My Next Novel – Crash Planet

My Writing Goals for 2024

I’ve set 3 goals for my writing career in 2024. Keep in mind I am still writing in my spare time. There are plenty of writers out there who can crank out 3 or 4 or 10 books each year, but that’s not me. I hope that someday I will be able to write full-time and make a living at it, but that’s still a long way off. I work a full-time job which means most of my writing is done at night when I can carve out some spare time. But, I’m not complaining. I’m very thankful for the time I have and for the writing I’ve been able to accomplish up to this point. Below are my three big goals for 2024. Each one is already in progress, which makes me feel like I’ll be able to accomplish all three goals. At least, that is my hope. Here are my goals for 2024:

1. Build up my Substack subscriber list and create a community of fans who enjoy my works of fiction.
2. Finish and publish my new novel called Crash Planet
3. Finish and publish my first graphic novel; Glazed Man & Rat Girl and The Planet of the Rats

About Crash Planet

In this article, I’ll give you more info on Goal #2, Crash Planet. In a future newsletter, I’ll tell you all about my graphic novel.

The book I’m currently working on is called Crash Planet. The stage of writing that I’m in right now is known as the revision stage. That means, I’ve completed the rough draft and now I’m going through what I wrote and fixing it up to make it as good as possible. That includes smaller things like fixing punctuation and spelling, improving my sentence structure, and writing in a more active voice. It also includes bigger improvements like rewriting some scenes to make them stronger or adding more personality and growth to my characters to make them more interesting. This is a hugely important step in the writing process. It typically takes me a few months. With Crash Planet, I’m pushing myself more than ever to make every scene as good as it can possibly be. So it’s hard to say when I’ll be ready to move the book along to its final stages of production. The next step is to send my full manuscript to a few trusted readers who will commit to reading it and writing down their constructive feedback for me. If anyone who receives this newsletter is interested in being one of my Advanced Readers for Crash Planet, please let me know. 

A Short Summary

Every book needs a short summary, or a “blurb” as it’s often called. It will be used on Amazon as the book description, and it will often be used on the back cover of the book as well. Ultimately, I will write and rewrite my blurb, trying to make it as perfect as I can get it. It needs to make the potential reader want to open the book and read it. Next to the book cover, the blurb is the most important piece of marketing for any book. So, now, below, I’ll be taking my first crack at writing my book’s blurb. Almost like a practice blurb. I’m including it here in this article so that you, my subscribers, will have an idea of what Crash Planet is about. Here goes my very rough blurb for Crash Planet:

• Princess Maya, the only surviving member of her royal family, must get back to her homeland before evil revolutionaries take it over. But that won’t be easy because everyone in her country thinks she is dead. The spaceship she was flying home on crashed in the middle of an unexplored jungle on the planet Nova. She and a disgraced military pilot named Jack are the only survivors. Jack has his own plans after the crash that do not include helping Princess Maya. Then, things go from bad to worse and they are forced to work together to survive. Together, they set out through many kilometers of unforgiving jungles to reach Maya’s homeland. Their journey is filled with bizarre man-eating creatures and a hostile race of natives who do not take kindly to humans traveling through their forests. Along the way, they get help from a giant beast called a tarrexx. This unlikely trio of Maya, Jack, and the tarrexx find themselves in a deadly race against time that is fraught with wild animals, evil natives, and a human threat that will stop at nothing to prevent Maya from returning to power.

I’d love to hear your feedback on the blurb above. Does it make you want to read the book? That’s my update for now.

To receive my new newsletter, please subscribe at scottcahan.substack.com. There you will get the most up to date information on my new writing projects. You’ll also receive a serialized story from me once a week in your email box.