The idea: Writers on the Storm

This idea came to me a couple of years ago in Japan. I was quite excited by it and immediately went for a walk with my wife to tell her about it. She thought it was great. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. That’s clear from my early notes on the project, which contain whole scenes written out. In fact, this idea was supposed to wait while I finished The Time Well series, but I couldn’t turn it off, so I opened a Scrivener file and started typing. What came out over the course of a year writing on and off was Writers on the Storm. It’s my first try at making humor a significant aspect of a novel, and I’m not sure I really pulled it off. I think the humor got taken over by the plot somewhere around the middle of the book. But I like it. I may try to amp up the humor in the editing process, if that’s possible. I’m not sure how conducive the editing process will be to that.

The novel tells the story of a successful author who wants to change genres. But he cannot replicate his formulaic romance genre success in fantasy, which is what he most wants to write. To get feedback on his new endeavor, he joined a writing group, never telling them that he was a successful romance author. (He writes romances under a pseudonym.) But his fantasy work is so overblown that the leaders of the writing group eventually hold an intervention and tell him that he needs to stop writing because he has no talent.

So our hero decides to start his own writing group. He looks for writers who are successes in their careers but who have tried and failed at published fiction. He ends up with an eclectic mix who write everything from children’s picture books to erotica. Along the way, his life completely falls apart: career, relationships, everything. Can he stitch it all back together and add a patch here and there?

Website: 6th anniversary

Hello from America! Speaking on behalf of my blog, I must admit to another year of inactivity. Speaking for myself as a writer, though, it has been a marvelous year. I completed second drafts of two new novels, tentatively titled Writers on the Storm and August. The first is an attempt at a humorous take on writing, and the second is a somewhat more serious exploration of love in the twilight of life.

I also continue to work on book six in my science fiction series, The Time Well, which began as as a National Novel Writing Month project in November 2022. This is the first time I have had a novel grow out of control on me. It is currently north of 311,000 words. My tentative plan is to break it into three books, although they will not be self-contained units.

I have found that the writing community in Utah, where I now live, is quite active. I have not settled into a writing group yet, but I have so many more potential groups than I had in Japan. My wife and I are even volunteering for a local writer’s conference.

Perhaps the best news is that I am still writing full bore. Unfortunately, I am also writing just as obsessively as always, which still concerns me. Maybe this year I can find better balance in my life. While I have not lacked for writing projects, I did skip National Novel Writing Month last November. With as many novels as I have unpublished, it didn’t seem wise to use that month to produce yet another first draft.