After graduating in 2010, I did a postdoc in literature at Nanyang Technological University in amazing Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That gig was effectively my last hurrah in academia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the postdoc ended in 2012, I moved to Portland with my wife and first daughter, who was two at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, I’ve careened from one job to the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I worked in healthcare IT for a spell. I tried my hand at writing and selling mobile apps. I taught driver ed. I co-founded a startup that offered a system for driver ed schools to track their students’ coursework performance. I worked as a Google G-Suite administrator for the local community college. I tutored. I made artisanal organic soap and sold it on Amazon and Etsy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through all this meandering, I’ve never really found a vocation that felt like, as the Buddhists put it, right livelihood. Except for writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most recently, I’ve been taking care of my second daughter, who just turned two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I’m not hanging out with her, I’ve been learning how to write middle-grade novels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My first attempt was called Prezzemolina, The Little Parsley Girl<\/a><\/em>. It’s based loosely on an Italian folk tale. I got some great development editing help on it from Mary Kole, a former literary agent who wrote Kidlit<\/a> and who runs The Good Story Company<\/a>. I self-published the novel a couple years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Understandably, it’s flawed. At the outset of the story, the protagonist’s desire line isn’t clear. I take way too long getting her to the fun part — the fantastical world ruled by a sorceress and a crew of cunning fairies. Its themes are muddled. The genre, confused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The leaning curve for novel-writing is steep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My next project was a parody of Wimpy Kid called Journal of a Sneaky Twerp<\/a>. Inspired by Scott Dikkers’ series, How to Write Funny<\/a>, I wrote the book in a month and self-published it on Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surprisingly, Sneaky Twerp has found an audience. For a time, it was #1 in its category in the US & UK. Some of the reviews still make me cackle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now I’m working on my third novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this blog, I’ll be writing about my process. By that, I mean a number of things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n For one, the craft of storytelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing productivity, for another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ll also chronicle my journey from newbie novelist to, hopefully, published author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lastly, perhaps unlike similar blogs, I’ll share details of the day-to-day decisions I’ll be making as I turn idea(s) into final draft(s).<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s a tall mountain, getting good at novel writing, to be sure. But I’m not starting out at the trailhead, nor even base camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s more like I’m at advanced base camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, there’s a lot of mountain left to climb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Join me…<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello! Some of you may know me. Others, not so much. Allow me to briefly introduce myself. My name is Sean Miller. I’m American. 53 years old. He\/him. The “Dr.” above is from a PhD I earned a decade ago at the University of London. My research explored the role imagination plays in the production … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-process","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470,"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/seanmiller.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-26-at-4.04.18-AM-1024x294.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n