After about three and a half years of writing, I’ve finally self-published my first novella, Strak’s Bad Day! In this post, I thought I’d reflect on the journey and what I’ve learned through the process.

Where did the idea come from?

I got the idea after responding to a prompt on the /r/WritingPrompts subreddit. People seemed to like the idea, and I was having fun with the characters, so I kept on writing it. Three years later, and after a LOT of edits and feedback from my lovely writing group, here we are!

Why self-publishing?

A novella (~20,000 words) is a difficult length to try to get traditionally published. You can’t get an agent with a novella (it’s too short, they’re looking for something at least 50,000 words), and there are very few places that accept something so long (most magazines are looking for something <5,000 words). Because of this, I decided it would be best to self-publish!

What would I do differently?

After the entire thing was fully written, I spent about a year faffing about in editing hell. I think the story did get better after so many rounds of edits, but I don’t think all of it was entirely necessary. I could have been done after a few months instead of spending so much time trying to get everything perfect.

What’s next?

Right now, I’m writing a lot of wish-fulfillment Arcane fanfiction (season 2 was so good!). Once that’s wrapped, there are a few other stories in Sector Sigma Psi that I’d like to explore. I also have an idea for a full-length novel that’s been cooking, but I tend to get bored by the 50,000 word mark, so we’ll see how that goes. We’ll see where 2025 brings me!

Thanks for reading! I’m excited that Strak’s Bad Day is out in the world, and I hope that you all like it :)