I was flattered when my friend and colleague, Lisa Peers, invited me to join this blog hop on the writing process. I gave her debut novel, 'Love and Other B-Sides' a four-star review primarily because I thought a four-star review would be more trusted than a five-star one. That, and I am sort of a prickly pain in the ass.
Whenever I sit down to write I feel like I know more about how not to do it than how to approach it, but perhaps you can learn something from my mistakes.
What am I working on?
Too much, which may be part of my problem. First of all, I have three stories posted on Amazon, published through Kindle Direct Publishing. They are, in no particular order: Unclaimed, a fantasy/sci-fi short story featuring an eventual series character, Keegan; Keeper of the Dead, a fantasy/horror story about an aging warrior battling his own (and someone else's) demons; and A Better Way, a modern satirical thriller about a regular guy named Darryl Johnson whose life goes horribly awry. Unclaimed is the only one that has sold so far. It has only a few reviews, but they are five-stars and it is, in my humble opinion, the weakest of the three. Sorry, Keegan. Maybe next time.
Next up, I have another fantasy short story, Two Cows Too Many, to hit the cyber stores soon. After that, Lady of the Lake, featuring another series character, a modern mystery based in part on my past as an editor and reporter of a major weekly newspaper chain here in Metro Detroit. Charlie Morton, the POV character, is like I used to be, only smarter and funnier.
I am slogging my way through another fantasy short story, The Sigilist, and only last night discovered one major problem and how to fix it. Then I have another Keegan story, Three Sacrifices, that will need to be rewritten. Also, I have at least one novel I'd like to finish and post before the end of the year, either a Charlie Morton story (probably) or one of the three first draft fantasy novels I have tucked away on my flash drive.
I write on this blog sporadically as well as on two practice fiction blogs, one a fantasy series, the other strictly sci-fi, based on the space adventures of my bored cat. Feel free to check them out, but I warn you they are just first drafts, proofed only for spelling.
How does my writing differ from others in its genre?
The quick answer to this (I hope) is humor. I think spending more than a dozen years in the news field has given me a good ear for dialogue, too. There are other former newspaper writers who have turned to fiction, of course, but I deliberately didn't go the way they did, with novels or stories set in major cities. My protagonists are not very heroic; they often don't know what they're doing, or why. They are small-timers living in a small time world tackling problems that most of us face.
Why do I write what I do?
Entertainment, mostly. The stories come to me and I feel obligated to get them down. I am, however, taking a more serious look at what I do and why I am doing it (or why I want to, at any rate), because I feel it's important to have some kind of message hidden among the one-liners and snappy comebacks. A Better Way in particular has a few thought-provoking lines tucked away in Darryl's non-linear ramblings. He's like a Billy Joel song that way.
How does my writing process work?
I alluded to this in the beginning. The short answer is, I'm still working on that part.
I had a dream, once, a silly little dream, that I could write a short story a week and get them published. This was based on my optimum writing speed of about 1,700 words an hour for two hours every day. I've backed off from that because of age, infirmary and common sense. Writing is hard work; good writing, even more so. I still think it is important to write every day and I am using this blog post to jump start my efforts again.
My concept is simple: spend the first hour editing one work, the second hour writing a different one. The idea is to gradually get into the creative mind set while you're fixing your mistakes during your first hour. I've tried two different versions of this: The Rooster Plan (from 5-7 a.m.) and the Owl Plan (from 10 to midnight). Both have their challenges, lack of sleep chief among them, and neither have exactly taken flight. Not that a rooster can fly, but you get the idea.
Who's next?
I have never met @NatRusso, but I liked him enough to ask if I could include him at the end of this and he graciously agreed. You can find all sorts of information about him and his work here. (As you can see, his Writing Process blog was actually posted before mine. His book, Necromancer Awakening, is among the current top-sellers on Amazon. I've started it and have been impressed so far (I sense another four-star review coming). Also, he is a good writer to follow on twitter because he finds a good mixture of advice, marketing and general conversation.
Also, check out the work of an old friend who writes as PJ Lincoln. Like me, he's another former newspaper guy who has a growing collection of fiction published through Amazon and elsewhere.
Thanks for stopping in. Feel free to share, leave a comment, download a story and post a review!
