“Swoopers write a story quickly, higgledy-piggledy, crinkum-crankum, any which way. Then they go over it again painstakingly, fixing everything that is just plain awful or doesn’t work. Bashers go one sentence at a time, getting it exactly right before they go on to the next one. When they’re done, they’re done.” Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

After solidifying the main idea and plot elements, I had to conduct research. At first, this may sound incongruous for a science fiction novel. However, even fiction must be believable. My story takes place in the near future so human science had to be rooted in our current capabilities.

I forgot to mention that before I started “plantsing,” I had ideas bouncing around in my head for some time. I decided to write the current novel because the main idea of a potential life ending comet strike that turns out to be an alien invasion was interesting.

What kind of writer am I?

When I started my writing journey, this was one of the first questions I had to answer for myself. Before trying to write this book, I hadn’t written anything in decades. I wrote long emails, but I don’t think that counts. So, how was I going to write a book?