Thanks guys! Being a full-time writer is taking some adjustments but so far all is good. I've been averaging 5000 words/day (except for today, too many errands). Still need to find the right place to write, I've been trying several libraries. I'm happy, though. Also just hit 40k words on book 2.
In reply to barefootcyborg5000 :
If you're doing children's books and fantasy you might want to consider separate pen names just a thought. I wish you all the best! If you're writing fantasy then it'll benefit you to find groups on Facebook/reddit/other social media sites where you can post about it. Some groups are just authors posting over and over again but some groups have interactions with fans and a lot of good traffic. Finishing a book is incredibly rewarding. Let me know if I can help!
In reply to infinitenexus :
I've been putting together a plan/business model over the last couple weeks. Separate pen names is a consideration, and social media presence (where I have almost zero activity)
Current plan is to get a good dozen or so stories written and illustrated (Wife does digital art and is going to be my partner in marketing as well) and drop them all at once. Hopefully by the end of the year. These will follow the adventures of a character I've been telling my kids about for several years now. I want to get two or three dozen titles out in that segment and then expand into young readers, 6-10, with more in-depth stories following the same character. In a year I plan to have one a month or so and use every tool I have to push exposure. At that point we'll look at options in print and publishing.
For my fantasy stuff, I have a lot of notes. Right now, there is a world that will easily become four long novels, each covering a different timeline. Origins, legends, villain, hero. I have a lot for the legends and the villain already.
I'll likely PM you moving forward, or at least ask questions here. Right now, I would love for some extra income, but this is first and foremost a passion project. In a perfect world, proceeds from the kid stories pay to publish the fantasy stuff. I'd love to see them in print. And maybe it takes 20 years, but that's 20 years from when I start. Better start now.
Having your wife illustrate will be a huge bonus. That's one of the most difficult things with childrens books, is getting a good illustrator. I wish you all the best!
I've been doing a good job at hitting my goal of writing 5k words per day every weekday since I've gone full-time. I try to write some on the weekends as well, but weekends are for family. I'm at the end of book 2 in my current series, only a few chapters to go, so now I get to write the exciting stuff like final fights, fight with the villain for this book, etc. I might be able to finish the book tonight, but it'll probably be tomorrow, more realistically speaking. I'm trying to finish it asap because my wife is pregnant and about to pop and I have to make sure I put the book out before she gives birth; once that happens I won't really be able to write for a solid two weeks.
Next month is november, which means NaNoWriMo! If you've ever wanted to write a book, nano is a good way to start. I'll be writing book 3 in my current series during November, and I'm going to take some advice from a very successful friend of mine and work on a few projects at once. I'll give it a try for a month and see how it goes. I think it'll work well for me since my attention bounces around at times. I have some older stories I need to fix up.
My current book is still doing very well. Releasing book 2 will help the sales snowball a bit. If I can get book 3 out in a reasonable amount of time, I wouldn't be surprised if I made 10 grand in a month.
Also, since I have all this money saved up now, I did the smart thing and opened a savings account with Discover. With them I'm getting 4.3% interest, which is much better than the 0.1% I was getting with USAA.
Also unrelated but kinda related since I'm talking about my future, I got my papers from my lawyer and submitted them to the VA in my efforts to get my disability percentage up to 100%. The VA emailed me and said they'd contact me to setup a doctor's appointment to check me out, and then it should just be 3-4 months to get my final decision. So fingers crossed by springtime I'll be in a great place.
So, book 2 came out. I had a lot of preorders and came just shy of making $1000 on release day! But whoops, I forgot to post the book on facebook and reddit and discord, where I usually do. So it made that money with basically no advertisements, which is good. My numbers aren't quite as good as they could be though. I did go back and advertise my stuff, so that should (hopefully) help the book continue to sell well for the next 6 weeks or so. This morning its rank was 1360, now I think it's about 1600. Should stay there for a while.
I think I took too long on book 2 to really experience the snowball effect. It came out about 7 weeks after book 1. Had I released it after a month, or even 5-6 weeks there would have been more of an overlap, which would have helped. That's something I'll try for with book 3. Already 19K words written on it.
Oh, and book 2 has earned the amazon best seller badge as well.
My wife gave birth a week ago (she's a surrogate so fortunately we don't have to take care of a newborn) so writing has been tough lately; I've only been able to write in the evenings and night. My productivity has taken a hit but I'm still writing 2-3K words/day. Finished a side project of mine, now I'm focusing on my main project again. At 32K words on that.
My wife's Prius finally had its first part break! Only took 215K miles. It was a great car, boring but economical and reliable. Unfortunately it was a fairly major part that broke, would have cost almost $4K to fix it and the car wasn't worth very much so we decided to upgrade. Now she's driving a 2009 Porsche Cayenne GTS! It feels great to be back in a p-car again. This one is in great shape and we both love it. Fortunately I have all this author money so I can afford the brakes and tires and gas!
Going from 45mpg to 17mpg is certainly something to get used to, but it's worth it for all the smiles.
Trying not to ramble too much. I've been doing very well this month. As long as I can keep up a solid release schedule I should be able to clear 6 figures next year.
Hit 55K words on my main project, also finished a 45K word project on the side. Past few days have been pretty good, averaging about $300/day.
I very rarely post outside of this thread any longer, and whenever I do I tend to regret it. There are just too many shiny happy people on this forum, so I don't really feel the need to stay. I try to fill my life with people of value, and GRM is the kind of place where people leap at the opportunity to be incredibly rude, and then justify it by claiming it's a hard truth or whatever. This forum has turned into a negative for me, so I'm just going to tip my hat and walk away. Thank you to the half dozen or so of you that were awesome to me. I'll be out there writing books and buying Porsches (just bought a 944).
In reply to infinitenexus :
Best of luck on your journey!
Thanks for taking us on the trip as you progressed up to this level.
In reply to infinitenexus :
Just 18 months ago you started this author journey. To hear you are on track for $100k in less than 2 years is AMAZING.
Please reconsider sticking around. It's nice to have you here.
Can I clarify something? You weren't being attacked. You started a topic with a fairly reasonable rant and you were simply thread jacked.
It happens on nearly every thread.. Sometimes a topic swims and sometimes it sinks. I actually learned quite a bit from the topic you started.
You have come a very long way from a busted mustang and a crappy rental house, in a very short time. Congrats on your achievements. I would honestly love to hear about the new P car(s).. but it's your call.
Sad to see you go. I've enjoyed this thread and you've been amazing to watch. You seem to set your mind on a goal and make it happen in short order. Also think we met briefly in Gainesville? Anyway, best of luck! And I certainly wouldn't be upset if you stopped back in once in a while.
Damn come a long way from being tossed out with a busted Mustang in Fl.
infinitenexus said:Hit 55K words on my main project, also finished a 45K word project on the side. Past few days have been pretty good, averaging about $300/day.
I very rarely post outside of this thread any longer, and whenever I do I tend to regret it. There are just too many shiny happy people on this forum, so I don't really feel the need to stay. I try to fill my life with people of value, and GRM is the kind of place where people leap at the opportunity to be incredibly rude, and then justify it by claiming it's a hard truth or whatever. This forum has turned into a negative for me, so I'm just going to tip my hat and walk away. Thank you to the half dozen or so of you that were awesome to me. I'll be out there writing books and buying Porsches (just bought a 944).
Please don't go!
I haven't posted much in your thread, but have read every word. Over Thanksgiving, my grandson was talking about how he is trying to write a book. Told him if he was good and stuck with it, he could do well. He wanted to know how.
Want to guess whose thread I sent him to read and see what is possible?
Yours.
So now you are not only writing, you may be influencing a 20 year old.
I'd be just as happy if you stayed, but regardless of if you do or not, good luck and thank you.
i too have noticed a shift in the vibe and I rarely venture outside a very limited number of threads.
If I want to immerse myself in an argument the is a complete and utter waste of time I'll strike up a political conversation at work. This is where I go to reassure myself that humanity is not 100% doomed and there are some decent people in the world. I have zero energy for the bullE36 M3.
Lately it seems like we could all be holed up in the last safe area left as the world collapses around us and we'd all be too wrapped up in pointless arguments, the pursuit of pedantic perfection, and some glorious "gotcha" moment to notice that our walls have been breached and the zombies are pouring in.
John Welsh said:In reply to infinitenexus :
Just 18 months ago you started this author journey. To hear you are on track for $100k in less than 2 years is AMAZING.
Please reconsider sticking around. It's nice to have you here.
Thank you for the compliment. If many of the other users were more like you, I would probably stay. But as I said, I very rarely post outside of this thread (and the workout one) any longer, and when I do I usually regret it. People are just flat-out rude on here, and if I post something they don't like I get downvoted into oblivion, mocked, and people start with the "oh you're just mad someone disagreed with you" BS. No, I'm mad because I thought this was a place of maturity, but turns out it's not. It's decayed into a forum of old guys that are shiny happy people most of the time and as I said earlier, justify their crappy behavior by calling it tough love, or hard truths, or whatever nonsense. Even when they're not openly hostile, the general attitude around here is pretty crappy. Very much a cool kid's club that I'm not a member of, so to speak.
I've been reading GRM magazine since 1998, have wanted to participate in the 2000 challenge since then, and have posted on here for years through highs and lows in my life (mostly lows, during which time people massively twisted my story to fit their own narrative and then mocked me. I reached out to this community at my lowest hoping for some help, or at least some love and support, and instead I got page after page of people being complete shiny happy people and of course, justifying it by saying I needed tough love), but I just feel no need to continue. It's sad to enjoy something for 25 years and then see it go downhill, when I thought I had found a good community. This doesn't feel like a welcoming place to me. This community brings me zero joy, and I dread posting anything because I know the jerks will come out of the woodwork. I have very, very little free time in my life, so I choose to spend it in places that offer positivity and happiness. Sadly, GRM is no longer one of those places, and honestly hasn't been for a long time but I've been lying to myself.
To be fair, most social media is that way. I've noticed people getting worse on all platforms lately, which is why I've been slowly removing all my social media interactions with the exception of stuff I use to advertise my books.
But if I post basically any opinion on here, I get mocked. If I have any hardships, I get mocked, downvoted, and shiny happy people shout that I need to learn a hard lesson, instead of just offering some kind advice. I'm sure someone will quote this and tell me to stop whining (as I was recently described as whining in another thread because I *gasp* posited an opinion), and everyone will upvote that shiny happy person's comment while mocking any retort of mine (and then deny they're mocking me of course). People can complain about me all they want, but I just feel no desire to ever visit here again. Sadly, many people will read these words and sneer, instead of asking themselves if they should treat strangers on the internet differently. Nothing here will change, and I will quickly be forgotten.
Thank you to those who showed me kindness. I wish you all the best. I'm logging out now and don't plan on returning.
I'll let my last post be this: I've made $43,000 this year so far selling books, and that includes my cyberpunk trilogy that was a huge flop (but I'm glad I got to complete it finally) and me taking a month off because my day job got too busy. I should end the year over $50K. Next year I fully anticipate making $80K, with a bit of effort I might even break into 6 figures. Oh, and today I'm paying for a 944 with a rebuilt transaxle, LSD, and factory recaros. Finally got my future track car. Now, we're saving for a house, which should come soon.
I'm out.
Sorry to hear you're out, but I'm impressed with how far you've come in such a short amount of time. I remember the thread with the Mustang with the broken engine, and you handled a crappy situation with a lot of maturity. I also haven't posted in this thread much (if at all), but that doesn't mean I'm not chearleading from the side. I think I get the concept of the downvote system, but I went and viewed all your posts in the other thread and didn't see anything that I thought was so offensive that it needed to be hidden. Same with Frenchy's posts, having to manually go in and show each post is annoying. If a thread has gone down an unproductive rabbit hole, I'm a big boy and can make the choice to stop reading.
I wish you all the best, and would love to see you check in, but I understand your frustration.
I'm going to commandeer this thread for a bit. OP isn't here to complain anyway, so...
For my own writing. I don't really want to turn my stories into a career, and not really interested in fast-tracking my way to sales/exposure. But, I am writing, I am passionate about it, and I do want to eventually share my stories. In that vein, I thought I'd see about using this thread to share my process and struggles, as well as my vague goals and plans. Don't expect any good advice, or even coherent thoughts. Also, feel free to weigh in with anything from advise to criticism, experiences, methods... anyway.
So, as I've said here, I've been using my D&D groups to help me build this world. It is planned as a fantasy setting and will be borrowing and riffing from every source I can find. So far, I have a pretty good framework for the nations/politics, and general problem the hero(s) will be solving. I have a general checklist of the subjects/backstory/settings I need to cover, and I have a handful of characters Ive started really fleshing out.
Here's my biggest struggle so far. Characters. Specifically, writing dialog from different characters. It's easy to describe how someone looks or how they act, but difficult to speak for them. Difficult to speak from their perspective and experiences. Compounded when I'm trying to have a conversation between more than two people.
Anyway, that's it for now. If I figure out an easy way to solve this issue, I'll post it here. Otherwise, I'll post more problems as I encounter them.
Another struggle. I don't type well. I have a laptop with a decent size display and full size keyboard, but not a dedicated desk. Even when I was practicing a lot I struggled to top 35 wpm.
So I've been handwriting everything so far. It's slow. I suppose I'll have to rewrite most of it anyway, being wary in the rough draft phase anyway, but still. A mechanical difficulty.
The next is a method difficulty. I want to write in second/third person. Part of this is because that's what I enjoy reading, and part is because I want to give different characters a little more depth and help the reader to kind of walk in the characters shoes.
Im finding it difficult to write in third person from the perspective of a character who doesn't have a name. Yet. I have a name for them, but in the story one hasn't been given. It's sort of a wake up with amnesia trope, not knowing or remembering anything. Shortly, a name will be given (literally, given by another character) but for now I don't know how to write from that nameless perspective.
*edit. I may scrap the idea of second person perspective, but it appeals to me for a number of reasons. One of which is just the challenge of it, and blending it with third. It may not work, but I want to try.
In reply to barefootcyborg5000 :
Re: slow typing.
Try a voice to text program.
I got pretty burnt out trying to shell out short kid stories. Going to keep it up, but after a bit of a break.
Spending a lot of mental energy on my passion project, but less actual time writing. The process, as I'm attempting it, is an interesting exercise in learning what I don't know about my own world.
Characters. Getting into the headspace of different people that I don't want to be just accented versions of myself. Specifically women. I've heard that men write terrible women, and I'd like to avoid that but not sure how. I figured the easiest way would be to simply avoid anything resembling romance, but that may be easier said than done. 2/10, still need work
Story. This is the easiest part for me, and something I consider myself quite good at. Making them deeper or more detailed is just fun. Plots can be simple or complex and I'm having fun either way. 7/10, pretty good but still plenty of room for improvement.
That's it right? No. Details. I want nations and races and creatures and magic. The last being kind of the biggest hurdle right now. For this part of the story, my main character needs a connection to diety. Or to the world itself. Kind of both, hard to explain. My first inclination is that it be some special ability. It may be cliche, but sometimes the simple and familiar tropes are the best solution. So.
Magic. Oof. This is hard. I want to come up with something both familiar, but also original. I've been riffing on other systems, looking for (and finding!) other people having the same struggle and offering their solutions. But with my mechanical brain, I need it to be something that makes sense. For example, using some string of Latin-based words doesn't make sense for a power that predates Latin. The source needs to be more primal and instinctive. So language based command is out. Something purely mental seems appealing as an alternative, but that's basically just The Force, and is hard to make into something that isn't limited in the ways I need it to be.
I watched a good video about limiting magic systems as a way of forcing myself to be creative, but also keeping the hero more human. A main character that is too powerful is unrelatable, boring. If I don't want language or mental bases, my next thought is fueling my magic with some sort of consumable. The weakness there is what would keep an enterprising NPC from simply buying up the supply of consumables, ie. magic needs oil, but one greedy king bought up all the oil. It could be fun but doesn't fit in my story and would be very one-dimensional.
So I'm coming up with a sort of hybrid system of all three. I don't want to give too much detail here, but I think I'm figuring out a system that can be all the things: powerful but not OP, rare, scary, and contains elements of both groups of diety in my world.
OR!!! I could do away with magic. It would be simpler, but that wouldn't be very High-Fantasy of me.
Anyway, once I have the magic sorted (or mostly sorted) I'll have a lot more to go on for uses of shaping politics, people, powers, motivations... all the things. At least, I'm hoping it kind of frees up more things. At the least, it'll be one more thing taken care of in the bigger picture.
The struggle is real. I'm just plodding along, trying to stay motivated.
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