Writing and Commitments

I hadn’t realised I hadn’t posted for several months, and that got me thinking about writing and the commitment required to realise projects.

On the 1st of January 2025, I started writing book 2 of my epic space opera cycle, The Cosmic Entanglement. The experience was thrilling, and yet all consuming. By starting it, I committed to most of my writing time devoted to its development. I found it to be an invigorating process of realisation, for the prior book, for how to polish or readjust themes, and for character work going forward. Without the limitations imposed on the first book of a saga – those that require the introduction of core characters and the world – I felt free to dive deeper into aspects of trauma, transformation and push what was defined in book 1 to great new revelations.

(And after completion of book 2, I felt satisfied that the full shape of the cycle was taking shape. The story had been there for close to a decade by this point, but it had stretched, shifted direction or got tangled up in structural constraints. Now, I had a full understanding of character arcs and a distinct thrust for the final books. And thus, after polishing book 1 and 2, I dove directly into writing a full and detailed outline for the next 4 books of the cycle (a novella [book 2.5] to bridge the gap, and a trilogy to end the cycle).

This process allowed me to reconnect to themes and callbacks to events already transpired, to expand upon knowledge and experienced gained by the characters, and to find a thrilling and satisfying way to conclude the saga whilst also establishing a whole new playground to delve into for any future works.

An important constituent part of any other-worldly fiction like fantasy or sci-fi is the world building aspect. So whilst creating characters and forming satisfying arcs and ways to reflect on themes, a great deal of time can be devoted to developing a world, a location (or locations), and to the reasons for its existence. How it reflects upon your narrative, what it might be saying about themes. And in this, it took 2 novels and a novella for my characters to reach their destination. And to introduce themes of the unconscious, of warped reality and intriguing perspectives so that, when we get to the trilogy of book 3, 4 and 5, we can hit the ground running, so to speak.

As to commitments, I feel confidence in what I’ve created and how it’s shaped, from the smallest emotional beat between characters, to the lofty existential themes that sci-fi can often brilliantly impart. And so, perhaps I can now commit more time to this website, my other articles, writings and short stories.

There’s always hope.

Happy new year to all. And to writers or artists struggling to commit to projects, I understand and feel for you. Its a long process involving multiple parts and disciplines, and a sprinkle of that most important of commodities, time.

PS – I’m working on an article filled with ideas about finding that balance and focus for writing. Hopefully it will help all those aspiring writers out there :-).