Fiction

Figuring out what to do with your life after you’ve become a published author is maddening, for the record. Where do I go from here? Do I write another, similar book? Do I write something completely different? Do I relinquish my pen and abscond, never to be heard from again?

Recently I returned to a novel manuscript that I hadn’t touched since 2023. Initially, all I wrote was fiction. I never imagined a self-help book would be what got me over the publication finish line. And now I haven’t written fiction in three years.

Reading the manuscript over again, I was relieved to find it tolerable. I’m not a total hack, as it turns out. It needs work, though, so that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Taking my laptop and a notebook to coffee shops, scrolling through the editorial comments I left for myself in another life, and trying to make the text better.

I’m enjoying myself. I don’t know whether this novel will ever be published. But in a world constantly threatened with various potential apocalypses, I’m fine basking in the simple pleasure of my imagination. You should give it a try.