How a college assignment became a 10-year journey to publication.

Every story begins somewhere — sometimes in a moment of inspiration, sometimes in a quiet spark you don’t recognize as important until much later. For The Burden of Honor, that spark came from an elective college course on high fantasy analysis. One of our assignments required creating a short story set in an original world. At the time, I had no idea that simple assignment would eventually grow into the foundation of an entire series.

Today, TBH bears almost no resemblance to that early work… but the encouragement from my professors did. They were the ones who told me, “There’s something here — you should build on it.” And that seed of confidence stayed with me long after graduation.

For years, though, writing the book was a struggle. I created notes, character bios, timelines, maps — you name it — and yet I always found it easier to talk about the story than to actually write it. I knew the plot. I knew the twists. I could explain entire arcs out loud, but getting those ideas onto the page felt like trying to push a boulder uphill.

Then everything changed. A friend introduced me to Google Docs’ text-to-speech tool.

Suddenly, I wasn’t writing the story — I was telling it.

And it worked beautifully.

I went from agonizing over a 2,500-word chapter to dictating 10,000-word sessions, then sitting down later to shape, trim, and edit those raw chunks into something readable. That shift in process unlocked the momentum I’d been missing for nearly a decade.

And then it happened:
I finished my first draft.

61,700 words.
234 pages.
Ten years of ideas finally written down.

I shared that draft with a handful of early beta readers. The feedback was a mix of enthusiastic support and thoughtful critique — especially regarding perspective shifts and pacing. I realized that some scenes were too quick or underdeveloped, and others needed more breathing room. So, with the same energy that got me through draft one, I pushed forward into draft two.

This time, it didn’t take ten years. It took two months.

That second draft expanded into something far more complete and immersive:
155,200 words.
543 pages.

If you’ve looked around the site, you’ll know I’m now deep in revisions, edits, and cuts as I shape this story into its final form — the manuscript I’ll be sending out when I begin the search for a literary agent.

It’s surreal to think how far this book has come from that tiny classroom assignment. And now, as the next phase of the journey begins, I hope you’ll join me for each step — however long it takes.

Thank you for being here.
— Michael