Rashad Freeman's Blog

ONE BRICK AT A TIME

So, I'm sure he was not the first one to say this...I mean the idea is as old as dirt and has presented itself in various flavored idioms, but when I heard him say it, it really rang true.

I'm talking about Will Smith and an interview he gave with Charlie Rose where he told him a story about building a wall.  In short his father had twelve year old Will Smith and his nine year old brother build a wall, which to children and most adults seems like an impossible task.

At first all they could focus on was the final product, the massive wall that seemed like something they could never finish.  But move the story along two years and sure enough they had a wall.

The message their father instilled in them was nothing is impossible, but more importantly the idea that you focus on each task and not the final product.  "You don't build a wall," he said.  "You lay one perfect brick and you do that over and over and you will have a wall."

It's easy to apply this principle in everyday life and especially in writing.  Too many times as a writer we focus on the mountain ahead of us, the finished product.  I've been guilty of staring that blank page in the face and wondering how I pull 80,000 words from it.  But when you focus only on the sentence or even the word you're writing it changes your perspective.

One step at a time, brick by brick, word by word, it's all the same.  The important thing is you keep moving forward and eventually you'll be wherever it is you're going.

As I sit here and work on my many WIPs I remind myself that and keep putting one word after the other on my path to success.  Whatever your industry, whatever you goal, do the same thing and soon enough you'll be where you want to be.

I'm a full-time writer...now what?

That's right folks.  I've taken the plunge and become a full-time writer.  It's been a few weeks now and what I can tell you is scheduling is everything.

I'll attribute a bit of my slacking to the kids going back to school a week or so ago and all the madness that went with that.  I fell from my 3,000 words a day to like 3....
But now things have gotten back to normal and I've carved out a schedule that I plan to stick to.  I've got a basket of books to get out and no time to waste.  (my next meal depends on it)

On a bright note, as if Bookbub could read the stars, they finally approved the first book in my apocalyptic series "Countdown"
 for a run on Oct. 5th.  I have high hopes for that being that it's easily my best seller and the fifth and final novel will be out by then.

I'm really hoping this will break the series out and I can finally get that yacht and get to sailing like Hugh Howey lol.
I have to admit it's great to be able to write and not be worried about anything else.  The down side is you can quickly fill up writing time with things to do around the house.  My advice to anyone looking at going full-time is to plan your day just like you're still working.  If your schedule is 8-5 then write from 8-5 and don't end up changing light bulbs or checking off that to do list around the house.
More updates to come and I hope to blog more regularly now as I really can't make anymore excuses.  Until then, see you around.

All I can guarantee you is regular irregularity

It's been a while since I've spewed my half-baked dribble on here.  But I'm back...again...for the um....well I'm just back.  I've been working on getting a vlog going because I think the world is really yearning to see my lovely face.  Give me a few weeks and I'll have that running.  Besides, I think I can be more consistent getting a video up.  (Doubtful)



Happy new year by the way.  It's been that long since I've posted.  Let's see what else is new.  I'm sure I've published a few books here and there, I've started a basketball team and consumed a least 45 gallons of (insert random energy drink here).  Aside from that, I’ve kept it nice and boring.



Spring is here which for us Floridians means summer is here.  On a side not HBO’s fellowship program was a bust, this is why I’ll just keep up with the movie scripts and leave that TV writing to someone else.



If you haven’t checked it out I’d suggest you all go take a look at the serial #FML on amazon.  It’s a collaboration with two other authors and I think the episodes are coming along quite nicely. 



Anyway just wanted to quickly catch up.  Hopefully I can post something meaningful within the week.  I actually have some serious thoughts hiding behind the fog in my head, but I must get back to my word count for now.  Shoot me an email or send me an angry tweet.  Until then my friends fair well.

So yeah....

I had these lofty ambitions to do all this writing and then Murky Water happened.  That book was probably one of the most difficult books I've ever written and I can't tell you why.  The good news is I finished it and to those of you that haven't read it, you probably want to go ahead and do that.  :-) I removed all of the counters for my books because I don't have the time to update that stuff and meet my writing goals.  So as the saying goes, something had to give.  I'm knee deep in The Doomsday Playbook part 4 at the moment and will probably be releasing between 1 and 2 books a month until the end of the year.  So all of my series readers be prepared for some horrifying conclusions. On that note, back to writing.

Updates, updates and updates

So I've just updated all the word counts for the books I'm working on.  And will probably update again before the day is over.  I'm way behind so I better get in gear.  Enough blogging time to write.

Reaching for whatever comes after space

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." ~ Mark Twain So, I've decided it would be a worthwhile endeavor to attempt 450,000 words in 90 days.  That's correct an average of 5,000 words a day.  I consider myself a professional underachiever so I suppose this will put a little pep in my step. To the left I've listed all of the titles that I'm working on and their current word count.  I also put a bar up that tracks my overall goal of 450k.  Hopefully I'll be able to update this daily.  So if you have a few encouraging or discouraging words to say now and then post away.  I hope by posting this all to the blog it'll keep my honest and help me burn through half a million.  We shall see. Fingers crossed.  Adios for now...I've got writing to do!!!!! 

How dare you charge for that!!

How Self-Publishing Ruined the World
Yes, I know it’s a drastic headline, but it just might be true. Let me start by saying, I am self-published.  Although I’ve never chased agents and submitted manuscripts, I did choose this as my avenue to spread my ridiculous thoughts to the world.  So I have a vested interest in the success of this new age of publishing. For the large part, self-publishing is one of the greatest things ever offered to writers.  Retention of your work, full control of what you write and how it’s delivered, and the ability to publish when you want, are all great things that the vast majority of writers (whether traditionally published or not) were never offered.  Add to that a more than fair royalty rate and what could go wrong?  The answer is much more than you think. I see two very large issues arising in self-publishing, but let me make you fully aware that I offer no solutions.  Self-publishing removed the barriers of entry and that is both a gift and a curse.  Any attempt to add more control around that will only take us back to where we were, and here lies the “catch 22.” My first issue with self-publishing stems from this lack of control.  While many people saw this as a liberation of sorts, many others saw it as a way to make a quick buck.  Now, you would think that eventually all the shifty, scheming trash peddlers would fade to oblivion, but unfortunately we don’t currently live in that future.  And in the present, anything is slopped up for sell and only makes the water muddy for the rest of us. Writing is a craft, an art form, and should be regarded as such.  The ability to take words and bring them to life, to breath a new reality onto a page is the essence of beauty.  Writers, real writers honor this craft and take pride in what they do.  The others, well let’s just say they don’t.  I’m in no position to judge anyone else’s writing, but I think we can all agree that some are making an effort to actually tell a story while others are not.  Enough said. My second issue is with the perceived value that self-publishing is creating.  I will elaborate.  Many authors, myself included at times, will make a book free in order to gain readership and hopefully gain sales of other titles, normally in a series.  This is a great idea for unknown authors with little to no platform to gain visibility.  Certainly these free or even discounted (.99 cents) books will not change the buying public’s perception.  Think again. This may cost me readers, but I can’t bite my tongue any more.  First off, let it be known that the cheapest any author on amazon can make their book is .99 cents.  In order to get it free for an extended period of time they must jump through hoops and pray that Amazon price matches.  In my opinion paying under $4.99 for any length of work, even a short story, is a deal.  It blows my mind that readers complain about paying .99 cents for a short story or $2.99 for a novella.  Are you serious?  How do you think these stories get made?  How much time do you think goes into creating a novel, a novella or even a 5,000 word short story?  Why have we created this perception that people’s hard work shouldn’t be rewarded?  That books of all things should just be given away and authors are greedy for wanting some type of compensation for their work? The average author will NEVER make a living doing this.  So, they simply write because they love it and for the occasional fifty dollar check from Amazon.  What really set me off was the other day when I was reading through book reviews.  An author, who I won’t say his name, had a novella out to tide his fans over until the fifth novel was released.  It was, by Amazon’s count 83 pages.  (Which knowing Amazon was probably more like 125)  He charged $2.99 for this novella and labeled it as such.  The reviews were insane. They called him greedy and a trickster and said how they’d never purchase another one of his books after being ripped off.  They told him how such a short story should be free and how he was trying to get over on his loyal fans.  This disgusted me.  $2.99 is too much now, really???  That’s less than a gallon of gas and I assure you it was harder to make.  When we stop valuing the mind we stop valuing ourselves.  More than anything self-publishing has created this idea that books are now nothing more than bargain basement commodities unless your last name is King, Rowing, Patterson, Grisham, etc. Now as I said with my first issue, quality of the book is important.  If the book is trash then it’s trash no matter the length.  That is certainly for the readers to decide.  But when I see a one star review that says this book was really good, but .99 cents is just too much, it makes me want to crack my laptop over my knee.  This may come as a surprise, but writing is no easy task.  The ability to carry an organized thought over more than a few paragraphs is not something to be scoffed at. For any readers that decide to peruse this blog, understand that a short story is no more than 7500 words, a novella 17,000- 40,000 and a novel 40,000 plus.  Even a short story may take an exceptionally fast writer a month to have ready for publication.  Yes, that’s a month of work.  What do you make in a month?  I doubt it is .35 cents or even worse…nothing.  In my opinion short stories are a deal at $.99-1.99 and novellas at $2.99-3.99.  Novels are anything over and if you think that a writer getting paid for his work is just outrageous, then feel free to start the boycott at my books first.

It's review time

The Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead  So, I read the entire series and then waited about two months before I wrote this review.  Why?  Well, my opinions tend to change as time passes.  With that said, I feel exactly the same way I did a few months ago. I thought about giving a non-spoiling summary of the book, but then that’s just more work than I’m really up for.  So instead I’ll tell you what I liked, didn’t like and what I absolutely hated. Overall the book was good.  I mean I don’t feel an overwhelming urge to tell anyone about it or encourage them to purchase it, but at the same time I’m not inventing a time machine to go get my wasted hours back either. Richelle writes well and has an engaging style.  She has a nice level of detail to her work for the most part, but sometimes it can be too much.  This might just be my personal preference, but I hate for lack of a better word, fluff.  Throughout the book I found myself skipping large segments to get to something I wanted to read. Another issue I found was her lack of detail during action scenes.  As a writer myself I really hate offering any opinion at all on someone else’s writing, but this part really bothered me.  She would set up really great situations and then not go into detail about what was happening.  This was even more annoying because the book was in first person where you’d expect the main character to have a really gripping account of what was happening, but no.  Thankfully my overactive imagination filled everything in J Her attempt on doing something different with the vampire theme was admirable, but here is where I have my biggest issue and it almost killed the whole thing.  Well, it’s really two parts. For starters when I think vampire I think supernatural, awesome, killing machines.  Now like I said I applaud Richelle’s attempt at doing something different, but making the vampires weak, fragile, mortal creatures was really a letdown.  To go a step further having half-human, half-vampire body guards was ridiculous.  Especially since the human side is what made them stronger.  Now she did include this other type of vampire known as Strigoi, that were more like traditional vampires, but even with that they could be killed in hand to hand combat by the half-human, half-vampire things.  All I could think was Eric Northman must be rolling over in his grave. The second part that I loathed was right in line with the Twilight series.  Look, when vampires get in the sun they burn.  They don’t sparkle, twinkle, get weak, dance, suffer headaches, shoot magic spells, turn translucent or any other fun, whimsical idea you might have.  Unless said vampire is a daywalker, which is few and far between, then that evil creature better shoot into flames upon meeting the sun’s awesome rays.  I mean this is one of the biggest parts of being a vampire.  They all drink blood and they all have given up ever basking in the sun again.  Change what you want, but these two laws of vampirology (yes I just made up a word) must stand firm. All in all the series was decent and I did finish it.  I think the overall idea was pretty good, but the details were where I got lost.  I need vampires that are well, vampires and these things were just too cute and cuddly for me.  So on a scale from 1 to 5 I give this offering a….   3 Stars

Escape has Escaped!!!!!

It's finally out! Yes, I took way too long, but alas the full length novel is finally available.  Escape has escaped and it had to work hard to do it.  Maybe now I'll have more time to blog and what not, but doubt it.  I'm busy writing book 4.  For the time being books 1 and 2 are both free and you can find escape here - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AQNX30U Well, I wish I could talk longer, but I have books to write.

Prepped: The Doomsday Playbook Part I

So I've taken this little child of mine and set her free.  Get your copy today before the much awaited novel comes out in March.  http://www.amazon.com/Prepped-Doomsday-Playbook-Part-1-ebook/dp/B00AQNX30U/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1392924304&sr=1-1&keywords=prepped

Okay so I know I said I'd be posting at least once a week, but I obviously suck.  I have been writing my tail off though.  Escape, The Doomsday Playbook Part 3 is finally wrapping up and will be available for purchase in March.  Stay tuned as I plan to drop a few sneak peeks.  For all of you Creature Kid fans (ok the two of you out there)  Invasion is slated for a summer release and the boys will be back together.  (Save for the ones we lost)

Aside from that I have some things in the works that I hope will be awesome.  I finally started outlining my vampire trilogy.  Keeping the name under wraps as I don't want anyone to steal it.  (Cause it's super awesome)  It'll be released as one novella and two novels.  Well, unless I make more and it morphs into five or six books.  Either way the novella and the first novel should be out before the summer and the novella shall be FREE!!!!  Cause people just love free stuff right??

Anyhow, back to writing I go.  I hope to blog a bit more in the next few days, but if I don't, please don't hold it against me.  What am I if not a man?