The Making Of the Novel “Awakening” Part 2
The Making Of the Novel “Awakening” Part 2
A mostly accurate timeline so far as I can remember...
Once I had another version I was comfortable with, I moved it to book funnel which made distribution easier. Same thing, no one really bothered to read what I had spent months working on. I wanted to know if I could get a person to read say just chapter one. The disheartening answer was no, people will not read even one chapter despite saying they would. According to other writers on Reddit this was quite common. The fact is no one will read your work, family certainly won’t, I mean seriously, they will not read a single page trust me, I tried. After a very long and frustrating journey, I finally stopped sharing it. Some of the people who know me best still to this day haven’t read a single page of my work. I’ve made peace with it; I have learned to accept it, and I don’t even take it personally anymore. Experiences like this are all too common for writers, I know this now and I’ve learned to just let it go.
Let It Go and Focus
The Years 2018 to 2019.
The year unfolded as a mix of quiet ambition and deliberate focus. I spent my time working, investing, writing, and taking road trips. It was an interesting year, full of personal and professional transformations and fascinating moments of discovery. When I wasn’t working or writing, I leaned into cooking as an unexpected creative outlet. I am pretty sure my friends were getting tired of seeing all my made up culinary creations inspired by YouTube videos. I experimented with ingredients I already had, refusing to follow recipes. Some dishes turned out wonderfully, others not so much. My seared salmon eggs benedict, for example, remains an elusive dream always close but never quite perfect. Still, it was a satisfying way to see what I could create from the everyday.
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
I gave my digital life a much-needed overhaul. My YouTube subscriptions underwent a ruthless purge, leaving behind only content that informed, inspired, or added meaningful value. I realized how draining mainstream media and the endless doom scroll of social feeds had become, so I eliminated them altogether. In their place, I turned to podcasts, lectures, science fiction novels, and documentaries that left me energized and inspired. Books remained a constant source of inspiration. They carried me to other worlds, challenged my perspectives, and enriched my understanding of storytelling. This quieter, more intentional approach to media gave me the clarity and mental space to focus on my work. Stories that had lingered at the edges of my mind finally found form, and my research spanning everything from history to speculative science fed directly into the characters and worlds I was building. Looking back, it wasn’t a year of monumental changes but of meaningful shifts, mentally, spiritually, and politically. By cutting out the noise and leaning into the things that truly sparked my interest, I found myself more grounded, more creative, and more in tune with my writing goals.
2020 The Year of The Pandemic.
Just two weeks to flatten the curve and save humanity. Well, it didn’t exactly work out that way. I spent my time that year caring for my elderly mother, helping my wife and my friends while I tried not to get sick. I lost eight co-workers to the virus. Days blurred together, and at some point I stopped caring about time all together. One week seamlessly melted into the next. My days were filled with work my nights consumed with writing sometimes until 5am. By 8am, I was back up and working. It was a relentless cycle, not helped at all by the media’s constant fear machine.
2020 Was a Challenging Year
Endless arguments over vaccines, masks, and social distancing. The needless tribal lines drawn between the “Vaxed” and “Un-Vaxed.” New terms sprouted up like weeds between the cracks in our society, and it all felt like some endless, dystopian, science fiction nightmare from which we couldn’t escape. So, what else is a writer to do but write about it? I was on Medium back then, it was about four in the morning, this is what I wrote:
"Sunrise to sunset we wait, watch and wonder. Repeating the same routines every day and every night. We hope that there is a normal to go back to. We pray there is a future to look forward to. Only time will tell. For now, this is how we live. In rooms, basements, and garages. In front of cameras, on screens and behind masks. Standing in circles, perched on squares six feet apart. None of us knows what the future holds and yet we hold on to one another as we hold out hope. The calendar days pass almost without notice. We cherish simple moments more valuable to us now than ever before. Alone and together under a blue sky or beneath the stars, in backyards, on balconies and rooftops. We each have our place, the one space that still feels normal. In those moments we realize what is truly valuable to us, our families, friends, and communities. One day we will take a breath without fear and embrace loved ones without apprehension. We may be distant we may stand apart, but we are not alone. For now, though, this is how we live. Sunrise to sunset waiting."
One day I went to bed on a Friday night around 11 p.m. and slept through most of the following Saturday. When I finally woke up early Sunday morning, it was around 5am I felt energized. I spent hours writing, made solid progress, and looked forward to enjoying the rest of the weekend. That night, I went to bed around 10pm. When I woke up, I thought it was Sunday morning. I put on a podcast and started making breakfast. I was ready for a slow, easy day. Then my wife gave me a strange look and said, “You know today is Monday, right?” I stared at her confused, then at my phone, completely stunned. What the hell had happened to the weekend? A year and a half in, I found myself slipping into depression almost daily. At the time, I was working on a chapter of Awakening set in Antarctica. With so much weighing on my mind, I decided to deviate from the original outline. I transformed the scene I had planned to write into a series of diary entries, capturing the pandemic-induced despair of the science fiction world I was building. If you’d like to read this scene, you’ll find it in my novel, Awakening, Chapter Three: “The Ruins of Antarctica.”
Revisions and More Revisions
The Years 2021 to 2022
Many nights, I’d lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, lost in my thoughts. How long before everything really starts to fall apart? Would I need to start going out armed? What if the world is just gone by the time I finish the book? Am I wasting my time with all this? Is this the end of everything? Should I get more life insurance? Will the virus keep mutating forever? I channeled all of it, all my anxiety and fear into that chapter. I melted it down and poured it into the narrative. After all, what else was I supposed to do with all that weight I was carrying? In the end, it felt cathartic to get it out onto the page, where it belonged.
The Year 2023.
I needed a break, so I started working on other story ideas. I was interested in the social and psychological consequences of advanced technology and how technology impacts individuals and society. Douglas Rushkoff, one of my many intellectual inspirations, once said in reference to Facebook; “we are the product.” It struck me as a dark revelation. Like many things Rushkoff explores, it got me thinking and kept me thinking about the implications of that statement. I was once a very pro technology person because I sincerely believed that technology was a tool that could be used to improve the human condition. I still believe this but with a caveat; watch out below for those pesky unpredictable negative externalities. Rushkoff and his writings gradually killed off the techno utopian in me and made me realize that not all that glitters in the tech space is gold. He taught me that it is not technology that people hate, it is the extractive business models the technology companies use that really annoy the shit out of us. That line haunted me “We are the product.” Out of that came the idea for the Body of Work series A major theme of that work is the commodification of the human form and personal information. You can read more about it here. and if you want to read the series you can find it here The Body of Work Series
The Year 2024.
On a camping trip with my wife, I had been plagued by a strange anxiety, I could not sleep, I spent hours looking at the stars reading and rereading chapters in the book while recording notes on my phone to make changes once I got back home. I knew there was nothing more I could do; I had to publish, but in my mind, I also had to make it perfect. I went over the book constantly; I rewrote scenes; I trimmed dialogue and redrafted entire sections to the tune of some fifty-nine different drafts. There came a point where I was taking notes on things to change and improve only to discover that I had already made that change and that improvement. I was getting close to publishing.
I Needed to Publish
There was only one problem holding me back: fear. The idea of putting my work out there for all to see was daunting, but I knew I had to do it. I stepped away from Awakening for a while and focused on Body Of Work. When I came back to work on Awakening, I felt refreshed and ready to go back into that world. Then, in June of 2024, I was ready, or at least I thought I was. I redrafted the entire book again just for good measure; I checked and rechecked the manuscript over and over again. By July I was ready, the cover art was done, the epub file as close to perfection as I could get. I sat at the console for a long time and finally said to myself, well here it goes. I published on August 13, 2024.
If you missed it see: "The Making Of the Novel “Awakening” Part 1" https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
My New novel Awakening is on sale now.
eBook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DD2J5BVR
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Kenn...
Author Links:
Web: https://books2read.com/KennethEHarrell
Substack: https://substack.com/@kennetheharrell
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/kennethehar...
Reedsy: https://reedsy.com/discovery/user/kha...
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/kenne...
A mostly accurate timeline so far as I can remember...
Once I had another version I was comfortable with, I moved it to book funnel which made distribution easier. Same thing, no one really bothered to read what I had spent months working on. I wanted to know if I could get a person to read say just chapter one. The disheartening answer was no, people will not read even one chapter despite saying they would. According to other writers on Reddit this was quite common. The fact is no one will read your work, family certainly won’t, I mean seriously, they will not read a single page trust me, I tried. After a very long and frustrating journey, I finally stopped sharing it. Some of the people who know me best still to this day haven’t read a single page of my work. I’ve made peace with it; I have learned to accept it, and I don’t even take it personally anymore. Experiences like this are all too common for writers, I know this now and I’ve learned to just let it go.
Let It Go and Focus
The Years 2018 to 2019.
The year unfolded as a mix of quiet ambition and deliberate focus. I spent my time working, investing, writing, and taking road trips. It was an interesting year, full of personal and professional transformations and fascinating moments of discovery. When I wasn’t working or writing, I leaned into cooking as an unexpected creative outlet. I am pretty sure my friends were getting tired of seeing all my made up culinary creations inspired by YouTube videos. I experimented with ingredients I already had, refusing to follow recipes. Some dishes turned out wonderfully, others not so much. My seared salmon eggs benedict, for example, remains an elusive dream always close but never quite perfect. Still, it was a satisfying way to see what I could create from the everyday.
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
I gave my digital life a much-needed overhaul. My YouTube subscriptions underwent a ruthless purge, leaving behind only content that informed, inspired, or added meaningful value. I realized how draining mainstream media and the endless doom scroll of social feeds had become, so I eliminated them altogether. In their place, I turned to podcasts, lectures, science fiction novels, and documentaries that left me energized and inspired. Books remained a constant source of inspiration. They carried me to other worlds, challenged my perspectives, and enriched my understanding of storytelling. This quieter, more intentional approach to media gave me the clarity and mental space to focus on my work. Stories that had lingered at the edges of my mind finally found form, and my research spanning everything from history to speculative science fed directly into the characters and worlds I was building. Looking back, it wasn’t a year of monumental changes but of meaningful shifts, mentally, spiritually, and politically. By cutting out the noise and leaning into the things that truly sparked my interest, I found myself more grounded, more creative, and more in tune with my writing goals.
2020 The Year of The Pandemic.
Just two weeks to flatten the curve and save humanity. Well, it didn’t exactly work out that way. I spent my time that year caring for my elderly mother, helping my wife and my friends while I tried not to get sick. I lost eight co-workers to the virus. Days blurred together, and at some point I stopped caring about time all together. One week seamlessly melted into the next. My days were filled with work my nights consumed with writing sometimes until 5am. By 8am, I was back up and working. It was a relentless cycle, not helped at all by the media’s constant fear machine.
2020 Was a Challenging Year
Endless arguments over vaccines, masks, and social distancing. The needless tribal lines drawn between the “Vaxed” and “Un-Vaxed.” New terms sprouted up like weeds between the cracks in our society, and it all felt like some endless, dystopian, science fiction nightmare from which we couldn’t escape. So, what else is a writer to do but write about it? I was on Medium back then, it was about four in the morning, this is what I wrote:
"Sunrise to sunset we wait, watch and wonder. Repeating the same routines every day and every night. We hope that there is a normal to go back to. We pray there is a future to look forward to. Only time will tell. For now, this is how we live. In rooms, basements, and garages. In front of cameras, on screens and behind masks. Standing in circles, perched on squares six feet apart. None of us knows what the future holds and yet we hold on to one another as we hold out hope. The calendar days pass almost without notice. We cherish simple moments more valuable to us now than ever before. Alone and together under a blue sky or beneath the stars, in backyards, on balconies and rooftops. We each have our place, the one space that still feels normal. In those moments we realize what is truly valuable to us, our families, friends, and communities. One day we will take a breath without fear and embrace loved ones without apprehension. We may be distant we may stand apart, but we are not alone. For now, though, this is how we live. Sunrise to sunset waiting."
One day I went to bed on a Friday night around 11 p.m. and slept through most of the following Saturday. When I finally woke up early Sunday morning, it was around 5am I felt energized. I spent hours writing, made solid progress, and looked forward to enjoying the rest of the weekend. That night, I went to bed around 10pm. When I woke up, I thought it was Sunday morning. I put on a podcast and started making breakfast. I was ready for a slow, easy day. Then my wife gave me a strange look and said, “You know today is Monday, right?” I stared at her confused, then at my phone, completely stunned. What the hell had happened to the weekend? A year and a half in, I found myself slipping into depression almost daily. At the time, I was working on a chapter of Awakening set in Antarctica. With so much weighing on my mind, I decided to deviate from the original outline. I transformed the scene I had planned to write into a series of diary entries, capturing the pandemic-induced despair of the science fiction world I was building. If you’d like to read this scene, you’ll find it in my novel, Awakening, Chapter Three: “The Ruins of Antarctica.”
Revisions and More Revisions
The Years 2021 to 2022
Many nights, I’d lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, lost in my thoughts. How long before everything really starts to fall apart? Would I need to start going out armed? What if the world is just gone by the time I finish the book? Am I wasting my time with all this? Is this the end of everything? Should I get more life insurance? Will the virus keep mutating forever? I channeled all of it, all my anxiety and fear into that chapter. I melted it down and poured it into the narrative. After all, what else was I supposed to do with all that weight I was carrying? In the end, it felt cathartic to get it out onto the page, where it belonged.
The Year 2023.
I needed a break, so I started working on other story ideas. I was interested in the social and psychological consequences of advanced technology and how technology impacts individuals and society. Douglas Rushkoff, one of my many intellectual inspirations, once said in reference to Facebook; “we are the product.” It struck me as a dark revelation. Like many things Rushkoff explores, it got me thinking and kept me thinking about the implications of that statement. I was once a very pro technology person because I sincerely believed that technology was a tool that could be used to improve the human condition. I still believe this but with a caveat; watch out below for those pesky unpredictable negative externalities. Rushkoff and his writings gradually killed off the techno utopian in me and made me realize that not all that glitters in the tech space is gold. He taught me that it is not technology that people hate, it is the extractive business models the technology companies use that really annoy the shit out of us. That line haunted me “We are the product.” Out of that came the idea for the Body of Work series A major theme of that work is the commodification of the human form and personal information. You can read more about it here. and if you want to read the series you can find it here The Body of Work Series
The Year 2024.
On a camping trip with my wife, I had been plagued by a strange anxiety, I could not sleep, I spent hours looking at the stars reading and rereading chapters in the book while recording notes on my phone to make changes once I got back home. I knew there was nothing more I could do; I had to publish, but in my mind, I also had to make it perfect. I went over the book constantly; I rewrote scenes; I trimmed dialogue and redrafted entire sections to the tune of some fifty-nine different drafts. There came a point where I was taking notes on things to change and improve only to discover that I had already made that change and that improvement. I was getting close to publishing.
I Needed to Publish
There was only one problem holding me back: fear. The idea of putting my work out there for all to see was daunting, but I knew I had to do it. I stepped away from Awakening for a while and focused on Body Of Work. When I came back to work on Awakening, I felt refreshed and ready to go back into that world. Then, in June of 2024, I was ready, or at least I thought I was. I redrafted the entire book again just for good measure; I checked and rechecked the manuscript over and over again. By July I was ready, the cover art was done, the epub file as close to perfection as I could get. I sat at the console for a long time and finally said to myself, well here it goes. I published on August 13, 2024.
If you missed it see: "The Making Of the Novel “Awakening” Part 1" https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
My New novel Awakening is on sale now.
eBook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DD2J5BVR
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Kenn...
Author Links:
Web: https://books2read.com/KennethEHarrell
Substack: https://substack.com/@kennetheharrell
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/kennethehar...
Reedsy: https://reedsy.com/discovery/user/kha...
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/kenne...
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A Writing Journey
Welcome to My Writing Journey
In this blog, I share the creative process behind my storytelling, from those first sparks of inspiration to fully realized scenes. Whether you’re a fellow writer or someo ...more
In this blog, I share the creative process behind my storytelling, from those first sparks of inspiration to fully realized scenes. Whether you’re a fellow writer or someo ...more
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