S’up ninjas!
If you’re not subscribed to my newsletter, you may have been wondering why this blog hasn’t been updated since June. I informed my subscribers I would be taking a short hiatus to work on my writing projects.
The hiatus is over and you missed on some cool artwork of Cindy, Jadie, and a secret unannounced character planned for a later book. If you don’t want to miss out on this exclusive content, please subscribe to The Silver Ninja newsletter.
Newsletter
The reality of writing a book
I said this to my wife at the coffee shop the other day when I was having an annoying week at work.
“It’s ironic that I say I want to quit my job and write full-time but when I have the opportunity to write I don’t write anything down.”
She suggested I record my thoughts on video and it’s something I’ll consider if there’s enough interest. In the meantime, you’ll have to settle for words.
I have been struggling with putting down words for my first horror short story in my Sanctifiction horror series. Even after I did all the work on building the world, fleshing out the characters, having a robust outline, I still can’t get past seemingly minor roadblocks.
My wife says it’s because I have too much noise and too many distractions from work. I agree, but I also think there’s another factor at play.
I lack the confidence to get it right.
You’d think after dozens of unpublished novels, novellas, and 4 published books I’d be more confident. I’m not. Once you get a taste of that first bad review, or an awful beta read, it sticks with you. The experience makes you question whether or not you fully understand how to write, not even a good, but a coherent story.
I can confidently write a new blog, scribble up a newsletter, draft an email, make a banging resume, but books are a problem. You place an expectation unto yourself that you can do better. So when you fail to live up to that expectation . . . it’s demoralizing.
Which doesn’t make sense because my writing has significantly improved since those early halcyon days when I wrote trash I mistook for gold.
After all . . .
A great writer is not someone who writes a perfect first draft. A great writer is someone who knows their first draft needs work and understands how to fix it.
At this point, I should have ten books and a strong advertising campaign directing readers to the first book. I have neither because I have yet to succeed in building my backlist. Therefore, I don’t advertise because I don’t have more than two books. (The first two don’t count because I also decided to reboot my series.)
In order to create a career out of writing you need to write a library. A series of books that will create passive income while you sleep. I’m still, after all these years, struggling to build that library.
To write is to delicately stoke a flame.
If you’ve seen the movie Cast Away, Tom Hanks gets stranded on an island and needs to make a fire to survive the night. He struggles to get a spark going as it repeatedly gets extinguished by either going too fast or going too slow. Eventually, the flame appears and as the fire grows, he is able to feed it more tinder until it towers above his head. “I have made fire!”
Writing is the same concept. Every time you make a decision to write, it’s difficult to get started. Whether it’s staring at a blank page or trying to focus while things are distracting you, starting to write is hard. Keeping momentum is even harder. But once that fire gets going, watch out, because 4am is right around the corner.
I stupidly had written a blogpost that said “writer’s block isn’t real” I have since taken it down because it is real. Writer’s block isn’t caused by the writer’s inability to generate ideas. It’s caused by a writer’s lack of self-confidence. The fear of making the wrong creative choice and having to rewrite over and over until they get it right.
So where are we with current projects?
Like I’ve mentioned earlier, you missed out on some really cool artwork by not being subscribed to the newsletter. It will get posted to this blog . . . eventually, but not until I’m ready to drum up excitement for an upcoming release:
- Sanctifiction book 1 has encountered some roadblocks. I need to go back and change some locations because they were preventing me from moving forward. I shouldn’t be making edits to the rough draft but I can’t seem to move forward without doing so.
- The Silver Ninja book 3? In pre-production. What’s it going to be about? I haven’t announced yet. Let’s just say I have plans to include more action to make up for the lack of superheroics in Narco Hotel.
- Unannounced project: In semi-production. I got through 70% of the rough draft and put it on pause to focus on the Silver Ninja reboot. I took a look at the draft again and feel I can do it justice with where my writing ability is now versus back then. I’m undecided when to announce the project because of where the story takes place in the timeline. Basically, everything written after it would be prequels and I’m not sure if I want to do that.
- The Vampire Epic: Pre-production. A massive amount of world building and documentation has been completed for this project. I think this story will be one of those projects I need to chip away at over time rather than write it all at once. Luckily, some of the world building I’ve done in one series directly benefits this project.
Glossary:
Production – Actively writing scenes and chapters. Tracked via Book Progress.
Pre-Production – Writing or have written ideas, outlines, reference guides for the project.
Post-Production – Editing, cleanup, revisions, preparing for release day.
Okay, that’s all for now. Sign up for the Newsletter.
Do it.
Newsletter
Also I may have a displate shop opening up soon. K-bye!
