Hello all. Briefly, I'm about 50, and I write for a living, every single day (technical work). I've been published a few times, and actually wrote some technical work that ended up in a state statute. I wrote fiction in college for fun, but set it aside to concentrate on an engineering career. Now that I work for myself and have some time, I've been writing a novel. I am about a quarter of the way through, but it's getting too epic. I followed the adage of 'let the characters tell you their stories' and I'm at 324 pages and counting. I'm thinking of breaking it up, but it wouldn't make sense in separate parts. So, I've decided to simply keep writing and hopefully at some point a path will reveal itself. Wish me luck.
I've always written fiction for a hobby, and now have decided to start a novel as well. It's in it's early stages, but I'm really excited about it. I know what you mean, with it feeling like its spiraling out of control, but that must mean you wrote some pretty great characters to let them just take over the page like that! Good luck, and welcome to the forum! They seem really nice and helpful here. not all writing forums are the same.