Michael J. Farlow
When this topic was posed to me, I had mixed thoughts, given I write in both fiction and non-fiction. My first book was a non-fiction book about leadership, Leaders are Made Not Born: 40 Simple Skills to Make You the Leader You Want to Be. That book was eight years in development, mostly because too many other things in life slowed writing down. I had a forty-one-page outline and a PhD in Organizational Leadership when I finally devoted myself to finishing it. At that point, it was relatively easy to do, and when it was published, I was grateful that it was, at long last, finished. So, my feeling was relief. Then, I said to myself, what next?
By that time, I had started reading science fiction at a prodigious rate. I also had degrees in science and engineering and said, why not write one of those? So, I started writing a science fiction series. Little did I know how different and difficult that would be. My first attempt was at the 30, 000 word point when I went to my first writing workshop— sponsored by NYT Best Selling author, Bob Mayer. I learned that I didn’t know much about writing fiction. So, I went home and dumped the 30,000 words, and started over.
