The Importance of Challenge and Change

I finished reading through Deviation, my new release and the first science fiction I’ve ever tried my hand at. 

(Squee! Pretty cover!)

Family and friends find it a little weird that I will read a book that I wrote — especially this one since it took me several years to complete. But after having gone through the whole thing again I can see where I have improved as a writer and where I still need to work. 

Yes, yes, I know. I’m my biggest critic … or something like that. 

But I have to be. If I can’t see where I’ve gone wrong then no amount of Editors are going to be able to convince me of it. And if I can’t be honest about what I see wrong then I’ll never face it long enough to improve. 

If I’ve learned anything about the writing craft it’s that you have to challenge yourself. If you’re not willing to take risks (like writing outside of your regular genre or even submitting your work for publication) then you will never improve. Writing is one of those crafts that grows with you, that improves as you go. 

Comparing Deviation with Tapped (my current work in progress) challenges me to be better, to highlight those places where I’m putting way too much information and not enough character. (Yes, I did this a lot in Deviation.) I also counted several typo’s, which irritated me quite a bit since this silly thing went through not one but three separate editors. You would think one of us would have caught those. 

So!

Deviation and Dead Magic are out for consumption now. Style and writing-wise they are both a few years old — meaning I finished writing them a long time ago, they’ve just been waiting their turn to be published. I am a much stronger writer today than I was then and I hope to continue improving as I keep writing. 

Each book is a challenge to be better than the last, a lesson that I would not learn without having gone through it. Without the books I’ve already written, the book I am currently creating would never have come to be. I’m sure many authors would agree with that sentiment.

Challenge and change are the trademarks of a writer.