A Sci-fi Story by Stages

Mark Schaefer
2 min readDec 10, 2023

For the last sixteen years, I have been writing a science fiction novel. I’ve started at least half a dozen such efforts over the years, but this is the one I have kept coming back to, and the one I think I have the best chance of finishing.

Whenever I have engaged in any kind of project, I have found accountability to be the best motivator—whether it’s a diet partner, workout buddy, or something like National Novel Writing Month, where you commit to writing 50,000 words and a website tracks your progress.

Since #NaNoWriMo is over, I am looking for new externalities to hold me accountable. Taking a page from Andy Weir and John Scalzi, I have decided to post my novel in serialized form online. There is a copy at my personal site, and because I value this writing community, there is a copy here on Medium, too.

If you at all like science fiction—or like savaging newbies who attempt to write it, I invite you to follow my medium publication Delivering the Commonwealth. To give you a sense of what the book is about, here’s a brief synopsis:

For four hundred years, the League of Four Worlds has lived in isolation, seemingly abandoned by the Commonwealth of Humanity, from whom they have not heard in centuries. When a devastating attack from an unknown and terrifying enemy destroys one of their systems, the League mounts an expedition back to the last known reaches of Commonwealth space for aid. But does the Commonwealth still exist? And if so will they be willing or even able to help?

I have really enjoyed writing it and hope that you’ll enjoy reading it.

Delivering the Commonwealth can be found here on Medium at https://medium.com/delivering-the-commonwealth

--

--

Mark Schaefer

Writer, lawyer, amateur linguist, theologian, and Red Sox fan. Upstate NY transplant in DC. Author of “The Certainty of Uncertainty.”