Chris Dietzel's Blog, page 9
November 26, 2013
Cover Reveal: A DIFFERENT ALCHEMY
The cover for my next novel is finished!
One man’s loss mirrors an entire society’s sorrow at their impending extinction.
A Different Alchemy will be released on January 14th. Like my first book, The Man Who Watched The World End, it takes place in the world of the Great De-evolution, a setting in which mankind is slowly fading away. It's a completely stand-alone story, though, meaning you don't have to have read my first book to understand what is happening in this one.
I hope you enjoy it.
Check out http://www.watchtheworldend.com for additional information and periodic updates.
And thanks to Truenotdreams Design for another great cover. http://truenotdreams.deviantart.com/g...
One man’s loss mirrors an entire society’s sorrow at their impending extinction.
A Different Alchemy will be released on January 14th. Like my first book, The Man Who Watched The World End, it takes place in the world of the Great De-evolution, a setting in which mankind is slowly fading away. It's a completely stand-alone story, though, meaning you don't have to have read my first book to understand what is happening in this one.
I hope you enjoy it.
Check out http://www.watchtheworldend.com for additional information and periodic updates.
And thanks to Truenotdreams Design for another great cover. http://truenotdreams.deviantart.com/g...
November 13, 2013
The Book Cover Challenge
Knowing the importance of having a good book cover, I made sure the cover for THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE WORLD END was designed by someone who could give it a professional look. As I begin providing a graphic designer with my thoughts for the cover of my second novel, I’m once again faced with the goal of beating one challenge: if my novel is included on a table full of traditionally published books, can readers pick out which one was self-published and which ones were traditionally published, based purely by their covers? Why is this important? Two reasons.
1. A book’s cover is the first impression you give potential readers, and a cover that looks like a quickly pieced-together photoshop will make people think you aren’t taking your finished product very seriously. It doesn’t matter if the quality of the writing doesn’t match the quality of the cover. Why would anyone invest time in a novel if they think the author didn’t spend much time on it themself? Or they might think that if the writer didn’t invest in a good cover, they also probably didn’t invest in an editor. Either way, a bad cover will likely make potential readers assume the writing isn’t much better. As Pam Stack, host and producer at Authors on the Air, says, “Books are your product. No matter how much you’ve immersed yourself in your craft, if you’ve got an ugly product, it’s not going to sell.” (http://authorsontheair.com/importance...)
2. Even though self-publishing is more popular than ever, and even though some truly incredible writers are publishing their books independently, there are still many readers who choose only to read traditionally published novels. If your cover can't trick these people into thinking your book might be found in a bookstore, they will never even consider your writing. A professionally designed cover is a fraction of the cost of an editor. If you can afford to have someone make sure your writing is flawless, you can afford to have a cover designed that grabs everyone’s interest. As Indie Authors News says, “A good cover will reinforce the customer’s initial attraction.” (http://www.indieauthornews.com/2012/1...) Heck, for readers who pick books based solely on their covers, a good cover can create that initial attraction all by itself.
In a couple weeks I’ll have the finished cover in hand for my second novel, A DIFFERENT ALCHEMY, and I hope when everyone sees it they will think it looks as good, if not better, than the book covers they see in stores. Stay tuned to find out for yourself.
1. A book’s cover is the first impression you give potential readers, and a cover that looks like a quickly pieced-together photoshop will make people think you aren’t taking your finished product very seriously. It doesn’t matter if the quality of the writing doesn’t match the quality of the cover. Why would anyone invest time in a novel if they think the author didn’t spend much time on it themself? Or they might think that if the writer didn’t invest in a good cover, they also probably didn’t invest in an editor. Either way, a bad cover will likely make potential readers assume the writing isn’t much better. As Pam Stack, host and producer at Authors on the Air, says, “Books are your product. No matter how much you’ve immersed yourself in your craft, if you’ve got an ugly product, it’s not going to sell.” (http://authorsontheair.com/importance...)
2. Even though self-publishing is more popular than ever, and even though some truly incredible writers are publishing their books independently, there are still many readers who choose only to read traditionally published novels. If your cover can't trick these people into thinking your book might be found in a bookstore, they will never even consider your writing. A professionally designed cover is a fraction of the cost of an editor. If you can afford to have someone make sure your writing is flawless, you can afford to have a cover designed that grabs everyone’s interest. As Indie Authors News says, “A good cover will reinforce the customer’s initial attraction.” (http://www.indieauthornews.com/2012/1...) Heck, for readers who pick books based solely on their covers, a good cover can create that initial attraction all by itself.
In a couple weeks I’ll have the finished cover in hand for my second novel, A DIFFERENT ALCHEMY, and I hope when everyone sees it they will think it looks as good, if not better, than the book covers they see in stores. Stay tuned to find out for yourself.
October 18, 2013
Decision to follow a dream - Update
I was very new to GoodReads when I started this blog, and I had just started letting people know about my debut novel, THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE WORLD END. Because I'm so much further along from where I started out, I thought I would re-post my first entry, along with some updates.
---
Everyone has a time in their life when they look back on all the decisions they have made, when they think about how their time was spent, when they analyze all the things they might have done differently over the years. This self-examination is the foundation for my debut novel, but it’s also what drives me to write in the first place.
We are raised to believe anything is possible, but somewhere along the way we lose the innocence behind that belief and begin to think that our childhood dreams are foolish. Writing novels was my dream. But for a while, after college, I didn’t even entertain the idea as a possibility, let alone consider it as something urgent I needed to be doing. I did what I thought I was supposed to do: I fell in line and worked long hours in a corporate job.
But a fear followed me. Would my life be spent doing something because I felt I had to do it or because it was my passion? Each time I was stuck in rush-hour traffic, a little voice would ask me how much I would regret it if I never tried to achieve my dream. It’s true that real life inspires fiction: my fears are the same thoughts that taunt the protagonist in THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE WORLD END, as he looks out of his home at a neighborhood of empty houses.
That was nine years ago. It’s been a long journey since then, but I’m happy in the knowledge that I’m doing what makes me feel fulfilled. And I’m proud of my first novel, the story of a man at the end of his life, plagued by the decisions he made while mankind slowly disappeared around him. It hasn’t been easy following my dream, but it’s been worth it.
---
In the months since I posted that, I feel even more strongly that I made the right decision to focus on achieving my dreams and to view them as not only realistic, but absolutely necessary. My book has made its way to audiences all over the world, to thousands of people who will hopefully be inspired or fascinated by it. Each and every day I'm grateful I decided to follow my dream and I thank all the people who validate it by reading my story. I'm approaching ten years of pursuing the life I want to live instead of the life I thought I had to live, and the good news is that I'm still at the very beginning of that quest. There are still many more goals to achieve and books to write. I look forward to each step of that journey.
---
Everyone has a time in their life when they look back on all the decisions they have made, when they think about how their time was spent, when they analyze all the things they might have done differently over the years. This self-examination is the foundation for my debut novel, but it’s also what drives me to write in the first place.
We are raised to believe anything is possible, but somewhere along the way we lose the innocence behind that belief and begin to think that our childhood dreams are foolish. Writing novels was my dream. But for a while, after college, I didn’t even entertain the idea as a possibility, let alone consider it as something urgent I needed to be doing. I did what I thought I was supposed to do: I fell in line and worked long hours in a corporate job.
But a fear followed me. Would my life be spent doing something because I felt I had to do it or because it was my passion? Each time I was stuck in rush-hour traffic, a little voice would ask me how much I would regret it if I never tried to achieve my dream. It’s true that real life inspires fiction: my fears are the same thoughts that taunt the protagonist in THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE WORLD END, as he looks out of his home at a neighborhood of empty houses.
That was nine years ago. It’s been a long journey since then, but I’m happy in the knowledge that I’m doing what makes me feel fulfilled. And I’m proud of my first novel, the story of a man at the end of his life, plagued by the decisions he made while mankind slowly disappeared around him. It hasn’t been easy following my dream, but it’s been worth it.
---
In the months since I posted that, I feel even more strongly that I made the right decision to focus on achieving my dreams and to view them as not only realistic, but absolutely necessary. My book has made its way to audiences all over the world, to thousands of people who will hopefully be inspired or fascinated by it. Each and every day I'm grateful I decided to follow my dream and I thank all the people who validate it by reading my story. I'm approaching ten years of pursuing the life I want to live instead of the life I thought I had to live, and the good news is that I'm still at the very beginning of that quest. There are still many more goals to achieve and books to write. I look forward to each step of that journey.
September 25, 2013
Focus On The Writing, Not The Genre
I recently had the chance to appear on the debut episode of a new show on the Authors on the Air radio network, a show called The Science Fiction Spotlight. During the interview, the host, Mack Meijers, asked about my approach to writing. In my response, I mentioned how I didn’t consider my novel, THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE WORLD END, to be science fiction or dystopian fiction or any other genre until I finished the final draft of the story, sat back, and thought about how it would be listed in a bookstore. I went on to mention The Road and 1984, two books that have had an enormous impact on me, and two books that serve as a valuable lesson for writers today.
Both novels are considered masterpieces of science fiction/apocalyptic fiction/dystopian fiction/etc. And yet neither Cormac McCarthy nor George Orwell set out to write to those genres or to any others. Instead, they merely focused on telling the story that was important to them. It was only afterward that the publishing industry and readers categorized them. But I think that one of the reasons the stories have become classics and appeal to a wide range of audiences is that both McCarthy and Orwell focused on the story they wanted to tell instead of specifically trying to create a certain genre of book. And because of that, they created novels that appealed to wider audiences.
In a day where many books seem to be written with one specific audience in mind, The Road and 1984 serve as two examples of books that appealed to readers of literary fiction, classics, science fiction, commercial fiction, etc. The impact that had on their long-term success is obvious. That’s why, with THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE WORLD END, and with my other upcoming novels, I did what I think McCarthy and Orwell would have done: focused not on the genre, but on the story I wanted to tell and why it was important to me. Hopefully, that comes through when people read it.
To listen to the entire podcast of this episode of The Science Fiction Spotlight, go to:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/authorso...
The next episode of The Science Fiction Spotlight airs this Friday at noon. Don’t miss it!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/authorso...
Both novels are considered masterpieces of science fiction/apocalyptic fiction/dystopian fiction/etc. And yet neither Cormac McCarthy nor George Orwell set out to write to those genres or to any others. Instead, they merely focused on telling the story that was important to them. It was only afterward that the publishing industry and readers categorized them. But I think that one of the reasons the stories have become classics and appeal to a wide range of audiences is that both McCarthy and Orwell focused on the story they wanted to tell instead of specifically trying to create a certain genre of book. And because of that, they created novels that appealed to wider audiences.
In a day where many books seem to be written with one specific audience in mind, The Road and 1984 serve as two examples of books that appealed to readers of literary fiction, classics, science fiction, commercial fiction, etc. The impact that had on their long-term success is obvious. That’s why, with THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE WORLD END, and with my other upcoming novels, I did what I think McCarthy and Orwell would have done: focused not on the genre, but on the story I wanted to tell and why it was important to me. Hopefully, that comes through when people read it.
To listen to the entire podcast of this episode of The Science Fiction Spotlight, go to:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/authorso...
The next episode of The Science Fiction Spotlight airs this Friday at noon. Don’t miss it!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/authorso...
September 4, 2013
Invest In Yourself
Believing in yourself is the single greatest thing you can do to achieve your dreams. But part of believing in yourself is investing in your future. As I work toward making my goals a reality, I’ve discovered that investing in yourself can come in many different forms.
Time – The most precious resource you have is your time. If you want to accomplish something difficult, you must be willing to devote enormous amounts of your life to your goal. For me, this meant spending years learning how to tell a story and honing my voice as a writer. The saying, “If it was easy, everyone would do it” is all about time. Said a different way: if someone told you that you would have to dedicate a minimum of ten or twelve years toward your dream, without any guarantee of success, how many people would volunteer for that possible failure? Most people wouldn’t. That is why time is an investment. There are no short cuts and it takes a large part of your life to achieve something meaningful.
Knowledge – When I was in college, I didn’t believe in myself enough to take writing classes because I thought my dream was hopeless. (Instead, I sat through classes like “Political Thinking” and “Public Speaking”, Ugh.) A couple years after I started writing, though, I had put together a variety of stories but didn’t have anyone to critique them. So I decided to sign up for a pair of online writing workshops. These were vital because they gave me a venue to have other people assess my writing and tell me what they thought I was doing well and what I could improve upon. I left those workshops with a completely different outlook on my writing. Everyone needs the knowledge required to achieve their dream. For me, that came in the form of peer review feedback. For other people, it might mean learning a new skill or taking a new course. Knowledge provides direction. Without it, you are blindly moving toward your goal, with little chance of stumbling upon it.
Covers – Why would anyone invest years in writing a book, only to scrimp on the last step—having a cover designed? The cover is the first impression your book makes on readers—it needs to capture their attention. Pam Stack, producer and host an Authors on the Air, and Indie Author News both just had great write-ups on how critically important good covers are (http://authorsontheair.com/why-i-wont... and http://www.indieauthornews.com/2012/1... respectively). A CEO wouldn’t try to design his own company’s logo, and a writer shouldn’t attempt to create their own cover. If something is important to you, never try to cut corners. Spend the money to make a good first impression. It will be worth it in the end.
These are just a few examples. The important thing to remember is that, as the owner of your respective dream, you need to prepare yourself to achieve it. And that means investing in yourself.
Have a great week.
Time – The most precious resource you have is your time. If you want to accomplish something difficult, you must be willing to devote enormous amounts of your life to your goal. For me, this meant spending years learning how to tell a story and honing my voice as a writer. The saying, “If it was easy, everyone would do it” is all about time. Said a different way: if someone told you that you would have to dedicate a minimum of ten or twelve years toward your dream, without any guarantee of success, how many people would volunteer for that possible failure? Most people wouldn’t. That is why time is an investment. There are no short cuts and it takes a large part of your life to achieve something meaningful.
Knowledge – When I was in college, I didn’t believe in myself enough to take writing classes because I thought my dream was hopeless. (Instead, I sat through classes like “Political Thinking” and “Public Speaking”, Ugh.) A couple years after I started writing, though, I had put together a variety of stories but didn’t have anyone to critique them. So I decided to sign up for a pair of online writing workshops. These were vital because they gave me a venue to have other people assess my writing and tell me what they thought I was doing well and what I could improve upon. I left those workshops with a completely different outlook on my writing. Everyone needs the knowledge required to achieve their dream. For me, that came in the form of peer review feedback. For other people, it might mean learning a new skill or taking a new course. Knowledge provides direction. Without it, you are blindly moving toward your goal, with little chance of stumbling upon it.
Covers – Why would anyone invest years in writing a book, only to scrimp on the last step—having a cover designed? The cover is the first impression your book makes on readers—it needs to capture their attention. Pam Stack, producer and host an Authors on the Air, and Indie Author News both just had great write-ups on how critically important good covers are (http://authorsontheair.com/why-i-wont... and http://www.indieauthornews.com/2012/1... respectively). A CEO wouldn’t try to design his own company’s logo, and a writer shouldn’t attempt to create their own cover. If something is important to you, never try to cut corners. Spend the money to make a good first impression. It will be worth it in the end.
These are just a few examples. The important thing to remember is that, as the owner of your respective dream, you need to prepare yourself to achieve it. And that means investing in yourself.
Have a great week.
August 13, 2013
The International Joys of the Internet
As someone who has typically been resistant to social media, I knew I would have to leave my comfort zone when it came time to spread the word about my debut novel, THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE WORLD END. As a natural introvert, having a wide-reaching “internet presence” feels daunting. A couple months later, though, and it has only been a positive experience. And frequently, not only positive, but the highlight of my day. The past few months have shown me that marketing my book isn’t about getting it out to people all across the country, but all across the world. I thought I would share some of the neat international connections I have made recently.
On GoodReads, I met a reader from Poland who runs a website dedicated to promoting books which haven’t been translated into Polish (yet). I also met a reader in Canada who heard so many good things about my novel that she ordered it for her library in Ontario. On Twitter and Facebook, I’ve connected with readers from all over Europe.
On one of the many book forums, I befriended Eliza Green, from Ireland, who also just published her first novel. Through Eliza, I met Matt Butterweck, who lives in Germany. Matt recommended an incredibly obscure (to Americans, anyways) Austrian dystopian book from the 60’s that shared many similarities to my novel (Marlen Haushofer’s ‘The Wall’).
And most recently, on GoodReads, I made a connection with Mack Meijers, who currently lives in France, where he runs an incredible blog focused on the world of writing. Mack has been my own personal oracle for the past few weeks, opening my eyes to how the publishing industry works, what I can do to help myself, and the value of social media in both areas. And on Saturday, August 17, I’ll be featured on the Author Spotlight section of Mack’s blog. Be sure to check it out on the 17th: http://desertsofman.wordpress.com.
When I published my novel, I thought it would spread from places where my friends and family live (Virginia, Maryland, etc). It blew me away when I saw sales of my novel going to places like Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Sudan, Brazil, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Pakistan. Because of the internet, roughly half of my readers are in other countries. I’m honored that people all around the world would take the time to read what I wrote. It’s been a great experience so far, and a fulfillment of part of my life’s dream.
On GoodReads, I met a reader from Poland who runs a website dedicated to promoting books which haven’t been translated into Polish (yet). I also met a reader in Canada who heard so many good things about my novel that she ordered it for her library in Ontario. On Twitter and Facebook, I’ve connected with readers from all over Europe.
On one of the many book forums, I befriended Eliza Green, from Ireland, who also just published her first novel. Through Eliza, I met Matt Butterweck, who lives in Germany. Matt recommended an incredibly obscure (to Americans, anyways) Austrian dystopian book from the 60’s that shared many similarities to my novel (Marlen Haushofer’s ‘The Wall’).
And most recently, on GoodReads, I made a connection with Mack Meijers, who currently lives in France, where he runs an incredible blog focused on the world of writing. Mack has been my own personal oracle for the past few weeks, opening my eyes to how the publishing industry works, what I can do to help myself, and the value of social media in both areas. And on Saturday, August 17, I’ll be featured on the Author Spotlight section of Mack’s blog. Be sure to check it out on the 17th: http://desertsofman.wordpress.com.
When I published my novel, I thought it would spread from places where my friends and family live (Virginia, Maryland, etc). It blew me away when I saw sales of my novel going to places like Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Sudan, Brazil, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Pakistan. Because of the internet, roughly half of my readers are in other countries. I’m honored that people all around the world would take the time to read what I wrote. It’s been a great experience so far, and a fulfillment of part of my life’s dream.
July 25, 2013
Things I've Learned
Although I’ve been working toward my dream of being a writer for almost ten years now, it’s only recently that I have been trying to get my writing out to an audience. In these past few months, I’ve learned a lot of lessons. Some of those are captured here:
Be patient –Every part of the writing process takes a hundred times longer than it should. Do not try to hurry things that are outside your control. I finished my debut novel, THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE WORLD END, about four years ago. It took all the time since then to find an agent, have publishers review it, have final edits made, decide on a self-publication approach, and finally make it available to everyone. Four years is a very long time—long enough for me to complete two other novels and be half way done another. The time was invaluable, though, because along the way I received helpful feedback from friends who had gone through the same thing I was going through. By the time I did finally publish my novel, I had a better book to put out to everyone and I knew the mistakes other people had made so I wouldn’t make them myself. If I hadn’t been patient, I would have put out a weaker product four years ago and I would be stumbling over myself now. Patience pays off.
Be willing to leave your comfort zone – I have always had a difficult time asking favors of other people. In any other part of my life, I wouldn’t dare ask someone to mention something I did. But with my writing, it’s a necessity. Indie Authors depend on word-of-mouth. Because of this, I always ask people to mention my novel to anyone else they think might enjoy it. And as a very private person, I have a difficult time putting myself out there on social media. But I do it because it helps people learn about me and my novel. I could still publish my book without doing these things, but it would mean that I was half-hearted in making it successful. To achieve their dream, people should be willing to not only step away from their comfort zone, but go running from it.
Don’t make everything about you – There are millions of other people trying to get their Indie books out to the masses. It’s very difficult to distinguish yourself. That’s why you constantly see Indie authors promoting themselves on every possible platform. But what I’ve noticed is that people respond more when you aren’t constantly promoting yourself and take time to ask them about their own books. Some of the best interactions I’ve had, which in turn have led to some of the most unintended readers of my novel, have come from me discussing their Indie projects, not my own. Whether it’s karma or human nature, people respond more openly when you don’t make everything about you. If you offer support, people are more willing to support you.
Be patient –Every part of the writing process takes a hundred times longer than it should. Do not try to hurry things that are outside your control. I finished my debut novel, THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE WORLD END, about four years ago. It took all the time since then to find an agent, have publishers review it, have final edits made, decide on a self-publication approach, and finally make it available to everyone. Four years is a very long time—long enough for me to complete two other novels and be half way done another. The time was invaluable, though, because along the way I received helpful feedback from friends who had gone through the same thing I was going through. By the time I did finally publish my novel, I had a better book to put out to everyone and I knew the mistakes other people had made so I wouldn’t make them myself. If I hadn’t been patient, I would have put out a weaker product four years ago and I would be stumbling over myself now. Patience pays off.
Be willing to leave your comfort zone – I have always had a difficult time asking favors of other people. In any other part of my life, I wouldn’t dare ask someone to mention something I did. But with my writing, it’s a necessity. Indie Authors depend on word-of-mouth. Because of this, I always ask people to mention my novel to anyone else they think might enjoy it. And as a very private person, I have a difficult time putting myself out there on social media. But I do it because it helps people learn about me and my novel. I could still publish my book without doing these things, but it would mean that I was half-hearted in making it successful. To achieve their dream, people should be willing to not only step away from their comfort zone, but go running from it.
Don’t make everything about you – There are millions of other people trying to get their Indie books out to the masses. It’s very difficult to distinguish yourself. That’s why you constantly see Indie authors promoting themselves on every possible platform. But what I’ve noticed is that people respond more when you aren’t constantly promoting yourself and take time to ask them about their own books. Some of the best interactions I’ve had, which in turn have led to some of the most unintended readers of my novel, have come from me discussing their Indie projects, not my own. Whether it’s karma or human nature, people respond more openly when you don’t make everything about you. If you offer support, people are more willing to support you.
July 8, 2013
Believe in yourself
For a long time I thought my dream of being a writer was pointless. Only one thing was standing in my way: I didn’t believe in myself. I didn’t think I would actually be able to write a book that anyone would want to read, so I didn’t bother trying.
Shortly after college, though, I met a group of highly determined people and I realized the only difference between them and myself was that they believed they could do whatever they set their minds to while I believed the exact opposite. Over the course of time, their optimism and persistence changed my outlook. This led me to understand a few insights that have molded who I am today:
- Your mindset is contagious. If you don’t believe in yourself, you are guaranteeing no one else will either. Successful people don’t surround themselves with pessimists and cynics, they surround themselves with positive thinkers and optimists. Do not give your time to anyone who would belittle your goals or make a joke out of your aspirations because it infects your outlook.
- People who believe in themselves don’t keep going only because they are determined—when you truly believe in yourself, you know it’s a matter of time until you achieve your goal. Maybe it will take ten years. Maybe it will take twenty. But it will happen eventually if you keep working toward it.
- Dreams aren’t easy to achieve, but when you struggle toward something that truly makes you happy, the necessary hard work doesn’t feel like work at all. I look forward to the time I get to sit in front of my computer and edit an awful first draft or some poorly written dialogue. If achieving your dream was easy and didn’t require daily pain, it wouldn’t be worthy of being called a dream in the first place.
Shortly after college, though, I met a group of highly determined people and I realized the only difference between them and myself was that they believed they could do whatever they set their minds to while I believed the exact opposite. Over the course of time, their optimism and persistence changed my outlook. This led me to understand a few insights that have molded who I am today:
- Your mindset is contagious. If you don’t believe in yourself, you are guaranteeing no one else will either. Successful people don’t surround themselves with pessimists and cynics, they surround themselves with positive thinkers and optimists. Do not give your time to anyone who would belittle your goals or make a joke out of your aspirations because it infects your outlook.
- People who believe in themselves don’t keep going only because they are determined—when you truly believe in yourself, you know it’s a matter of time until you achieve your goal. Maybe it will take ten years. Maybe it will take twenty. But it will happen eventually if you keep working toward it.
- Dreams aren’t easy to achieve, but when you struggle toward something that truly makes you happy, the necessary hard work doesn’t feel like work at all. I look forward to the time I get to sit in front of my computer and edit an awful first draft or some poorly written dialogue. If achieving your dream was easy and didn’t require daily pain, it wouldn’t be worthy of being called a dream in the first place.
June 18, 2013
Fighting and Writing
I’ve fought inside a cage, and I’ve written a novel. I’m here to tell you that winning in mixed martial arts (MMA) is easy compared to gaining an audience when you’re an unknown author.
After graduating college in 2000, I immediately started training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) with the intent of fighting in sanctioned cage fights. I had always been a goofy kid, the class clown, but as soon as I saw tapes of MMA fights in college, I knew I needed to give it a shot. As someone who never took anything seriously, even the dreams I held most dear, the cage fights were a test of the most basic fight-or-flight variety, a challenge that would teach me what type of person I really was.
The goal became an obsession. I saw the people in my gym who trained more often and more ferociously than everyone else, and I wanted to train even harder than they did. Along the way, the confidence that BJJ gave me in myself, changing me from the court jester to someone who understood the importance of goals and personal victories, allowed me to think about my other dream, even more secretive and dear to me than fighting, as something other than a fool-hardy delusion. I wanted to write the Great American novel.
In college, I had so little confidence in achieving my goals that I didn’t even bother taking a creative writing class. But only a few years later, thanks to BJJ, I began to think of this fantasy as something I could achieve if I truly dedicated myself to it. It was still a secret from my friends and family, something they might think of as an unrealistic pipedream. But to me it was no longer a foolish goal to be laughed away.
Starting in 2004, when I wasn’t working at my 9-5 job or training in BJJ or MMA, I was writing. Instead of going out with friends on Friday and Saturday nights, I wrote. Instead of going to Happy Hour, I went home and wrote. I had two goals: fighting and writing. Absolutely all of my time was devoted toward these two ends.
In 2006, I earned my brown belt in BJJ and had my first MMA fight, which I won. A couple months later, I had my second fight and my record improved to 2-0. What I noticed was that both fights were easier than the training I went through in preparation for them. I practiced with the goal that if I trained harder, trained more often, and trained smarter than my opponent, I would win. The result was completely up to me. And that theory held up.
During this entire time, I was honing my craft as a writer, developing my voice, understanding my strengths and weaknesses, and generally improving my craft.
My original intent was to fight four times. That would give me a big enough taste of MMA to prove to myself that I had achieved my goal. Life has a way, though, of altering your plans. Right before my third fight, I suffered a series of injuries, culminating with a neck injury that would ultimately prevent me from ever fighting again. This was okay because it allowed me to focus my time on writing.
In the years since, every hour I have that’s not spent working at my day job is dedicated to achieving my dream of being a novelist. I come home from work and I write. When my friends go out on the weekends, I stay home and write. This is not meant to sound like a sacrifice; it’s what I enjoy and it comforts me to know I’m working toward a dream that I was once afraid to tell other people I even had.
Over the years, I’ve had a couple short stories published and I’ve been signed to a wonderful literary agency. Little did I know that the most difficult fight was still in front of me, the aspect of writing that makes it so much more challenging than evading kicks and elbows. Both adventures require determination if you want to have any hope of following through with your goal. Both require an endless willingness to learn from your mistakes. But when you fight, the outcome is completely in your own hands. If you have better technique and better conditioning than your opponent, chances are extremely likely that your hand will be raised after the final bell. But in writing, no matter how much you work toward your goal, no matter how focused you are, the result depends on other people. You can become a truly great writer. You can write powerful stories. But in the end, whether or not people want to read what you write is out of your hands. You depend on other people to see value in what you’ve written, and you depend on them to spread the word about it.
That’s the difference between fighting and writing that makes the latter so much more brutal than breaking another man’s spirit inside a cage. A fighter controls his destiny. A writer, no matter how hard he or she works toward their goal, needs good luck and good fortune and support from people all over. For a fighter, for someone who relishes that outcomes are based on tangible things such as hours spent in the gym, this is the most formidable type of battle.
Do not interpret this as pessimism sneaking into the cracks of a lifelong dream. Nothing will make me give up my goal of gaining an audience for my novels. If BJJ and MMA have taught me anything, it’s that even if you lose one day, you’re only defeated when you don’t get back in for the next fight. Then, and only then, are you truly beaten. I know it sounds corny, but it’s true. No, it’s not pessimism at all that makes me say how much more difficult writing is than fighting. It’s a personal reminder that the eventual victory will be even sweeter in the end. It’s meant to remind any other struggling writers out there that what you’re doing requires more tenacity than dodging punches and escaping chokes. You are only defeated when you stop putting words to paper. To quote the writer J.A. Konrath, “There’s a word for writers who never say die… the word is published.” I will keep up the fight. If writing is your dream, you should keep going too.
And along the way, the next time you read something that you enjoy, no matter what it is, pass it along to someone else who may enjoy it. And when you do, know that you are helping its author do something even more demanding than beating a trained fighter—you are helping them achieve their dream.
originally posted at: http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.com/
After graduating college in 2000, I immediately started training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) with the intent of fighting in sanctioned cage fights. I had always been a goofy kid, the class clown, but as soon as I saw tapes of MMA fights in college, I knew I needed to give it a shot. As someone who never took anything seriously, even the dreams I held most dear, the cage fights were a test of the most basic fight-or-flight variety, a challenge that would teach me what type of person I really was.
The goal became an obsession. I saw the people in my gym who trained more often and more ferociously than everyone else, and I wanted to train even harder than they did. Along the way, the confidence that BJJ gave me in myself, changing me from the court jester to someone who understood the importance of goals and personal victories, allowed me to think about my other dream, even more secretive and dear to me than fighting, as something other than a fool-hardy delusion. I wanted to write the Great American novel.
In college, I had so little confidence in achieving my goals that I didn’t even bother taking a creative writing class. But only a few years later, thanks to BJJ, I began to think of this fantasy as something I could achieve if I truly dedicated myself to it. It was still a secret from my friends and family, something they might think of as an unrealistic pipedream. But to me it was no longer a foolish goal to be laughed away.
Starting in 2004, when I wasn’t working at my 9-5 job or training in BJJ or MMA, I was writing. Instead of going out with friends on Friday and Saturday nights, I wrote. Instead of going to Happy Hour, I went home and wrote. I had two goals: fighting and writing. Absolutely all of my time was devoted toward these two ends.
In 2006, I earned my brown belt in BJJ and had my first MMA fight, which I won. A couple months later, I had my second fight and my record improved to 2-0. What I noticed was that both fights were easier than the training I went through in preparation for them. I practiced with the goal that if I trained harder, trained more often, and trained smarter than my opponent, I would win. The result was completely up to me. And that theory held up.
During this entire time, I was honing my craft as a writer, developing my voice, understanding my strengths and weaknesses, and generally improving my craft.
My original intent was to fight four times. That would give me a big enough taste of MMA to prove to myself that I had achieved my goal. Life has a way, though, of altering your plans. Right before my third fight, I suffered a series of injuries, culminating with a neck injury that would ultimately prevent me from ever fighting again. This was okay because it allowed me to focus my time on writing.
In the years since, every hour I have that’s not spent working at my day job is dedicated to achieving my dream of being a novelist. I come home from work and I write. When my friends go out on the weekends, I stay home and write. This is not meant to sound like a sacrifice; it’s what I enjoy and it comforts me to know I’m working toward a dream that I was once afraid to tell other people I even had.
Over the years, I’ve had a couple short stories published and I’ve been signed to a wonderful literary agency. Little did I know that the most difficult fight was still in front of me, the aspect of writing that makes it so much more challenging than evading kicks and elbows. Both adventures require determination if you want to have any hope of following through with your goal. Both require an endless willingness to learn from your mistakes. But when you fight, the outcome is completely in your own hands. If you have better technique and better conditioning than your opponent, chances are extremely likely that your hand will be raised after the final bell. But in writing, no matter how much you work toward your goal, no matter how focused you are, the result depends on other people. You can become a truly great writer. You can write powerful stories. But in the end, whether or not people want to read what you write is out of your hands. You depend on other people to see value in what you’ve written, and you depend on them to spread the word about it.
That’s the difference between fighting and writing that makes the latter so much more brutal than breaking another man’s spirit inside a cage. A fighter controls his destiny. A writer, no matter how hard he or she works toward their goal, needs good luck and good fortune and support from people all over. For a fighter, for someone who relishes that outcomes are based on tangible things such as hours spent in the gym, this is the most formidable type of battle.
Do not interpret this as pessimism sneaking into the cracks of a lifelong dream. Nothing will make me give up my goal of gaining an audience for my novels. If BJJ and MMA have taught me anything, it’s that even if you lose one day, you’re only defeated when you don’t get back in for the next fight. Then, and only then, are you truly beaten. I know it sounds corny, but it’s true. No, it’s not pessimism at all that makes me say how much more difficult writing is than fighting. It’s a personal reminder that the eventual victory will be even sweeter in the end. It’s meant to remind any other struggling writers out there that what you’re doing requires more tenacity than dodging punches and escaping chokes. You are only defeated when you stop putting words to paper. To quote the writer J.A. Konrath, “There’s a word for writers who never say die… the word is published.” I will keep up the fight. If writing is your dream, you should keep going too.
And along the way, the next time you read something that you enjoy, no matter what it is, pass it along to someone else who may enjoy it. And when you do, know that you are helping its author do something even more demanding than beating a trained fighter—you are helping them achieve their dream.
originally posted at: http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.com/
June 6, 2013
Decision to follow a dream
Everyone has a time in their life when they look back on all the decisions they have made, when think about how their time was spent, when they analyze all the things they might have done differently over the years. This self-examination is the foundation for my debut novel, but it’s also what drives me to write in the first place.
We are raised to believe anything is possible, but somewhere along the way we lose the innocence behind that belief and begin to think that our childhood dreams are foolish. Writing novels was my dream. But for a while, after college, I didn’t even entertain the idea as a possibility, let alone consider it as something urgent I needed to be doing. I did what I thought I was supposed to do: I fell in line and worked long hours in a corporate job.
But a fear followed me. Would my life be spent doing something because I felt I had to do it or because it was my passion? Each time I was stuck in rush-hour traffic, a little voice would ask me how much I would regret it if I never tried to achieve my dream. It’s true that real life inspires fiction: my fears are the same thoughts that plague the protagonist in THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE WORLD END, as he looks out of his home at a neighborhood of empty houses.
That was nine years ago. It’s been a long journey since then, but I’m happy in the knowledge that I’m doing what makes me feel fulfilled. And I’m proud of my first novel, the story of a man at the end of his life, plagued by the decisions he has made while mankind slowly disappeared around him. It hasn’t been easy following my dream, but it’s been worth it.
originally posted at: http://bookinglyyours.blogspot.com/20...
We are raised to believe anything is possible, but somewhere along the way we lose the innocence behind that belief and begin to think that our childhood dreams are foolish. Writing novels was my dream. But for a while, after college, I didn’t even entertain the idea as a possibility, let alone consider it as something urgent I needed to be doing. I did what I thought I was supposed to do: I fell in line and worked long hours in a corporate job.
But a fear followed me. Would my life be spent doing something because I felt I had to do it or because it was my passion? Each time I was stuck in rush-hour traffic, a little voice would ask me how much I would regret it if I never tried to achieve my dream. It’s true that real life inspires fiction: my fears are the same thoughts that plague the protagonist in THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE WORLD END, as he looks out of his home at a neighborhood of empty houses.
That was nine years ago. It’s been a long journey since then, but I’m happy in the knowledge that I’m doing what makes me feel fulfilled. And I’m proud of my first novel, the story of a man at the end of his life, plagued by the decisions he has made while mankind slowly disappeared around him. It hasn’t been easy following my dream, but it’s been worth it.
originally posted at: http://bookinglyyours.blogspot.com/20...
