The Indie Journey

Last year I switched my writing from literary historical fiction to science-fiction and I’m so glad I did! I had been writing historical fiction for a while but found it kept blocking my creativity and ultimately stalled my writing. I was listening to the Storygrid podcast when they gave me an idea that prompted me to change my course.

It’s funny how inspiration hits us, the book I had been struggling with for years I suddenly abandoned quite gleefully so I could start writing about mutants and aliens. I think it was a combination of things, by writing the literary book as my first novel, it felt like it was a way people could accept my writing, because it was high-brow, it was something of note. By thinking like this, I had set the bar so high I couldn’t reach it.

Writing sci-fi is by no means lowering the bar, anything but, however, I get a greater sense of joy with what I’m now creating. Through listening to advice from successful indie’s writing to market, or writing genre fiction is ultimately a more successful route when it comes to self publishing as genre fiction generally sells more than literary due to it being more commercial. While I still like both options, and still ultimately want to write for both, for now, I’m happy to begin my indie journey with a sci-fi series.

In 2016, I made the decision that 2017 was going to be the year I would self publish. I have no set date for publication but I am actively working towards it and am blogging as a way of documenting the process. I’m excited for what creative pursuits this year will bring and where my change in writing direction will take me.