Most authors have cycles or a process they use when writing a novel, myself included. Over the years, mine has changed here and there as my abilities and knowledge in my craft changed (aka improved), but nothing changed it more than COVID. (I promise this is not a post solely about the pandemic.)

Prior to COVID, my novels ranged from 80,000-140,000 words depending upon the genre and reader expectations. Something of that length took me four months to create. For a book that’s 100,000 words or about 350 pages in length, that cycle might look like this:

1. Outlining & Zero draft – 10,000 words – 2-3 days
2. First draft – 80,000 words* – 2 months 
3. Revisions – Bring up to 100K – 1 month
4. Final edits – 1 week
5. Send to editor. 
6. Receive back changes. Make changes. 2 weeks.
7. Send back for proofreading. Make any changes.
8. Book gets formatted. Another check.
9. Wait for release date. 
10. Book published.

*I write lean in first drafts

What I mean by that is that my ADHD and learning disabilities are much, much more severe. Because I never had an official diagnosis as a kid, I never learned the various techniques taught to kids to cope with such issues and thus, everything in my brain went sideways.

I spent the first 3 years of the pandemic so sick with long COVID that I couldn’t write at all.

I had begun Amaskan’s Honor—and by that I mean I had one chapter written—and then I couldn’t word. Everything I said audibly and in written form used the most basic of language. All of the advanced vocabulary I used to know was gone. Stringing together a cohesive sentence seemed as difficult as climbing a mountain. Metaphors and similes? Good luck. Irony? AHHAHAHAHAHA.

I just couldn’t.

It was like living in a brain whose pathways had suddenly rerouted themselves or the map was written in Chinese. I knew the information was there, but I couldn’t reach it. Even worse, I couldn’t sit at a computer for more than an hour without extreme fatigue and malaise. Even if the words suddenly materialized, I physically couldn’t write.

I spent year four and five of the pandemic trying to figure out my brain and get my abilities back. I’m not at 100% at all, and I can see it in writings like this blog post, but it’s better. I know it is because Amaskan’s Honor is done. I finished it. 

Better yet, I’m happy with it. 

I feel like parts of my brain are awake again. Everything takes much longer than it did, partly because the dyslexia makes early drafts look like word salad (not just letter flipping but whole word flipping too). 

They say that every COVID infection causes small amounts of brain damage that accumulate over time and it’s true. They think that damage to the brain and the rest of the neurological system is why we see folks getting autonomic dysfunction, which can cause POTS, ME/CFS, MCAS, and all sorts of fun stuff that Molli and I have now.

So now a 100,000 word book’s process looks closer to this:

1. Zero draft – 10,000 words – 2 weeks
2. First draft – 80,000 words* – 4 months 
3. Revisions – Bring up to 100K – 1 month
4. Final edits – 1 week
5. Send to editor. 
6. Receive back changes. Make changes. 2 weeks.
7. Send back for proofreading. Make any changes.
8. Book gets formatted. Another check.
9. Wait for release date. 
10. Book published.

*I still write lean in my early drafts

Notice something? My revision times didn’t change. It’s because fixing what’s broken is still fairly easy for me, but it’s the initial bits where I struggle. Almost all of that battle comes from my brain struggling to find the right word and put letters and words in the correct order. If I can get my brain to cooperate instead of swimming in brain fog, then I can have good writing days again.

In trying to finish Amaskan’s Honor, I decided to try and challenge myself. I gave myself 15 days to write 45,000 words. Not good words but just words. Words can be cleaned up and fixed but blank pages, not so much. Not only did I succeed, but as I worked, I found the words improved. Halfway through, I leapt over the hump and got my words back…mostly.  To manage it, I worked 15 days straight with no days off and it sucked. Afterword, the post-exertion malaise hit me hard, so that’s not a challenge I will do again without working in breaks. But it proved to me that I can still create in spite of long COVID. The cycle just takes more time. 

In other words, I need to be more kind to myself and more understanding of days when my body just can’t. Words will happen. I just need to be more accommodating of the when.