve titled Пришелец (“Preshelets”: Russian for “Alien”). I got the idea for this story some time ago, loosely inspired from the slipstream storyline of For All Mankind and the grim alternate history of The Three Body Problem. The story revolves around Grigory Medvedev: a Russian biologist and British spy in the late 1940s. Grigory believes he’s been assigned to the Soviet atomic weapons program, but soon learns he’s been placed with an even more secretive project: an effort to use a radio telescope to contact alien beings.

The story leans heavily on Cold War intrigue, while exploring the inherent dangers of interacting with intelligent aliens, and how an alien species might use the darker aspects of human nature to manipulate us. Andrei Sakharov, one of the lead scientists on the Soviet nuclear weapons project, is one of the main characters, and Soviet leaders Levrentiy Beria and Joseph Stalin make cameo appearances.

This is one of the darkest, most tense stories I’ve ever written, but I’d forgotten how rewarding it can be to stray beyond one’s wheelhouse. Overall, however, I feel the real value in writing this story has been solidifying the recent changes to my writing style. I couldn’t be happier with how it’s turned out so far, and am eager to begin shopping it around.

Before I get to that point, however, I need to get things right. After completing the initial draft, likely tonight, I’m going to take a day or two away from it before I begin editing. I always find it helpful to put some distance between myself and a story before I begin editing. And that mid-week break will give me the opportunity to work on my other projects.

Querying Pioneers

Amid my writing on Пришелец, I ended up setting aside query prep for Pioneers last week. It’s always hard to feel good about putting aside my personal goals, but in writing I’ve found that sometimes when you catch fire you need to run with it. I have no regrets, and I dare say last week’s writing helped bolster my confidence. I’ll need that for the task ahead.

This week, beyond finishing and editing Пришелец, I have two goals: write a query letter for Pioneers and begin work on Aquarius 1. Finishing the new draft will likely occupy the bulk of my writing time today. So, tomorrow I’ll begin working on my query letter.

At this point I’ve written at length about the query process, and my plans for my query letter. It’s pointless to rehash everything. The only notable change to my plans at present involves comp titles. After listening to a recent episode of “The Shit Nobody Tells You About Writing” focused on comps, I’ve begun wondering if I still have work to do.

As I may have mentioned before, comps are crucial to the modern process of querying. Providing comp titles for your book is a way to quickly place your book within its proper genre, and to demonstrate your knowledge of your market. One of the most common criticisms of comps I heard on the podcast was that they were “too big”, meaning the title they were comping too was too successful and well-known. It may seem counterintuitive, but comparing your book to a known masterpiece of your genre is generally frowned upon (“My work is basically Jurassic Park meets Dune” would not go over well in today’s sci-fi market).

Thus, in the coming days, I plan to pay a visit to one of our local independent bookstores, and speak with someone there. The last time I was in, I met a fellow who seemed very knowledgeable in genre fiction. I’m hoping that if I provide him with the dust jacket summary of Pioneers, or perhaps even let him read the manuscript, he may be able to help me choose better comps.

Aquarius 1

Starting on Tuesday, I’m going to begin gearing up for my next novel project. Aquarius 1 is going to be my first big novel project since I began Pioneers in 2018, and will likely occupy the bulk of my writing efforts for the rest of this year and into the next.

For those unfamiliar with my next novel project, I’ll be making an introductory post later this week, which will also serve to re-launch my weekly “Work-in-Progress” posts. Gearing up for a novel project is no small task. I’ll begin by reviewing and likely expanding my notes, probably conducting additional research. That will be followed by what I call “test writings”: I’ll begin jotting down pieces of the story I can see clearly, individual scenes that will ultimately be incorporated into the book. These test writings serve as a proof-of-concept, determining whether or not I’m truly ready to write the story.

If I catch on the story, as I expect to, I’ll have the first couple chapters done by the end of the week. Starting next week, most of my time writing will be spent on Aquarius 1, just in time for National Novel Writing Month (more on that next week).

New Content

Since I found myself consumed by Пришелец, I did not end up making any additional posts last week. However, as I’ll likely be spending much of this week editing and doing query prep, that will change. I plan to make several posts this week, including the aforementioned introduction to Aquarius 1. I’m entering the busiest time of the year for my writing pursuits: novel-writing season is upon us. That means I’ll be doing plenty of writing and posting over the coming months. So keep an eye out for new content. And as always, dare to dream. – MK