Discovery Writing
18 days. 43 chapters. 245 pages. 62,445 words. Start to finish, no AI. Azaya and the Central Expanse is done, and the second book in the Azaya series. It comes in as number five in the entire Charles Mandrake arc, and for those that enjoy the books, I will be working on one more at least, for Azaya sometime in the future.
I’ve created a couple posts here about the writing process, but with this book, I really discovered just how much of a discovery writer I am. The best attempt at a plot was “Azaya and Rinna need something to do in the central expanse,” and remember it all started with that scene in the shallows where they caught crayfish, looked for pebbles, and shared jerky and coffee.
I have learned to just trust the story as it unfolds.
This might seem hard to believe if you aren’t a discovery writer, but I really found that what I’m doing is telling a story in real-time, like we’re sitting in front of a campfire. I let the scenes unfold, and the story takes me where it wants to go. Of course, it’s completely what I imagine up, but it’s happening the same way as watching a movie.
Discovery writing also means a lot of errors and editing. Especially for me. I type around 65-70 words per minute when I’m going, don’t correct mistakes, and just follow the story. I try to catch everything after the chapter is written. I found that when I’m stopping or backing up to correct myself, the story can go sideways because I’m getting pulled out of it.
One interesting technique I have started doing more recently, maybe from chapter 26 or 27, is to not look at the writing at all, and just type. I was listing/watching videos from The Hu, a Mongolian band that’s received a bit of popularity. I’m typing away on my phone screen, but looking at the computer screen with the videos playing. I guess I’m watching the story in my mind as opposed to writing it. I just type what I see and hear in the movie.
I also have a love/hate relationship for Libre Office. It’s far more customizable than MS Word, but at the same time, it’s a lot more finicky. I spent about four hours getting the manuscript into Amazon book format earlier this morning. That was painful because there’s no direct-to-KDP conversion.
So if the book’s done, why didn’t I publish it?
This is the incubation period. Unlike Stephen King, I don’t really just put the book aside. I read it as a reader in a preliminary EPub version on my phone/tablet. If I stumble over something, or decide I want to add more to a paragraph, I just do it. The manuscript is still living and being worked on, but still done as far as the bulk of the writing. Perhaps a good term for this is the “polish pass”.
Since this entire book takes place on the steppe, I am also triple checking facts against my research of the Central Asian steppe, cultures, and tribes. There are a lot of parallels, and it has to be right in the book because it’s drawn from the way real people live.
I have the book slated for release on August 16, 2026. Look for a link on www.streetsofskelderheim.com.
