February 2019 Newsletter
What ten years of writing might do for me.
Hello again, and welcome to me talking about stuff I’m doing!
I hope everyone is enjoying their 2019 so far. Times of love and adoration and togetherness have sparked some interesting ideas for my direction, and I hope that it has encouraged your own goals as a reader, a writer or whatever it is you may be working on!
In the January newsletter, I presented a lot of what my goals are going to look like for 2019. It’s difficult for any of us to find time for our… advanced hobbies… and future career building, but I have a plan to make the most out of my time and stay as productive as possible.
This month, I took some time to learn more about the craft of writing. As with any aspirations or creative production, the more you know, the more you can accomplish. Brandon Sanderson has kindly allowed his lecture series on creative writing to be recorded and I have taken advantage of this opportunity to sharpen my knowledge and skill set. They are posted on Youtube for any who are interested in learning more about the meat and potatoes of writing.
While watching this video series, I have learned a great deal and have decided to take a step in yet another direction. And no, I’m not going to stop writing.
For those of you who have followed these newsletters for a while, it probably isn’t surprising to read that I’m changing again. The path to creativity is not a straight and narrow, that is for sure. Brandon advises a level of dedication to writing if you are seeking to become a professional that I had not considered up to this point.
Ten years of writing under your belt before beginning to formulate any sort of expectations.
That concept, the work required to learn how to really write, and the background of most big authors that I know of, demand this level of dedication to consider writing a career move. Of course, this is not a guarantee or even a mandate of any kind. But even the simple suggestion of it offers much wisdom.
With that said, I will likely shift my projects around in order to self-publish some content while reserving others for a chance at traditional publishing. At first read, it doesn’t sound much different than the position we are already in.
I have nothing for anyone to read.
I understand. I’d like to fix that issue, and I will continue to work hard at it. But knowing that I would like to have the privilege of writing full time as a career means that I can’t ignore these steps that other professionals have taken in order to reach that goal.
My short stories are in the works that will be posted for free in several places. That will at least be something to get everyone started. Tales Around the Mana Pool, a short story collection, will likely become one of the first self-published works I finish. Doing this will give my epic fantasy series a chance at traditional publishing.
I also have a few other epics that I may release through self-publishing means to allow continued content to be released while I work on this traditional publishing front. Ideally, there will be content flowing through several sources to keep everyone interested. It is quite a process from the sound of it. I greatly appreciate the patience that you have shown thus far in my endeavors as I continue to work through the beginning stages of formulating this career.
These are interesting times!
Thank you for enduring the drudge of this with me. It is ongoing and is not over yet, but there will be light at the end of this! There will be a time in the future where you will come back and read this while holding a book with my name on it. Empty promises are a terrible thing to write into any book. Luckily, that is not what I’m doing. They are more like the kind of promises that get really annoying because they drag out the answer until you can barely wait for it anymore. You know, like that.
It will happen, I just can’t say when exactly. But thank you for sticking with me. You will be rewarded someday.
Thanks for reading!
