Writing Update
In Part 196 I outlined what I expected to be doing over the next few months. It didn’t work out as I imagined, but that’s okay. To quote John Lennon, ‘Life is what happens to you, while you’re busy making other plans.’ The book market has certainly changed dramatically this year, notably with increasing numbers of books written by AI and being made available for purchase. I don’t use AI for writing myself, and feel folk will wish to continue to read books written by real people. I do wonder why anyone would wish to read a novel written by a machine and pay for doing so. After all, nothing is stopping you from simply having an AI put one together for you, rather than spend money on someone else asking the same AI to produce a book. I have read posts online, talking of AI being able to provide you with an unlimited stream of music – written by AI – tailored to whatever the algorithm believes you want to hear. Again, this is not for me. Chasing new music and discovering new sounds is part of what makes us human. Likewise, telling stories. I don’t need AI to do this for me. I’m not knocking anyone’s preference to do otherwise. If that’s your thing, then that’s your business. Personally, I don’t engage with it, as I feel it would affect my thought process and experience of creative endeavours, whether exploring, art, literature, music, whatever. The world will do what it does, and things will disrupt for awhile and then settle. What it means for the future, I can’t say. I feel people need to read books, and actually own physical, printed copies, before the control of digital archives in the hands of a few begin to dictate what is and is not made available. I write this during banned books week. You can look it up and see the list. If you are a reader, then it’s likely some of those books on the list will surprise you. I have read and own physical copies of many of them. Some I read as a teenager, some later in life.
As I said, my plans changed. I did manage to discover an excellent designer who has produced a new cover for The Kill Chain, and a cover for The Kill Ward. It’s going to be the New Year before these books appear in their new format along with the option for paperback. The Kill Trick also has a finished cover, but I’m on the rewrite of the draft the now so again it will be next year before it’s available. I have completed a free book to go with the Kill Series. This will be made available for download once the novels themselves are released.
Deflection Point is waiting it’s cover. I finally decided to go back to the original title of The Canongate Containment as it fits the story and I was overthinking it with trying to come up with a more commercial title. The way publishing is shaping up right now, doing what I’m happy with has become more important than trying to second guess what may or may not be a good title. So, Canongate it is and I’m looking forward to not only reading comments back on the story, but seeing how the cover turns out.
The big news so far is I got around to writing a new novel and have started the draft having outlined the plot. It’s taken several months to get back into writing and it seemed the best way to do this was to start something brand new. It’s not a sequel to anything I’ve already written. It has a working title of Magic, is set in the present day and revolves around the theme of witchcraft.
I can see the contradiction here. Starting something new without finishing what I’ve started elsewhere. I recognise the problem, but I needed to write and going back to, for example, The Kill Trick, it felt too soon after finishing the draft. Sometimes distance is required with a novel in progress and I found I needed to step back from it. To fill the gap, the new novel appeared, and it is not only enjoyable to write, but is actually going well. The last couple of weeks haven’t felt like a slog, and although it is progressing slowly, it’s coming together and I can’t wait to see how it pans out. By end of November I should have the draft ready for the rewrite and this is something I didn’t see coming. So, plenty to be getting on with.
Marketing is something I need to look at in more detail. With two novels completed and ready to be published, (plus a free book to accompany them) it is either work up some strategy or simply put them out and move on. I’m going to try and be strategic, but at the time of writing I’m a bit clueless how that will go. However, there is no shortage of advice online, so I know where to reach out for assistance with this.