I've been writing a lot recently. The first draft of my next book is about one third finished with almost 30,000 words in the can. There's one hitch. I switched from working on my non-fiction running book about Mensen Ernst to working on my fiction novel, E-Pocalypse. I had gotten bogged down frankly. With company in our house for several months and a lot of dense historic research to handle, I was spending weeks and months this Spring and Summer without making much progress.
I needed some low hanging fruit. Something easy. So I put Mensen aside for a while (not long I hope!) and switched to writing the fast paced thriller E-Pocalypse. This one has been FUN. It's gotten me excited about writing again, and that's an intangible but elemental necessity. Where I used to get up early to write, this past week I've been very productive between 9 and 11pm. Routine is key, but sometimes changing it can help shake me out of a non-writing stupor.
I'm excited about E-Pocalypse because it weaves together three challenges facing society today:
- Environmental problems like global warming and glacial melting
- Cybercrime in the internet of things and the vulnerability of infrastrucutre to cyber attack
- Macroeconomic instability in a digital financial system that cannot quickly absorb shocks
Throw in a lot of multi-cultural intrigue, plenty of romance, and I hope I have something you'll really enjoy. Writing fiction feels effortless after 6 years laboring over historic non-fiction. It's like switching from bulky trainers into racing flats or taking an addition class after calc. I'm not saying my book will be a great success or that this is actually effortless, but it certainly releases me from the burden of research. Where each written page in non-fiction might require me to read and synthesize ten, fiction turns this ratio on its head. I still enjoy mixing a lot of real history, politics, people and places into E-Pocalypse, and I've been able to spend 60-90 minutes producing about 1000 words almost every day in recent weeks. I feel some momentum building. At this pace I could finish my first draft by December and have a free copy ready for advance readers by February.
Wishing you health and happiness,
Dave Holman