Time to Write

I have written three novelettes: Just Another Scout, Dawn to Dawn and End of an Era. In that order. All together, writing those first three stories took about a year. A full year. That long and only three novelettes? From an idea to writing to editing to publishing. That long.
But for a good reason: my time to write is limited. Sometimes very limited and sometimes less limited. And I am sure that many writers face the same problem. Especially if there is a day job, family, hobbies and other activities that consume all available time that we have.

My solution is to write novellettes that are all set in the same universe. All my stories happen in the same universe. That way I can write and publish stories within the limited time that I have.

At first, I hoped to write a full-length novel but I mostly abandoned the idea after publishing Just Another Scout. I have a feeling that this is different approach than most writers take? I have read some books about writing fiction, visited many online forums and feeling I got is that full-length novel should be the goal. Perhaps I do write a full-length novel. One story at a time.

I came across an AppleInsider article (I blogged shortly about this earlier) that validates my decision to write novelettes:

The service is designed to be "bite-sized," with small doses of content meant to be consumed in just a few minutes. In order to create the model, Starbucks and Yahoo first observed customers' habits.

"Users across the Internet are moving more into this 'snackable behavior' to begin with," said Burke Culligan, vice president of product management at Yahoo.

Interesting..."moving into snackable behaviour" Who am I to argue with Starbucks and Yahoo? Novelettes are stories that can be easily consumed while having a cup of coffee.

PS. You can get 25% off from both Just Another Scout and End of an Era using coupons FG22D and JF34K, respectively (valid until January 2nd, 2011). Dawn to Dawn is free.