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Write every day.

My writing process is certainly subject to periods of self-doubt and potentially paralyzing fear. So what? Keep on writing every day.

Progress...

The manuscript hit 27k words today. 
I have recently found a great, sustainable rhythm to my writing.  It really just involves writing something every day, whether it's three sentences or three pages.  This not only helps me avoid the slight depression and self-loathing that comes as a result of ignoring my book for days or more, it also keeps things fresh and I feel continually immersed in the universe that I'm writing about. 

Leaf

 

A watercolor painting of mine in b&w.  This is Leaf, a Khurran whose plight I write about.

How Many Words?!

I was thinking about how being an author and being a writer are different, and I realized that one difference is that authors have finished books.  In a search for some perspective on how rapidly I should be writing, I came upon this article:
 http://www.authormagazine.org/articles/thayer_james_2009_04_09.htm

 J.R.R. Tolkien took eleven years to write “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, which he wrote as one 670,000 word epic novel.  On the other hand, Stephen King cranks out one of his magnum works in no more than three months!  My quote of the day today is “The secret of becoming a writer is that you have to write.”  - Jerry Pournelle

Tales of the Bodhisattva

...is the title of my upcoming fantasy/adventure novel.  Set on the planet Kaliya, which is actually somewhere in the Milky Way, happening around now-ish, the story follows a young Khurran (imagine seven-foot tall sloths with long tails) who must awaken to his bodhisattva nature in order to overcome a great evil that has arrived on his front doorstep.  The world of Kaliya is rife with drama, mostly stirred by the incarnate gods who walk among the mortals.
At the moment of this post, I have written 19,195 words of the manuscript.  Yes, it’s going to be a little while until it’s done.  I’ll continually update here and on my website:

www.justindockins.com

…where, incidentally, you can read the first three chapters of the book FOR FREE!!!  Wow.  Now that’s something.

Jesh

Jesh, the Primordial Mother, Mother of the Khurran.

I began with a watercolor painting of mine that had completely different colors, then I scanned it and modified the image in Picasa.