I’m not the only author who has shifted from academic writing to novels, and I’m probably not the only one who has found the transition perplexing. I’d been publishing books and articles in philosophy for a long time before turning my hand to fiction. It took a while, but after several years tapping away at a story, I finally had a manuscript long enough to count as a novel. Hopefully, I started looking for a publisher.
The gulf that yawns between academic and fiction writing was unexpected. I...