Tyler Hillis

Yep, it is time.

There is a common fallacy known as the sunk-cost fallacy wherein an individual (in this case a writer) is reluctant to give up or change their strategy because they’ve invested so much time and effort toward it, and to do so, would essentially be throwing all that time and effort away. I think I’ve fallen victim to this fallacy.

With that said, I’ve come to a point where I recognize the fork in the road that I’ve come to with this book. One path continues on with what I’ve been doing — pitching, editing, taking a break, and then repeating. While the other path stops that cycle in order to find an entirely new trail to walk.

I am immensely proud of the work and writing I did in order to finish this book. While my end goal was to get it published, the true goal was to write a book. And I did.

And during that process my writing improved. My editorial eye refined. And my understanding of the process grew tenfold.

I’m okay tucking this book away. Perhaps one day I will dust it off and see what can be done with it. Perhaps not. Either way, there will only ever be one “first book I wrote.” And for that, I will love this story for the rest of my life.

So, what’s next then?

Well, another book hopefully. Although I don’t have something solid in mind yet.

Instead, I’ve flipped my creativity back to another passion of mine: game design. Finishing this book taught me a lot about the importance of actually finishing projects. Like most creative people I’ve met, I have a project graveyard that depresses me to acknowledge. Countless books, games, posters, music, movies, documentaries, drawings, and so on, that have been left by the wayside, with only half-ideas and glimmers of inspiration to show. While I believe these are the result of the ever-elusive creative process, they never fail to get me down when I look at them.

Having retaught myself that I can actually finish projects if I remain disciplined, I moved on from my book to fully finish and release my own game.

And we are very close to that goal!

Right now, there is a free demo out for FRENETIKA. In a little over a month, the full game will be released and on sale on steam!

And hidden inside this game is a novella that builds out the world and characters (you can’t kill a writer’s incessant need to stuff story into everything they can).

So my creative drive hasn’t been idle. Once this game is done, who knows. My inspiration could take me back to writing books.

If you’ve read these updates and followed along, thank you very much. These were more for my own personal benefit than anything else — daydreams of new york times best selling author having documented the entire process on his website. You know how it goes.

Until next time, thanks for reading.