Back in 2022, I took the month of December off my job (taking advantage of a business restructuring in the off-season) to focus on the novel (PRIMEVAL), try to get it closer to completion, maybe even a first draft, maybe even (pie in the sky!) ARCs printed to send out to my beta-readers for review before final publication.
But when I sat down and reviewed the Scrivener file—which was already around 450 pages—I was taken aback as to how much work is yet to be done (I was speculating a minimum of 600 pages, similar to Rolling The Bones, and up to 800…or perhaps even more!).
I suddenly felt overwhelmed, even knowing I had the entire month ahead to work on it—
—but then, something clicked in my mind: a mindset shift…
I decided: instead of stressing out, anticipating a month of working my ass off and risking burnout and ultimately failure—I would simply settle in for the long-haul.
Yes, I would take advantage of the month off the job and get as much work done on the novel as I could—but the reality was, the book would take at least 6 more months of steady work to bring it even close to what I’m envisioning…
And it’ll be done when it’s done.
And suddenly, it became much more doable in my mind!
Like when you decide to change your lifestyle and start incrementally eating healthier and going for walks or hitting the gym a few times a week, or begin baby steps toward a long-term project, or start looking into taking a class, whatever—rather than obsessively making it the top (or only) priority, and stressing over getting it done (an approach which has been shown in studies to actually increase procrastination and decrease work quality), instead it simply becomes integrated into your life, an over-arching project, just another segment of your daily routine.
And, similar to my first book Rolling The Bones—when so many people were urging me to get it done and publish it already, yet I refused to cut corners to expedite it, and actually published it a few months later than projected so I could make it as good as it could possibly be, as close as possible to what I had envisioned, and not regret hurrying the project and wishing I hadn’t, and it turned out (IMO) to be the best it could possibly be—I fully expected PRIMEVAL to be even better!
So I just figured that even after so many years of delays, one day it would be done, if I just kept plugging away at it, like a jigsaw puzzle, placing a few pieces every day. I had faith that it would eventually be finished, as long as I stuck to the daily routine.
Anyway, the point is this: even with the seemingly cripplingly slow progress, and knowing the extent of the work yet to be done, I remained calm and confident due to my newly adopted mindset: long-term vision and simple daily routine vs. short-term obsessive work and stressed/overwhelmed.
And I wanted to share the concept, with the hope that it helps others as they approach their own significant endeavors.
UPDATE Sept 22 2025: It worked! After 7 long years, my epic novel PRIMEVAL is finished and now available on Amazon! Weighing in at 766 pages, it comprises a preface, a 4-part prologue, 3 main parts, and an epilogue! See more details about the novel in my PRIMEVAL announcement post!
I would also like to invite everyone to follow my Amazon author page, to be notified of any/all of my future book releases. Plus, a variety of my short fiction is published on this blog under My Fiction, you might check them out if the Spirit so moves you. Thanks! ~ Rand
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