Writing Process: Processing My Process
- Dan
- 16 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Today on the blog, debut author Jake Korell provide insight into his writing process and drops the deets on his debut speculative fiction novel, The Second World.
Processing My Process
You can listen to other writers talk about their process, but only take what you like and ignore the rest. Figure out your own. Do what works for you. It doesn’t matter what Stephen King or Margaret Atwood or anyone else does. It matters what you do.
That being said, here’s what I do.
My favorite part of the writing process, far and away, is worldbuilding. I can’t get enough of it. When I land on a world that feels worth building, I brainstorm as many ideas as possible—most of which will never make it into the story. But you really never know when something might fit. And the more ideas that exist in this world, the clearer the picture becomes.
I start by listing everything related to the world. For my debut novel The Second World, which takes place on Mars, I made two lists: one for anything remotely connected to Mars, our solar system, or outer space, and another for everything related to American history, which the story satirizes. From there, I mixed and matched until a combination clicked and I had a fresh gag, set piece, or character. It’s surprisingly efficient—and unsurprisingly quite a good time.
I also keep an ongoing list of things from our world that might have an equivalent in this new one—money systems, architecture, religion, government, culture. I look for ways to twist, combine, or stretch them until they feel both familiar and foreign.
This is especially true for science fiction. You’re not just writing a story—you’re building the physics, economy, and logic of a world that doesn’t exist yet. For me, sci-fi is all about using distance—through space, time, or spacetime—to reflect what’s happening in the real world. By setting my satire in a near-future Mars colony, I kept things separate but still close to home. It allowed me to heighten real-world systems until they became hilariously absurd. Which, really, didn’t turn out to require much exaggeration.
I’ve always been more plot-focused than character-focused. Everyone has their own opinion about that, and I think it just depends on personal preference. I can’t imagine what my characters would be doing if I don’t know what’s going to happen in the story. I usually have a solid idea of how it starts and ends—the challenge is filling everything in between.
For The Second World, I already had a built-in plot scaffolding: U.S. history. I researched like crazy, pulling out moments and figures that could translate into a Martian setting. Early drafts followed history too closely. It was very on the nose—which was the point of the humor—but even if the jokes were landing, the story wasn’t engaging. Readers would get bored of the bit long before they reached the end.
That’s when I looked to my characters to give the story heart and make it relatable. I had the world, I had the plot—it was time to fill it with lovable, memorable people. But who lives in a Mars colony? Were they born there or did they immigrate? Why would they make that move? What does childhood
look like on another planet?
Sci-fi makes the impossible possible, but good sci-fi makes the outlandish relatable because its characters feel real, just ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Once I figured out my characters, the world, plot, theme, and humor became connected—to each other and to readers.
Each story has a lot of pieces—but I love jigsaw puzzles. I approach writing in the same way. The picture on the box is what I want the story to become. The frame is the story structure, and the colors on each individual piece are the character and worldbuilding elements. From there, I just need to figure out which pieces fit where.
I’ll complete one small section here, another there, and eventually start connecting them. The story puzzle starts to take shape—until I realize I’m missing essential pieces and somehow also have extras that don’t fit anywhere. The great thing about story puzzles, unlike jigsaws, is that you can reshape a piece if you need to. You can sand an edge or repaint the surface.
That’s why I keep an actual jigsaw puzzle on a table in my office. It’s a comforting reminder. Plus, it helps to clear your mind when you’re stuck. When you stop thinking so hard, the thoughts come rushing in.
So, walks and puzzles. And also, a routine.
Routine trains my body and brain to know exactly what I’m supposed to be doing at any given time, and flipping the switch becomes automatic. I wake up at 7 a.m., take my dog out, and catch up on the news—mostly headlines and late-night clips. By 9 a.m., it’s time to write.
It’s less intimidating when I know it’ll just be an hour and a half until my dog’s ready for his walk. At 11, I’m back at my desk. Lunch from 1 to 2. Another writing session until 4:30, when it’s time for walk number two. (I don’t think he needs two half-hour walks—they’re more for me.) At 5, it’s time to clock out.
The number of ideas that pop into my head when I’m walking, puzzling, or trying to fall asleep is unbelievable. Always, always keep your phone or a notepad by your bed. That idea that floats in right as you’re drifting off is worth waking up for and groggily jotting down. In the morning, it could be total nonsense—but it might be genius.
And that’s how I do it. We’ll see if it actually produced a decent book when The Second World comes out in February. Until then, I’ll keep trusting my process—a process that works for me, not you.
Do what works for you.
About the Book
LOS ANGELES, California – It's only a short 225-million kilometer, nine-month trip to the Martian biosphere in author’s satirical sci-fi “The Second World” (Feb 24, 2026). Debut author Jake Korell takes readers to a newly sovereign Mars—where bureaucracy, ego, and generational divides run as deep as the Martian ice. When Flip Buchanan, the reluctant son of the most powerful man on the Red Planet, stumbles through two tumultuous decades of alien discoveries, killer clones, and interplanetary conflict, he discovers that building a new world isn't so different from ruining the old one.
After a decade of working in Hollywood on shows like Arrested Development and a project with Danny DeVito and Jeff Goldblum, Korell dusted off an old TV pilot and adapted it into his first novel. The result is a darkly funny, irreverent satire about American history, political and media spectacle, and the human urge to make a finite life matter in an infinite universe. The Second World blends the wit and worldbuilding of Andy Weir and John Scalzi with the biting social commentary of Kurt Vonnegut and Matt Haig. It's a speculative coming-of-age story for our era of misinformation, memes, and misplaced idealism—equal parts hilarious and heartfelt.
More about the book: Mars has declared its independence from Earth. But founding a new nation takes more than a flag, an anthem, and naming a donkey the national animal. In this satirical space epic about power, legacy, and culture, The Second World needles the myth of progress and legacy with humor, heart, and a little bit of sci-fi madness. As Mars fights to define itself, Flip Buchanan learns that the hardest part of independence—personal or planetary—is figuring out what to do with it.
Bio: JAKE KORELL is the author of The Second World, a satirical speculative space epic. He’s worked in entertainment for over a decade but hasn’t yet managed to use his “transferable skills” to pivot to another industry that isn’t crumbling. His humor is shaped by a serious, deeply held conviction that life shouldn’t be taken too seriously—or held with such deep conviction. He lives in Los Angeles with his partner, McCauley, and their dog, Dewey, and never misses a Martini Monday.